Seattle Breaks San Francisco’s Trade Monopoly
High prices in California have opened the door for Seattle and Tacoma to secure the Honolulu grain trade.
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.
In connection with the recent rise in grain and mill feed, large orders for oats, barley, mill feed, and chop feed have been placed here and in Tacoma to be shipped to Honolulu by the next Canadian Pacific steamer. Hitherto, this trade has gone to San Francisco, and it has been customary for oats to be shipped from here to San Francisco and thence to Honolulu. The sharp advance in prices in California has caused the trade to work this way, and when once started, merchant houses will hold to it tenaciously.
“The sharp advance in prices in California has caused the trade to work this way, and when once started, merchant houses will hold to it tenaciously.”
This 1894 report highlights Seattle's long-standing ambition to capture global shipping routes and bypass California dominance. Today, Seattle remains a critical node in Pacific trade, though the commodity focus has shifted from oats and barley to the high-tech and aerospace logistics that fuel the modern regional economy.
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