EDUCATORS’ PERSPECTIVE
a colonizing effort to Peru where partici-
pants would work on the sugar plantation
of his friend and fellow Irishman, Dr. John
Gallagher. William, who was now work-
ing as a passage broker for emigrants, no
doubt helped organize the endeavor. He
also went along to Peru with his father and
the 180 colonists as a supervisor.
The difficult voyage to Peru took 101
days to complete, and when the exhausted
migrants arrived in Peru, malaria and
dysentery ravaged them. Most never made
it to the plantation but chose to book pas-
sage to more amenable places, such as
Australia or California. James returned
home after three years in Peru, but Wil-
liam stayed behind to become a partner of
John Bryce and Company, a ship outfitter
headquartered in the port city of Callao
near Lima. Most of the firm’s customers
engaged in guano transport, as the Age of
Guano was in full flower.
Since Callao was over 100 miles from
the Chinchas, Grace proposed that they
stock an old ship hulk, send it to the
Chinchas, and open a floating store that
catered to the ships waiting to be loaded
with guano. The inefficient process of tak-
ing on guano could take weeks or months,
and the scores of waiting ships made a
ready market of bored sailors, soldiers and
government officials who welcomed the
nearby supply of foodstuffs and marine
provisions. Grace’s great idea laid the
foundations for what would eventually
become the “powerful multinational cor-
poration W.R. Grace & Co.”
Many of the ships waiting at the Chin-
cha Islands were American; Grace, who
operated the Chincha store for about six
years, developed good relations with sev-
eral American captains and their crews.
He first met his wife, Lillius, on her father’s
ship, the Rochambeau, as it waited for
its malodorous load. William and Lillius
were married three years later in Maine
but returned to Peru and the Chincha
store, where they began a family. In 1862,
Grace moved back to Callao to take charge
of the overall business after John Bryce
retired to England.
Grace was diagnosed with Bright’s dis-
ease shortly after the move. His doctor
advised him to leave Peru and live out
his remaining few years in a more restful
environment. 1 Upon receiving this grim
prognosis, Grace set sail with his fam-
ily for farewell visits to Ireland and the
United States. They returned to Peru in
1863 and Grace, who fully recovered in
Ireland, resumed work. His health, how-
ever, made a turn for the worse necessi-
tating a return to Ireland, where he again
made a full recovery.
In 1866, Grace moved to New York and
remained there for the rest of his life at the
helm of W.R. Grace & Co. His younger
brother, Michael, took charge in Peru and
expanded into mining and railroad opera-
tions. His leadership transformed Casa
Grace into the face of the United States in
most of South America.
William Grace ran successfully for
mayor of New York in 1880 and served
one term. He won largely because of his
willingness during the US Civil War to
extend credit to Union ships stranded
in Peru after English and Peruvian busi-
nesses refused to aid them. He died of
pneumonia in 1904, decades after his diag-
nosis of Bright’s disease.
While Peruvian guano enriched the
House of Gibbs and Casa Grace, it did lit-
tle for the average Peruvian. The Peruvian
government relied primarily on guano
exports to fund the government, and it
borrowed heavily based on projected
guano revenues. Corruption was inevi-
table, and much of the revenues from the
guano trade enriched the friends and rela-
tives of well-placed government officials.
However, guano exports helped finance
the nation’s sugar industry and allowed
the government to finance and build the
country’s railroad system.
The Peruvian Age of Guano began in
the 1840s and ended in the 1870s. The end
came about because the supply of guano
was nearing exhaustion and because of
the development of synthetic fertilizers.
Guano is making somewhat of a come-
back today, as consumers have become
more concerned with how foods are
grown. Sustainability and an emphasis on
organic foods have increased demand for
guano as a fertilizer.
Today, guano is harvested in much the
same way as it was in the 19th century,
with the exception that the workers are no
longer prisoners or forced-labor victims. 2
The pay is relatively good, and the sea-
sonal workers are free to leave the islands.
Although largely forgotten today,
guano played a significant role in global
economic development during the 19th
century. This humble commodity allowed
farmers to feed rapidly-growing popula-
tions and became the financial backbone
of the Peruvian economy.
Brian Grinder is a professor at Eastern
Washington University and a member
of Financial History’s editorial board.
Dr. Dan Cooper is the president of Active
Learning Technologies.
Sources
Clayton, Lawrence A. Grace: W.R. Grace & Co.:
The Formative Years, 1850–1930. Ottawa, IL:
Jameson Books. 1985.
Cushman, Gregory T. Guano and the Opening
of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological
History. New York: Cambridge University
Press. 2014.
Mathew, W.M. The House of Gibbs and the
Peruvian Guano Monopoly. London: Royal
Historical Society. 1981.
Robbins, Jim. The Wonder of Birds: What They
Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Bet-
ter Future. New York: Spiegel & Grau. 2017.
Skaggs, Jimmy M. The Great Guano Rush: Entre-
preneurs and American Overseas Expansion.
New York: St. Martin’s Press. 1994.
Notes
1. There was no known cure for Bright’s dis-
ease at the time. The disease took the lives
of such notables as poet Emily Dickinson
in 1886, Alice Roosevelt (Theodore Roo-
sevelt’s first wife) in 1884, Ellen Wilson
(Woodrow Wilson’s first wife) in 1914 and
Chester A. Arthur in 1886.
2. A video of the modern guano harvest is
available on YouTube here: https://youtu
.be/HOq8PKX18A4
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