Stewart and Taylor

May 15

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (May 15, 1773).

“Once more!”

The headline expressed some exasperation.  The partnership of Stewart and Taylor sought to settle their “Company Accounts, which was to have taken Place in November last,” but six months later they were placing an advertisement in the Providence Gazette to “Once more!” call on “all that are indebted to them to make immediate Payment.”  Merchants, shopkeepers, and others regularly ran newspaper notices for the same purpose.  John Carter, the printer of the Providence Gazette, inserted his own notice in the same issue that carried Stewart and Taylor’s advertisement, though it was brief in comparison.  Carter declared, “ALL Persons indebted for this Gazette one Year, or more, are requested to make immediate Payment.”

Along with the headline intended to attract attention, Stewart and Taylor provided details about the consequences for not complying with their final notice.  They wished to settle accounts quickly, “otherwise they will be necessitated to sue [at the] June Court.”  The partners hoped that such threats would prompt “all Delinquents [to] come and make Payment, to prevent a Method being taken that will be very disagreeable.”  Although not all advertisements placed for the purpose of settling accounts included allusions to legal action, enough did so that readers recognized the tactic for leveraging the “Delinquents.”  Relatively few, however, included such a headline.  The “Once more!” likely communicated to those “Delinquents” that Stewart and Taylor meant business.

Among those who devised headlines, most advertisers used their names, including Jabez Bowen, Nicholas Brown and Company, Polly Chace, Nathaniel Green, Jonathan Russell, Thurber and Cahoon, John Updike, Joseph West, and Samuel Young.  Joseph Russell and William Russell deployed their names as a secondary headline that followed the primary headline that promoted “WEST-INDIA RUM.”  In his advertisement about an indentured servant who absconded, Samuel Jefferys used “Eight Dollars Reward” as the headline.  That made “Once more!” unique among the headlines featured in advertisements in the May 15, 1773, edition of the Providence Gazette.  Stewart and Taylor shrewdly invoked a phrase intended to arouse curiosity and capture the attention of the “Delinquents” who had not yet settled accounts.

October 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (October 26, 1771).

“They will be able to sell as cheap as any on the Continent.”

The merchants who advertised in the October 26, 1771, edition of the Providence Gazette placed special emphasis on their prices as they competed with each other for customers.  Halsey and Corlis made a rather generic appeal to price, stating that they were “determined to sell at the very lowest Rates,” but other advertisers made more specific claims about their prices that departed from the formulaic language that appeared in so many advertisements of the period.

Several advertisers focused on retailers seeking inventory for their own shops in Providence and the countryside.  Nicholas Brown and Company, for instance, declared that “Town and Country Shop-Keepers may depend on being supplied on as advantageous Terms as by any Importers in New-England.”  Joseph Russell and William Russell provided even more guidance to retailers.  They stressed that they purchased their inventory “in England on the very best Terms.”  That allowed them to “sell at so low an Advance, as will afford to those who buy to sell again, a very good Profit.”  Prospective customers likely realized this also meant that they could better serve their own customers by setting competitive prices.

The partnership of Stewart and Taylor even included a nota bene to draw attention to the prices for the “Variety of ENGLISH and INDIA GOODS” that they “Just Imported from London, Manchester, and Liverpool.”  The merchants proclaimed that they “expect (as one of them has been at the above Places, and purchased their Goods from the Manufacturers) they will be able to sell as cheap as any on the Continent.”  Having traveled to England to negotiate the best bargains, Stewart and Taylor passed along the savings to their customers.  They made a bold claim that consumers would not find better prices anywhere in the colonies.

Even as some advertisers relied on standardized language about low prices in their newspaper advertisements, others engaged readers with more robust descriptions about how they acquired their goods and how that contributed to their own low prices.  Retailers and other customers could compare the accounts presented in the advertisements to determine which merchants were most likely to give them the best deals on their merchandise.