At the start of 1832, Bates believed that if only certain obstacles could be swept away, trade would go well and prosperity increase throughout the Anglo-American economy. Initially, the firm considered controversies in the early years of the Jackson administration as temporary and part of the normal frictions of American politics and doing business. The years 1832–4, however, showed themselves to be more serious than expected. They touched European diplomacy over Belgium, South Carolina's nullification, tariff reform and the Second Bank controversy. They gave the new partnership its first experience of American recession and recovery. The years of 1832–4 were more than simply a time to be endured before resuming regular business. They revealed valuable information to Barings about the United States, and when to curtail operations even as competitors expanded. These years seem to have enabled the firm to avoid, in the main, the woes of 1837.

Impediments to Business

The first decade of the new Barings partnership was not wanting for various opportunities or hazards. Disturbances of almost any kind could upset assumptions and plans in England, or in any market in which the House did business. Legislation on the national or local level could affect commodity prices, rates in money markets and trade conditions. A bank with international ambitions and commitments needed the traits of watchful steadiness and quickness of mind in its personnel to navigate the changeable nature of world events.

The period of reaction besetting Europe after the 1815 Vienna settlements made the Continent at times difficult for commerce. Revolutions and rebellions in France, Poland, Germany and the Papal States in the early 1830s, as well as British rivalries with a restless Russia in the Balkans and eastern Mediterranean, called for continuous monitoring for the banker who had long-distance trade contracts or who desired to establish new ones.