The family's fortune originates from trading opium and tea between North America and China in the 19th century plus other investments in the same period.

[2] The Boston trading firm Perkins & Company sent many young men of their extended family to participate in their business activities abroad.

There John was mentored by the Chinese merchant Houqua who treated him like a son and therefore entrusted very significant sums of capital to invest on his behalf in the US after he left China (see below).

Perkins & Co., like many other Boston trading firms in the early 19th century, sent ships to China to get tea for sale in America (although some was ultimately re-exported to Britain and Europe).

To pay for the tea, they exported to China large quantities of silver and also furs, manufactured goods, cloth, wood, opium and any other items that they thought the Chinese market would absorb.

Active trading houses, particularly those from Boston, usually kept representatives resident in Hong Kong whose main role was to look for and secure quality tea for export at good prices.

Upon his return to Boston, John continued his interest in the China trade for a few more years, serving as a business/investment manager for voyages undertaken by Robert and others.