#Galleryyuhself/Trinidad and Tobago history of commerce in Port-Of-Spain

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History~Todd’s Ltd

Todd’s Ltd (aka The Trinidad Arcade, the precursor to Stephens & Todd) c. 1897 ................................................................... There are different versions of how this store became the star of the Todd empire in Port-of-Spain during the 1800s.

Historian Angelo Bissessarsingh wrote that Todd was an Englishman who came to Trinidad in 1852 and started business with small dry-goods shop along Frederick Street.

In an article headlined The Trinidad Arcade published in the Trinidad Guardian in 2013, Bissessarsingh wrote: “James Todd was an Eng­lish­man who had come to the is­land in 1852 and com­menced busi­ness in a mod­est way with a small dry-goods shop on rent­ed premis­es at 12 Fred­er­ick Street."

According to Gerard Besson, however, James Todd was a Scotsman who came to Port-of-Spain in 1838, ten years after he had started a jewellery store in San Fernando.

In The Caribbean History Archives, Besson wrote: “Another old Scottish firm on Frederick Street was Todd. It had started off as a jewellery store in 1828 in San Fernando under the name James Todd and Sons. In 1838, James Todd relocated to Port of Spain...”

In Bissessarsingh’s account, Todd accumulated considerable wealth from cocoa export as he had purchased cocoa estates, and also took cocoa as payment for goods purchased.

“James Todd ac­quired sev­er­al co­coa es­tates, es­pe­cial­ly in the rapid­ly de­vel­op­ing hin­ter­lands east of Ch­agua­nas and in the rolling hills near the Ca­paro Riv­er val­ley. As with most oth­er large busi­ness­es at the time, Todd's of­fered a line of cred­it to co­coa farm­ers that al­lowed them to take goods dur­ing the year with­out cash pay­ment, the score be­ing set­tled when the co­coa har­vest was brought in. Sacks of dried beans would be val­ued as cur­ren­cy and thus the mer­chant was able to turn an ad­di­tion­al prof­it from ex­port­ing co­coa. This ac­tiv­i­ty cou­pled with his thriv­ing mer­can­tile trade made him a very af­flu­ent man in­deed by the time he died in 1884.”

Besson, on the other hand, attributed the start of the Frederick Street business to Todd’s wife.

“In 1838, James Todd relocated to Port of Spain, took on a partner and went off to the sea, which ahd been his first love. The partner, however, absconded ten years later with the valuable stock. It was Jamie Todd, James’ wife, who single-handedly restarted the business. She bought some unclaimed crockery at Customs, and in the years to come,the genial businesswoman made Todd become a renowned dealer in china.”

The story, according to Bissessarsingh, continued this way:

“(Todd) had tak­en his son, David, in­to the busi­ness as a di­rec­tor, but tragedy struck when David died a year af­ter his fa­ther. The reins passed to James's grand­son, James B L Todd, who proved that he was very ca­pa­ble of as­sum­ing stew­ard­ship of the work of two gen­er­a­tions. The younger Todd had a knack for feel­ing the pulse of the econ­o­my and in a time when a new mid­dle class was emerg­ing, he re­alised that there was a need for cheap, el­e­gant fur­ni­ture at rea­son­able cost since hith­er­to, the best fur­nish­ings were im­port­ed from the Unit­ed States and Eu­rope and were very ex­pen­sive. Todd and Sons opened a work­shop on Cha­con Street, which used lo­cal woods culled right from the Todd es­tates. An­oth­er sub­sidiary, on Queen Street, was called the West End Car­riage Fac­to­ry, which en­com­passed a sad­dlery and black­smith shop as well, since this was the era be­fore mo­tor traf­fic. The show­piece of the Todd em­pire was the store it owned on Fred­er­ick Street. In the wake of the 1895 fire it was re­built com­plete­ly in sig­na­ture George Brown style. Dubbed the Trinidad Ar­cade, it was one of the finest es­tab­lish­ments in the city and oc­cu­pied the en­tire width of the block be­tween Fred­er­ick and Hen­ry streets, with en­trances at both ends. School­books, toys, cloth­ing and hard­ware were at­trac­tive­ly dis­played along the cor­ri­dor be­tween the en­trances. James B L Todd died in the 1930s, and the firm found­ed by his grand­fa­ther was forced to un­der­go sev­er­al merg­ers and ac­qui­si­tions in or­der to sur­vive. Old­er gen­er­a­tions would re­mem­ber the es­tab­lish­ment of Stephens and Todd, which in an­oth­er in­car­na­tion was called Stephens, Fog­a­r­ty's and Todd. These were names that once stood on their own as proud re­mem­brances of a pros­per­ous time in our his­to­ry but which had all van­ished by the end of the 1970s.”

Besson’s version went this way: “The Todd’s oldest son succeeded in the business, but in 1870 he died after having been bitten by a rabid dog. The two smaller sons, William and James, were still children, and Mrs. Todd took them back to Scotland for their education. An uncle named Davidson bought into the company, and the name was changed to Davidson and Todd Limited. William and James returned in 1892. William fell ill and returned to Scotland, and James Todd jnr. was the one to continue in the family business. On 4th March, 1895, the great fire of Port of Spain originated from the Todd’s business premises. It left 57 business houses and residences burnt to the ground. The damage was an estimated £750,000 - a mindboggling sum at the time. The Todd family, however, rebuilt their business again, and two of James jnr.’s children, Bill and Winnifred, took over from their father. In 1953, Stephens bought Davidson and Todd. Winnifred, who had joined the firm in 1926 and developed the china department of the business, remained with Stephens and Todd Ltd. until 1972.” . . Eventually, the company underwent sev­er­al merg­ers and acqui­si­tions, and was known variously as Stephens and Todd’s; Stephens, Todd & Forgathy’s; and Stephens & Johnsons.

Read Gerry Besson’s article here: http://caribbeanhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/…/scottish-bus…

Read Angelo Bissessarsingh’s article here: https://www.guardian.co.tt/…/trinidad-arcade-6.2.412032.119…