Though many nations including Russia and the United Kingdom came and traded along the California coastline at major ports, contributing to this economic growth, the United States became the most influential. American trade initially began with sailors from New England, who found an interest in the California otter and seal skins industry which diminished in prominence rapidly after the beginning of the nineteenth century. As hides and tallow replaced seals and otters as the primary products of commerce, corporations such as John Begg and Company of the United Kingdom and Bryant and Sturgis, William Appleton and Company, and Marshall and Wildes of Boston began to demonstrate a vested interest in the hide trade. The John Begg and Company representatives Hugh McCullough and William Hartnell were able to ensure British influence in the trade for three years beginning in 1822, the de facto first year of the enterprise.