The Salmon Kings: How Chicago Money Bought the Pacific Northwest
A new syndicate of financiers and cannery owners has seized control of Puget Sound’s salmon industry, paying 'fabulous' prices that are driving up costs for local processors and concentrating wealth in distant boardrooms.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
SEATTLE TIMES — The Salmon Syndicate Act Like Kings.
The request presented by Jake Myers, the first man that ever canned salmon on Puget Sound, came twenty years ago. He is in Portland from Seattle, Tacoma, and Olympia, where he has been looking over his fishing interests. When asked whether he was in the combine between the canners and a syndicate of capitalists of Chicago, he said that he was not in the combine formally although he was at the opening that had been held there.
The prices were fabulous, and 'any business man to favor any other enterprise would be considered insane,' as the same properties could have been bought one year ago for one-fifth of the present prices. Bonds are laid for long, and yet about $70,000 to $80,000 has been made on these operations until the last of March.
The average cannery on Puget Sound is 'mystified' by the massive sum of money paid by the Chicago Syndicate, as they might have incurred it far considerably less. The amount of money paid leads most of the canners to believe the Syndicate will complete the bargain.
The promoters of the combine are residents of Fairhaven. Some three months ago Mr. Goff, of the Fairhaven cannery company, and Dr. Monot, of the Franco-American Packing Company, went east and it with in different countries, visiting New York, Boston, and other monetary centers. On their return Captain Goff, a member of the French army, at one time promoter in the Panama Canal stock scheme, is now one of the proprietors of the Franco-American Cannery.
By the way, the same cannery is now in the hands of a receiver, went to Chicago, and succeeded in interesting the largest program of capital in the history of the Pacific. All the promoters and men on Puget Sound at the same time closing salmon cannery plants that were profitable in operation.
So far no overtures have been made to the Alaska Packers' Association, which is a very important factor on Puget Sound. It is said this syndicate intends to erect large canneries.
This 1899 report on the consolidation of the salmon industry by Chicago capitalists mirrors modern concerns about corporate consolidation in agriculture and resource extraction. Just as local fishermen were squeezed out by distant financial interests a century ago, today's Pacific Northwest communities often grapple with the impact of large-scale industrial operations on local economies and environmental sustainability.
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