The Global Hop Trade of 1888
While the farmers of Puyallup slept, their harvests were already changing hands in the high-stakes markets of London.
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.
One evening in the fall of 1887, I sent a cable at the Puyallup telegraph office about 1 o'clock to be transmitted to London, offering to sell 1,000 bales of choice Washington Territory hops, most of which were 'Star' brand, and asked for an immediate cable reply. Next morning, while at the breakfast table, an answer came, closing the transaction involving the sale of these hops, the business having been done in London while I slept in Puyallup. As I went to bed in Puyallup, the hop salons in London appeared at their offices, and experts flitted in and out and employees ran hither and yon with great bundles of hop samples in their arms. Speculators and salesmen looked wise over the samples in the blue rooms of hop merchants and factors, driving secret bargains, to which the ear of no eavesdropper might listen. One day of last week the cable ticked the potent words from London to Puyallup: 'We bid [a certain number of] shillings per hundredweight for 1,000 bales of choice Washington Territory hops delivered in London in November.' This order shows that our hops have a character for excellence of a worldwide fame, else such sales in advance of the picking would not be possible.
“The business having been done in London, while I slept in Puyallup.”
Today's international trade relies on instant digital communication, but the basic mechanism—Washington farmers feeding global supply chains while they sleep—remains constant. The story highlights the 19th-century struggle to maintain quality control against overseas demand, a precursor to current debates about agricultural exports and global market pressures on local producers.
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