Caleb Ladd, the father of Caleb Bodwell Ladd, was an employee of the Tudor Ice Company at Boston. He came down to Calcutta in 1837, as an agent of company. This was an year after the second ice-house was set up with the concentrated efforts of Longueville Clarke, Henry Meredith parker and the likes. On his arrival, Ladd quickly recognized the prospects of setting up a profitable ice-trade in the city and wrote back to his employer, Frederick Tudor, how a lot of money could be made in this country with ice. He also took responsibility of the safe transit of profits from India to the US as he sent back Tudor's ships full of Indian cotton goods, muslin, silk, jute, saltpeter and linseed. Caleb was an instrumental figure behind the profits the company made in India. From advising them against building wooden ice-houses, which are susceptible to the attack of white-ants, to helping them set up businesses of items other than ice, he had a say in almost everywhere. One such item was the New England apple, which Caleb started retailing in a 'small room stylishly fitted up,' in the second ice-house, on Strand road. Although less by the standards the ice-trade had achieved, New England apples surprisingly sold well. A phenomenon attributed to the homesickness of the English residents in India by Elizabeth David. (Harvest of the Cold Months: The Social History of Ice and Ices By Elizabeth David).
Sudipto Mitra
