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Boston's First Merchant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

John Coggan, the first merchant of Boston of whom there is any record, began business in 1634. He thus was presumably well established as a retailer by the time Robert Keayne entered the same type of business a year or two later. Unlike his fellow merchant, who was in 1639 fined heavily by the general court for charging too high a mark-up on certain imported goods, Coggan seems to have abided by Boston's principles of just price, which allowed the retailer to sell at 4 pence on the shilling above the cash cost in England.

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Other
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Business History Review , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , February 1944, pp. 11 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1944

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References

1 Attention has been called to John Coggan by a short article on him in a publication of the State Street Trust Co., of Boston: State Street Events, a Brief Account of divers Notable Persons & sundry Stirring Events Having to do with the History of this Ancient Street. Imprinted for the State Street Trust Company of Boston, on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Its Founding, 1916.

2 Winthrop, in his History of New England from 1630 to 1649, vol. i (Boston, 1825), pp. 313–317Google Scholar, discusses the Keayne case at length.

Both Winsor's, JustinMemorial History of Boston, vol. i (Boston, 1880)Google Scholar and Drake's, S. G.History and Antiquities of Boston (Boston, 1856)Google Scholar contain scattered information on Coggan. His will and some information about the value of his property are found in the New England Historic and Genealogical Register, 1855, p. 35, and 1877, p. 106. The name was sometimes spelled Cogan, but it is Coggan in his will.

3 That is, “Crooked Lane ware” was used in custom-house entries to denote packages of toys and turnery products.