Direct Trade with Hawaii Arrives
A Hawaiian brig arrives in Olympia, signaling a potential shift from territorial isolation to a direct exchange of island goods for Puget Sound timber.
One of the most important occurrences for the interest of the Territory which has taken place since its creation and organization, is that of the arrival here, on Thursday of the present week, of the Hawaiian bark 'Emilia,' Capt. Garvin, who hailed from Honolulu, Oahu, Sandwich Islands, on the 28th Feb., making the passage to the head of the Sound in the short space of 25 days. Her cargo consists of salt, sugar, molasses, tobacco, syrup, coffee, etc., island productions; in exchange for which the Captain proposes to take a cargo consisting of lumber and shingles. A new era in the history of our Territory is what is dawning upon us, when, instead of buying all the products of the Islands from abroad, our immense lumbering interest will at once be subserved by a direct exchange, retaining a large amount of the precious metal in the territory—opening a market for the productions of the Islands, and in turn, benefiting both.
“A new era in the history of our Territory is what is dawning upon us.”
This 1854 vision of a Pacific-rim trade network highlights Olympia's early aspirations as a global port. Today, that connection persists through our complex supply chains, though the local timber-for-sugar exchange has long been replaced by modern container shipping and global logistics.
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