Ladd & Co.

[5] In 1835 Ladd & Co. leased 980 acres (400 ha) for a sugarcane plantation in Kōloa on the island of Kauaʻi from Royal Governor Kaikioewa.

[7] Although sugarcane had been raised by ancient Hawaiians on small personal plots, this was the first large-scale commercial production in Hawaii.

[8] The first planting was in September 1835, and although a small amount of molasses was produced in 1836, the wooden rollers in the mill were replaced with iron ones for increased production.

[12] In November 1841 the partners negotiated a much larger deal with William Richards, a former missionary who was now a political advisor.

Richards thought that adding a clause that invalidated the agreement unless Hawaii continued to be an independent country would help investors pressure world powers to protect its government.

The agreement would transfer stock in Ladd & Co. to the Belgian investors in exchange for a badly needed infusion of cash.

James F. B. Marshall, a young associate of Ladd & Co., had secretly made his way to London with letters from Kamehameha III presenting his side of the occupation.

Marshall had returned to Hawaii while Richards and Haʻalilio tried to get the United States to also recognize the Hawaiian Kingdom.

[11] Gerrit P. Judd, the Finance Minister of the Kingdom, realized the government itself was short of cash and called in their loan.

At least one historian notes a factor in losing the support of the American Protestant missionaries was the fact that the Belgians were generally Catholic.

[16] When a newspaper report on Ladd's shaky financial situation got back to Belgium, the investors pulled out of the deal for good.

As the company liquidated, they felt they were owed money by the government, but the case required lengthy arbitration.

In June 1846 the new American Commissioner Anthony Ten Eyck arrived, who served as lawyer for the company.

Bishop would help sort out the accounts of Ladd & Co., then start Hawaii's first bank and inherit the largest landholdings in the islands.

[5] The Kōloa plantation was repossessed by the Hawaiian government and sold to Robert Wood, Hooper's brother-in-law, who ran it until 1874.

[18] Brinsmade published a few articles in a new newspaper called the Sandwich Islands News which had been started to counter Jarves' paper.

[19] Brinsmade sailed to San Francisco as part of the California Gold Rush, where he worked for newspapers and attempted various businesses for prospectors.