Later he became an Australian shipper on a large scale, when that trade was at its best, and was considered generally as a big speculator. He was a holder of Western Bank shares in 1857, but , when it went bankrupt, managed to meet the calls of the liquidators. After the quietness which followed the stormy days of 1857, and when, about this time NZ began to grow in importance, he gradually extended his connections with the new colony.
Ultimately he formed the NZ & Australian Land Company, and an enormous quantity of stock in the company was lodged with the City of Glasgow Bank as collateral for loans totalling Pnds Stg .2.5 million. On the declaration of liquidation of the City of Glasgow Bank in 1868, the stocks were stated to be worth less than Pnds Stg 500,000. The main shareholders of the NZ&ALC were also the main directors of the bank, including Mathew HOLMES and Lewis POTTER, who were jailed for mismanagement of the banks' funds.
The NZ&ALC owned large tracts of land in Southland including Forest Hill, Lindhurst, Aparima, Waihopai Downs, Woodlands (Invercargill), Edendale, Flemington, Hunters Bush, Morton Mains, Seaward Downs, Merrie Creek, Oteramika Hundreds as well as tracts of land in Otago. A fair proportion of this land was registered to James Morton and his family members, and it was all bought in the name of the NZALC.
James also founded the Canterbury & Otago Association (03/02/1869), and the NZ & Otago Agricultural & Land Investment Association all of which were used to buy land in NZ for the purposes of leasing for farming. James was instrumental, with William Saltau Davidson (a protegee of his) in introducing the Corriedale sheep to the world and NZ, as well as establishing the dairy industry in Edendale, and starting the frozen meat trade between NZ and UK.