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</A> -Cui Bono?-

an excerpt from:
Philadelphia and the China Trade 1682-1846
Jonathan Goldstein
The Pennsylvania State University�1978
All Rights Reserved
The Pennsylvania State University Press
121 pps.  First Edition � Out-of-print
-----
Philadelphia Merchants' Final Conflict with the Chinese Government, 1821-46

The increased Chinese militancy toward the American opium trade, beginning in
1815 and culminating in the Terranova incident of 1821, resulted in a major
reshuffling of attitudes within the American community in Canton after 1821.
Up to the Terranova incident, the basic attitude had been to try and live
with the exactions of the Chinese. Thomas Randall, of the Empress of China, wa
s perhaps the first American to enunciate this view in 1791:

The idea of a representation, concerning the frauds and impositions of the
Chinese to the Emperor, would deserve attention were there not the danger of
making things worse.[42]

As late as 1819, American merchants, not wishing to antagonize the Chinese,
had rejected the proffered protection of one of their country's naval units
when it touched at Canton. Latimer had expressed the view that "to contend
with the Chinese would be madness. If they refuse to listen to our terms we
have no recourse."[43]

Part and parcel of the American policy of passivity was a willingness to
accept those rights and privileges that Britain secured from the Chinese and
that were extended to other Westerners as a matter of course. "We will not
oppose you," Latimer informed his British colleagues in 1829. "Gain all you
can, we are sure to come in for the benefits."[44] The most notable success
achieved by this policy occurred in 1842, when the hard-won rights and privile
ges which China granted to Britain in the Nanking Treaty were extended to the
United States some two years before the conclusion of the first Sino-American
treaty. The policy of passivity enabled Americans to present themselves to
the Chinese as friends and allies, in ready contrast to the belligerent
British, and yet to wind up with essentially the same gains as Britain.[45]

In addition to American willingness to accept privileges secured by the
British, the American traders in Canton engaged in a delicately orchestrated
diplomacy of their own. The supreme caveat in the diplomacy was that under no
circumstances should the risk be run of having the Canton market closed to
American shipping. All other projects and propositions might be entertained.
There was continuous Congressional lobbying by China traders for the
upgrading of the United States Canton consulate into more than a ceremonial
and unsalaried post. Repeated requests were made for the stationing of an
American physician in Canton, attached to the consulate. This demand was
fulfilled in 1827 when Dr. James Bradford of Philadelphia took up residence
in Latimer's house in Canton and opened a practice. As early as 1821, prior
to the Terranova incident, Robert Waln, Jr., advocated in a series of
articles in Philadelphia's National Gazette that an American embassy be sent
to China and a commercial treaty negotiated.[46]

All of these suggestions, insofar as they required Chinese compliance in
their implementation, overlooked the fact that the imperial Chinese
government would be averse to enter into negotiations with Western powers so
long as a contraband opium trade continued, as it did increasingly in the
years after the Terranova incident. Latimer took over the opium trade of
Benjamin Wilcocks when that entrepreneur returned to the United States in
1827. He expanded both the India and Turkey branches of the American trade,
and stationed an opium-receiving ship in the outer reaches of Canton harbor.
That vessel, the Thomas Scattergood, cleared some $30,000 for Latimer in the
course of its operation. During the six seasons 1822-23 through 1827-28,
foreign sales of opium in China annually averaged 8,043 chests, worth $8.7
million. The average of the next six seasons rose to 17,756 chests, worth
$13.4 million. In the single season of 1837-38, foreign opium sales in China
reached a record high of 28,307 chests worth $19.8 million, or more than
double the annual average of the previous ten seasons.[47]

The increase in contraband traffic, far from inducing the imperial government
to grant concessions to Westerners, instead elicited increasingly militant
Chinese efforts to halt the traffic. These efforts, in turn, evoked a
heightened militancy among the determined traders who had survived the
Terranova incident. American traders reconsidered their previous aversion to
American naval involvement in China. The USF Congress had received a cool if
not unfriendly reception from Americans and Chinese alike when it touched at
Canton several times in 1819. When the USF Vincennes anchored at Whampoa in
1830, Latimer, W. H. Low, and other American merchants informed the captain
that "delays and impositions peculiar to our flag" could be easily corrected
by frequent visits to Canton of American men-of-war. In a lengthy memorial to
the captain of the Vincennes, the American traders advised:

Our national character would be elevated in the estimation of the whole
Chinese Empire and the neighboring governments, and especial care would be
observed by all not to encroach on our rights, knowing that the power to
protect the very valuable commerce of our country was at hand to appeal to,
and that the appeal would not be made in vain.

The fact of your visit, brief as it is, will be known throughout China and
the whole Indian Archipelago. Should it be followed by those of other armed
vessels observing the same deference towards the customs of China, and
conciliatory disposition as exhibited by yourself, they will In our opinion
increase the respect for our flag, enable us at all times to resist
impositions with effect, and have a moral influence on all the inhabitants of
the various coasts and islands in the route of our merchant ships.[48]

American merchants were in effect requesting an increased display of what the
British called "military presence." In the years subsequent to the merchants'
petition, American men-of-war did touch at Canton several times. But far from
having the "moral effect" on the Chinese government which the traders
desired, the situation in Canton escalated into open warfare.

In 1838, the Chinese Emperor abandoned efforts to halt the opium trade
through the medium of Canton civil servants. He appointed Lin Tse-hsu,
Viceroy of Hu-kuang, as a special imperial commissioner authorized to stop
the opium trade in Canton province. Lin arrived in Canton on March 9, 1839.
On March 22, he employed the technique of embargoing trade and sequestering
foreigners, but this time the objective was the confiscation of all opium in
the region. Lin further insisted that all foreign traders post bond
consenting to the forfeiture of any of their ships on which opium might be
found. The situation remained in deadlock on April 28 when the USF Columbia
coincidentally sailed into Canton on one of its periodic visits. Some
hostages in the confined foreign community considered the ship's arrival
providential, and were bitterly disappointed when the ship's commodore
declined to attempt to rescue them, on the grounds that the hostages were too
few, and the enclave too well surrounded. The British and Americans
subsequently acceded to Lin's demand for the confiscation of all opium in
Canton, worth some $12,000,000, as the price of lifting the siege. The
British Superintendent of' Trade in China, Captain Charles Elliot, refused,
however, to sign the bond. He ordered all British merchants out of the city
of Canton and requested British military assistance to redress what he saw as
a flagrant violation of free trade. A British fleet arrived in 1840,
initiating the Opium War. The Americans, on the other hand, signed a modified
version of the opium bond, and by July 1839 were actively re-engaged in
Canton commerce, carrying their own legitimate trade plus that of Britain,
which more than compensated for the temporary loss of the opium trade.[49]

The American decision to acquiesce was based on the twin assumptions of the
futility of direct and forceful confrontation with Chinese government
officials, and the profitability of letting Britain do precisely that, while
Americans posed as friends and allies. S. B. Rawle, James Ryan, and others
wrote that the voluntary American pledge to abstain from the opium trade was
motivated by their belief in the "sincerity of the Government in their
efforts to destroy the trade." When the British expeditionary force arrived
in China in 1840, William Waln, unsure of the outcome of a Sino-Western
military confrontation, wrote that "the Chinese are making every effort to
resist and I do not believe the land force (5,000) sent by England can do
anything towards attacking Pekin. That is the only way they can bring the
Emperor to terms."[50] Rawle, Ryan, and others petitioned their government in
1839 to avoid military confrontation with the Chinese. But they stressed the
value of military presence and diplomatic gestures as means of protecting
American noncombatants in the Anglo-British conflict and at the same time
obtaining without bloodshed certain key concessions: a commercial treaty; a
fixed tariff; freedom to trade at ports other than Canton; compensation for
losses incurred during Chinese trade stoppages (as in 1839); diplomatic
relations at Peking; and a demand just short of extraterritoriality (that no
Chinese punishment upon an American exceed a comparable chastisement in
American or English law).[51]

William Waln's estimation of the military aspects of the conflict proved to
be incorrect. Britain's modern navy inflicted a crushing defeat on the
Chinese, who readily acceded to all British demands, including repayment for
the confiscated opium. Peking did not have to be occupied. A peace treaty was
signed at Nanking in 1842, which opened five more ports to Britain, abolished
the cohong, established a uniform tariff, and ceded Hong Kong to Britain.

In response to the urgent requests of American merchants at Canton, an
American fleet under Commodore Lawrence Kearny arrived in Canton harbor in
March 1842, where it remained without engaging in combat until May 19, 1843.
Kearny was able to secure for American traders, through direct negotiation
with the Canton Viceroy Ch'i-ying, many of the concessions suggested in the
1839 Rawle-Ryan petition and virtually all of the privileges granted Britain
in the Nanking Treaty, except for the establishment of a colony. Kearny
procured Chinese reparation payments for two violations of American neutral
rights during the Opium War.

Most important, Kearny helped to lay the diplomatic groundwork for the first
Sino-American treaty. He asked President Tyler that the rights and privileges
he had secured be codified in a formal agreement. In response to Kearny's
request and the lobbying efforts of American traders and missionaries, Caleb
Cushing was sent to China in 1844, and incorporated many aspects of the
existing Sino-American entente into the first Sino-American treaty, known as
the Wanghsia Treaty. In addition to privileges granted in the Nanking Treaty,
the Wanghsia document guaranteed Americans the right of extraterritoriality,
eliminating many of the jurisdictional questions that had arisen as a result
of opium smuggling.

In spite of the desire of American merchants that the negotiations with the
Chinese be peaceful, there was one military encounter between Americans and
Chinese. In July 1844, while deliberations were in progress, a Canton mob
surrounded the American compound and marines were landed from Cushing's ship
to break the siege. The skirmish that ensued was the first instance of the
use of the American armed forces on the Asiatic mainland, although in this
case the action appears to have been clearly defensive, and intended to
prevent even greater carnage than what actually did occur.

In December 1845, Commodore James Biddle brought to China the ratified
version of the Wanghsia Treaty and established the first United States
embassy in China. The treaty went into effect in April 1846.[52]

The End of Philadelphia's Old China Trade

While the First Treaty Settlement elicited hopes and expectations for new and
expanded Sino-American relations, many of the attributes of the old China
trade quickly became extinct. The highly regulated trade through the Canton
cohong was replaced by open markets in five new Chinese ports, as well as in
the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, which had the finest natural harbor
facilities on the China coast. In 1848, regular transpacific steamer service
was inaugurated between Hong Kong, the Hawaiian Islands, and San Francisco.
The completion of the first trans-American railroads shortly thereafter
eliminated the need of sailing around the Capes to China. Philadelphia and
other East Coast cities could import China goods more cheaply overland from
the West Coast than by a direct sea route from China.

An old China trade firm wishing to remain in business after the First Treaty
Settlement had to rapidly undergo at least two transitions. It had to expand
its Chinese operation to at least Hong Kong and Shanghai, if not to all of
the open ports. Most American China trade firms were able to complete this
first phase shortly after 1842. Augustine Heard and Co. was the last
significant American firm to remain in Canton, and it shifted its
headquarters to Hong Kong in 1853. Firms were also faced with the necessity
of developing new facilities on the American West Coast. In the case of
Philadelphia firms, branches or outlets also had to be established in New
York, which by 1846 had become the emporium of the United States, the port
which handled virtually all direct Asiatic maritime shipping to the East
Coast.

Small entrepreneurs could not make all of these costly and extensive
transitions. The weeding out of the weak from the strong, a process evident
in the old China trade as far back as 1821, took on new impetus as a result
of the First Treaty Settlement. Only two firms with strong Philadelphia
connections were able to make the transition: Wetmore & Co. (which ultimately
succumbed to bankruptcy in 1856) and the dynamic two-man firm of John D.
Sword & Co. They competed in a new China trade dominated by a few shipping
giants with fleets of vessels and worldwide buying and marketing apparatuses:
Jardine, Sassoon, Olyphant, Heard, Russell, and its offspring, the Shanghai
Steam Navigation Company.

After 1848, just as New York came to handle virtually all the direct China
trade to the American East Coast, San Francisco rose to prominence as the
major entrepot for West Coast China commerce. That trade pattern remained
essentially unchanged from 1848 until 1950, when the United States embargoed
all maritime trade with the newly formed People's Republic of China. That
embargo was modified as a result of Chinese-American negotiations in the
1970s. American ships once again began docking at the old treaty ports of the
China coast, but originating from such new and diverse locations as Port
Seatrain and Pascagoula, as well as Philadelphia and other established ports
of' the American East Coast.

Because of inconsistency in nineteenth-century foreign-trade statistics, it
is difficult to calculate precisely Philadelphia's share in overall
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American commerce with the Orient. It does
appear, as at least one scholar has observed, that between 1783 and 1846
Philadelphia may have controlled as much as one-third of United States trade
with China, and one-ninth of China's total maritime commerce with the
West.[53] This determination is based on the fact that from 1804 through 1811
(the years for which the most detailed statistics are available),
Philadelphia ships unloaded 38 percent of the dollar value of United States
imports to China, or $10 million out of the $25.8 million. In terms of gross
tonnage, Philadelphia shipping was 32 percent of total American tonnage in
the China trade in the years 1804-11 (20,406 tons out of 62,851 tons). That
percentage was a considerable drop from the year 1787, when Philadelphia
shipping constituted over 50 percent of United States tonnage in Canton, but
was an average maintained fairly consistently from about 1800 to the
mid-1830s, when the percentage again began to decline. In terms of entries to
the Port of Canton, Philadelphia ships also made up approximately 30 percent
of the American total. In terms of composition of cargo, specie constituted
38 percent of the overall dollar value of American imports to China, yet made
up 45 percent of Philadelphia imports. Philadelphia merchants' opening and
development of the opium trade is all the more understandable in this
context.[54]

The structure of Philadelphia enterprise at Canton, as has been suggested,
closely paralleled the inbred nature of commerce in the home port. The Canton
trade of Benjamin Wilcocks, John Latimer, James Bancker, and John Dorsey
Sword was overwhelmingly Philadelphia-oriented, toward the merchants they and
their families had been dealing with for generations. These men included
Girard, the WaIns, the Archers, the Thomsons, Manuel Eyre, Charles Massey,
George Jones, and Richard Oakford. The growth of Wetmore & Co. into the
second biggest mercantile firm on the China coast was facilitated by the
successive mergers of the Canton business of the Philadelphians J. S. Wilcox,
Benjamin Wilcocks, John Latimer, Joseph Archer, Jabez Jenkins, and Nathan
Dunn.[55]

The China trade facilitated a worldwide circulation of wealth. Practically
every known port and trade route of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
was utilized by the China trade. Sometimes traders like Robert Morris or
Ledyard individually attempted to discover new avenues for the China trade.
Other times large numbers of American China traders descended en masse on
ports like Smyrna, where they established branches of their own firms to
facilitate the China trade. Capital circulated continuously from East to
West, West to East, creating industrial and social transformations as it
moved. American China traders reinvested their wealth not only in stateside
ventures but also in such Chinese enterprises as the Shanghai Steam
Navigation Company�a joint venture with the heirs of Houqua. They also
financed charitable projects in China on a scale comparable to stateside
public endowments, for example, the Canton Hospital, established in 1835.
Native Chinese merchants also ventured their capital in worldwide investments
that included American railroads and the financing of the American opium
trade to China.[56]

And what of the opium trade-the nominal reason for which the Opium War had
been fought? American merchants did keep their pledge to abstain from the
opium traffic during Sino-British hostilities, and augmented their fortunes
through the carriage of British trade. No sooner had hostilities ended than
the illicit trade resumed in full force all along the China coast. Olyphant
and Wetmore continued to abstain. But a weak and downtrodden Chinese
government, beset with full-scale civil war by midcentury, was unable to put
up any resistance at all to the traffic after 1839. In 1858, the Chinese
legalized and for the first time imposed a tariff on the importation of
opium, hoping to at least gain some revenue from a traffic which had thrived
underground for fifty-eight years. A British visitor to China in that year
reported that the sale of opium was "as open and as unrestrained in all the
cities of China as the sale of hot cross buns on Good Friday in the streets
of London."[57] William B. Reed, the American Minister to China, reported in
that same year that "at every port, I found Americans dealing in opium freely
and unreservedly, and at least one American built, but British owned steamer,
with the American flag, plying regularly up and down the coast as a quick
carrier of the poison." Between 1875 and 1885, opium was China's single
largest import in dollar value. The end of the foreign opium trade to China
came early in the twentieth century, when the Chinese government bowed to the
interest of native Chinese opium growers and imposed such high import duties
on the drug that the Indian, British, and American traders were forced from
the trade entirely.[58]

In concluding this chapter on the opium trade, and prior to an overall survey
of Philadelphia attitudes toward the Chinese, it might be well to summarize
the attitudes which Philadelphia smugglers took toward the Chinese race and
culture, and toward the propriety of the trade.

Although Philadelphia opium traders did exploit the Chinese people by opening
and prosecuting a trade in an addictive poison, this treatment of the Chinese
was considered by American traders as part of free trade, and did not imply
that merchants had assumed a negative view of the Chinese race or culture.

The legitimate merchant and smuggler substantially differed in attitude over
the issue of respect for some Chinese laws. The opium merchant violated these
far more than his legitimate competitor. Yet even in the area of respect for
the law, it is clear that many militant abstainers flouted other Chinese laws
when such behavior suited their commercial purposes, such as in requesting
American military intervention in China.

A strong similarity of belief between abstainer and smuggler appears when one
considers aspects of China other than its government. A distinct example of
this convergence of view was the great respect both types of trader accorded
to the Chinese merchant class. Because of the central role of native Chinese
businessmen in East-West interaction, they are singled out, by traders and
abstainers alike, as a group of Chinese especially deserving of esteem and
trust. Such commentary dates from the first U.S.-China voyage of the Empress
of China in 1784. Robert Morris and others with an interest in that ship's
legitimate cargo were informed by the supercargo that Chinese merchants were
"respectable men, exact accountants, punctual to their engagements, and value
themselves much upon maintaining a fair character."[59] Similar high praise
for the Chinese recurred in the mercantile correspondence of Philadelphians
who entered the opium trade after 1800. Stephen Girard considered Houqua both
a "correct and intelligent merchant" and "my respectable friend." Esching was
"of good repute, very polite, and a good judge of teas." These Chinese
merchants bestowed Girard with such gifts as life-size paintings of
themselves and lacquered tea chests. Girard prominently displayed these gifts
in his Philadelphia counting house and also instructed that they be
permanently exhibited in Founder's Hall, Girard College, under the terms of
his will. Benjamin Wilcocks commissioned a personal portrait of his friend
Houqua. Jacob Waln wrote Houqua's nephew Lin Yan-ken that any package bearing
Lin's seal was sufficient assurance of quality. He also hoped for personal
visits between the Lin and Waln families, a wish which was subsequently
realized in the visits of the heirs of these two merchants to each other's
nations. One of Lin's descendants came to America in 1872 as a member of the
first official group of Chinese students in the United States.[60]

It should be noted that, in the writings of both opium and non-opium traders
from United States cities other than Philadelphia, there was also an
expression of high opinion for Chinese merchants. William Hunter wrote that
"as a body of merchants, we found them honorable and reliable in all their
dealings, faithful to their contracts, and large-minded." He singled out
Houqua as having "boundless" generosity."' John Murray Forbes' grandson,
looking back on the long history of relations between his and Houqua's
families, praised the Cantonese businessman as having been "scrupulously
honest" in his financial and commercial transactions. So impressive was
Houqua's trustworthiness that "his name has come down for generations as the
last word in probity, sagacity, and generosity. His painted portrait hung on
the walls of many American houses, highly prized as the symbol of all that is
praiseworthy in public and private relation s."[62] Other traders published
tales of how they were befriended by Chinese businessmen, and a great clipper
ship was named for Houqua. When that Hong merchant died, Benjamin Low
eulogized his Chinese colleague as being "in every inch the mannered
gentleman" and of an "inviolate word," comments which were typical of praise
for Chinese traders from Philadelphians and others.[63]

Thus far, the views of individuals who were primarily businessmen in
post-Revolutionary America have been emphasized. What remains to be examined
for the post-Revolutionary period are the attitudes of individuals who may be
considered primarily men of arts and letters.

pps.46-70

Chapter 4

 1. Letter: SG to Mahlon Hutchinson and Myles McLeveen, January 2, 1806.

2. The problem of glutting had been foreseen by Congressman Richard Henry Lee
ten days after the return to New York of the Empress of China. He had written
James Madison at that time that he feared that "our Countrymen will overdo
this business-For now there appears everywhere a Rage for East India voyages,
so that the variety of means may defeat the attainment of the end�A regulated
& useful commerce with that part of the World." Letter: Richard Henry Lee to
James Madison, May 30, 1785, in Lee, Letters, ed. Ballagh. On the problem of
glutting, see also Timothy Pitkin, A Statistical View of the Commerce of the
United States (New Haven: Durrie & Peck, 1835), p. 304; Letters: William A.
Foster to Richard Ashurst, March 20, 1827, HSP, Unger Collection; Joseph
Archer to Jabez Jenkins, November 10, 1833, HSP, Joseph Archer Letterbook, 1;
Nathan Dunn to Samuel Archer and I. C. Jones Oakford & Company, October 7,
1829, DL; Shaw Journals, pp. 350-5 1; Speer, Empire, p. 62.

3. Letter: H. W. Boyd to Jonathan Meredith, October 23, 1798; Great Britain,
Parliament, Parliamentary Papers (House of Lords), 1821, VII Untie 30, 1820).
"Minutes of Evidence Relative to the Trade with the East Indies and China,"
pp. 88-9 1; William Moulton, A Concise Extract from the Sea Journal of
William Moulton (Utica: Printed for the author, 1804), p. 98; James Swan, The
Northwest Coast (New York: Harper, 1857), pp. 423-24; Henry Ingram, The Life
of Jean Girard (Philadelphia: Edition limited, 1888), pp. 1103-19; Wildes, Mid
as, pp. 210, 385.

4. "Statement of the Shipping Employed in the Trade to Canton," The American
Museum 7 (March 1790), 128; Thomas Ruston, "Reply to the Above"; "Dr.
Ruston's Answer," The American Museum 12 (August 1792), 9 1 - 92, 94. See
also Samuel Shaw to John Jay, December 21, 1787, in Shaw Journals, p. 353.

5. For a description of British trade, see Letter: Forester & Co. to SG,
November 22, 1822; David Owen, British Opium Policy in China and India (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1934).

6. Robert Bennet Forbes, Personal Reminiscences (Boston: Little, Brown,
1878), p. 174; Daniel Henderson, Yankee Ships in China Seas (New York:
Hastings House, 1946), p. 161.

7. Letter: John Latimer to Henry Latimer, April 3, 1829. John R. Latimer
Papers, University of Delaware Library, Newark.

8. Letter: Benjamin Wilcocks to John Latimer, April 26, 1829, Latimer Papers,
Library of Congress.

9. Nathan Dunn and Co. employed Dunn, Jabez Jenkins, and Joseph Archer.
Wetmore employed Samuel Rawle and James Legee, and Olyphant & Co., James
Bancker. Letters: Joseph Archer to George Carter, February 3, 1834, Archer
Letterbook, HSP; Nathan Dunn to Joseph Archer, February 2, 1830, DL; Peter
Dobell, "Travels in Kamchatka and Siberia," American Quarterly Review 9
(March and June 1831), 53; William Hunter, Bits of Old China (London: Kegan
Paul, Trench, 1885), p. 166; James Wetmore, The Wetmore Family of America (Alb
any: Munsell & Rowland, 1861), p. 358; CR 5 (January 1837), 413-15; 7 (April
1839), 637; 8 (June 1839), 76.

10. W[illiam] Wood, Sketches of China: With Illustrations From Original
Drawings (Philadelphia: Carey and Lea, 1830), pp. 206-7; Enoch Wines, A Peep
at China, in Mr. Dunn's Chinese Collection (Philadelphia: Printed for Nathan
Dunn, 1839), pp. 10- 11; Dobell, "Travels," p. 53.

11. Letter: John Latimer to Joseph Lesley, June 23, 1847, Latimer Papers,
University of Delaware; Ranshaw, "Calendar," p. 23.

12. Mathew Carey, "Essays on the Public Charities of Philadelphia," in Miscell
aneous Essays (Philadelphia: Carey & Hurt, 1830), p. 173.

13. Dobell, "Travels," p. 53.

14. For the Chinese legal viewpoint, see Immanuel Hsu, Chinas Entrance into
the Family of Nations (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), pp. 6-7.

15. Letter: SG to Mahlon Hutchinson, January 2, 1806.

16. Charles Stelle, "American Trade in Opium to China Prior to 1820," PHR 9
(December 1940), 429; Gertrude Kimball, The East-India Trade of Providence
from 1787 to 1807 (Providence: Preston and Rounds, 1896), p. 17.

17. United States Congress, Senate, Message of the President (on) Commerce
and Navigation in the Turkish Dominions, S. Doc. 200, 25th Cong., 3d sess.,

1839, pp. 81-86; Jacques Downs, "American Merchants and the China Opium
Trade, 1800-1840," Business History Review 42 (Winter 1968), 42 1; Stelle,
"Trade," 430-41. See also Letter: SG to Mahlon Hutchinson and Myles McLeveen,
January 2, 1806.

18. Letters: Woodmas and Offley to SG, September 27, 1815; Dutilh &

Co. to SG, March 24, 1819; Benjamin Seebohm, Memoirs of the Life and Gospel
Labors of Stephen Grellet, 11 (London: A. W. Bennett, 1860), p. 28; [John Step
hens], Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia and Poland, I (New York:
Harper, 1838), p. 189; David Finnic, Pioneers East (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1967), p. 29; Walter Wright, "American Relations with
Turkey to 183 1," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Princeton University, 1928,
p. 67.

19. Hosea Morse, The International Relations of the Chinese Empire, I (London:
 Longmans, Green, 1910), pp. 20 1 -11; Morse, "The Provision of Funds
for the East India Company's Trade," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,
Part II (April 1922), p. 227; Letters, George Blight to SG, March 4, November
21, 1807; Charles Macfarlane, Constantinople in 1828 (London: Saunders and
Otley, 1829), p. 33; Wright, "Relations," p. 53; Stelle, "American Opium
Trade to China Prior to 1820," PHR 9 (December, 1940), 432-33.

20. Letter: John Latimer to Mary Latimer, March 28, 1831, Latimer Papers,
Library of Congress.

21. On opposition to the British East India Company monopoly by Latimer and
others, see Letter: An American Merchant [John Latimer], The National
Gazette, October 27, 1828; Paul Pickowicz, "William Wood in Canton," EHIC 107
(January 1971), 3-24; CR 6 (May 1837), 44-47; CR I I (January 1842), 1-2. See
also Letter: John Latimer to Henry Latimer, April 4, 1833, John R. Latimer
Papers, University of Delaware Library. Hunter, Bits, p. 276.

22. W. C. Hunter, The Fan Kwae in Canton Before the Treaty Days (London:
Kegan Paul, 1882), pp. 101-13; Frank King and Prescott Clark, A Research
Guide to China-Coast Newspapers (Cambridge: East Asian Research Center,
Harvard University, 1965), pp. 15-131; Benjamin Silliman, Mr. Dunn's Chinese
Collection in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: Brown, Bicking & Guilbert, 1841),
pp. 14-15; Wood, Sketches; Latourette, Relations, pp. 82-180.

23. Letter: John Latimer to Sarah Latimer, April 28, 1827, Latimer Papers,
University of Delaware. Peter Parker, "Thirteenth Annual Report of the
Opthalmic Hospital at Canton," CR 14 (October 1845), 450; Friend of China and
Hong Kong Gazette (Victoria) 3 (August 7, 1844), 459; (August 28, 1844), 483;
CR 14 (January 1845), 5; 16 (January 1847), 5; (July 1847), 346; Simpson, Live
s, p. 618; Morris, Makers, p. 99; Thill, "Delawarean," pp. 151,268.

24. Elisha Kane, fragment of a diary or letter, January 24, 1845, Whampoa
Medical Affairs, Elisha Kane Papers, APSL.

25. Letters: SG to Robert Smith, January 1, 1810; to C. J. Burke, May 18,
1814; to Myles McLeveen and Edward George, April 8, 1818; George Biddle
Papers, passim, 1805-12, Cadwalader Collection; HSP; Wildes, Midas, pp.
166-67.

26. David Porter, Journal of a Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean, I I (New
York: Wiley & Halstead, 1822), pp. 78-83, 144-78; George Preble, The First
Cruise of the United States Frigate Essex (Salem: The Essex Institute, 1870),
p. 73; Lindsay, Shipping, ILL p. 8; Scharf and Westcott, History, 1, p. 564;
White, "Trade," pp. 17-18.

27. Letters: John Latimer to William Waln, October 19, 1815, Joseph Downs
Memorial Manuscript Collection, Winterthur Museum, Greenville, Del.; Consequa
to Peter Dobell, April 3, 1813, Miscellaneous Manuscript Collection, LC; C.
J. Ingersol to Benjamin Wilcocks, May 14, 1822, Society Miscellaneous
Collection HSP. Te-kong Tong, United States Diplomacy in China, 1844-60 (Seatt
le: University of Washington Press, 1964), pp. 13-16; Thill, "Delawarean," p.
74.

28. Letter: John Latimer to Henry Latimer, April 3, 1829, Latimer Papers,
University of Delaware. For other accounts of the bribery procedure, see
Letter: H. Lockwood, August 12, 1838, FMC 7, no. 5 (May 1839), 142; and Wood,
Sketches, pp. 206-17.

    29. United States Congress, House, Memorial of Russell Sturgis, et al.,
Canton, May 25, 1839, H. Doc. 40, 26th Cong., Ist sess., 1840; Ranshaw,

"Latimer Papers," pp. ii-20; Morse, Gilds, p. 79. See also typed copy of a
manuscript by Captain James W. Goodrich, NYHS, Goodrich Papers.

30. Letters: John Latimer to Benjamin Wilcocks, December 6, 1829, Latimer
Papers, Library of Congress; Samuel Russell to E. C. Jenckes, December 17,
1821, Nightingale-Jenks Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence;
Greenberg, British Trade, pp. 56-57; Latourette, Relations, p. 20; Morse, Chro
nicles, III, pp. 318-20; Downs, "Merchants," p. 441.

31. Letter: Charles King to Talbot, Olyphant & Co., ca. 1837-38.

Charles Talbot Papers, property of Miss Frances Talbot, on deposit with APSL;
White, "Hong," pp. 128-49.

32. Cheong, "Trade," pp. 45-46.

33. Morse, Chronicles, 111, p. 237; Downs, "Merchants," p. 425.

34. Letters: Samuel Wagner to SG, October 28, 1815; Arthur Greland to SG,
October 29, 1815; John Latimer to William Waln, October 29, 1815, Winterthur
Museum, Downs Collection, Latimer Letterbook, 1815-16.

35. United States Congress, House, Message of President Van Buren
Transmitting a Report of the Secretary of State, H. Doc. 71, 26th Cong., 2d
sess., 1841; Morse, Chronicles, 111, 318-20; Downs, "Merchants," pp. 425-26;
Dennett, Americans, pp. 119-21.

36. The figure for 1821-22 is average of conflicting estimates given in
Morse, International Relations, 1, pp. 210-11; Greenberg, British Trade, p. 22
0; John Phipps, A Practical Treatise on the Chinese and Eastern Trade (Cal-cut
ta: Printed at the Baptist Mission Press, 1835), p. 313.

37. Most official American correspondence relating to the event was
reproduced in United States Congress, House, Message of President Van Buren, H
. Doc. 71, 26th Cong., 2d sess., 1841. Other accounts include CR 2 (January
1834), 423; Letters: Edward George to SG, October 1, November 16, 182 1;
Edwin Jenckes to Samuel Nightingale, October 21, 182 1, Nightin-gale-Jenks
Papers; "Execution of an
American at Canton," North American Review 40 (January 1831), 58-68; S. Wells
Williams, The Middle Kingdom, II (New  York: Marlin Co., 1883), 461.

38. "Opium Trade With China," Niles' Weekly Register 23, no. 16 (December 21,
1822), 249-50.

39. Letter: Edward George to SG, November 16, 1821.

40. Letter: William Peter Van Veen & Sons to SG, December 17, 1822.

41. Kenneth Porter, John Jacob Astor. Business Man, 11 (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1931), pp. 613-14, 666; Downs, "Merchants," p. 430;
Dennett, Americans, p. 118.

42. Randall to Alexander Hamilton, August 14, 1791, in Hamilton, ed. Cole.

43. Earl Cranston, "The Rise and Decline of Occidental Intervention in
China," PHR 12 (March 1943), 23-24; Paullin, Diplomatic Negotiations, p. 182.
Letter: John Latimer to Henry Latimer, September 30, 1821, Latimer Papers,
University of Delaware.

44. Letter: John Latimer to Henry Latimer, November 1829, Latimer Papers,
University of Delaware.

45. T. S. Tsiang, "The Extension of Equal Commercial Privileges to Other
Nations After the Treaty of Nanking," Chinese Social and Political Science
Review 15 (October 1931), 435; Hosea Morse and Harley MacNair, Far Eastern
International Relations (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1931), p. 134.

46. Diplomatic theory held that the "consul ... is not invested with any
diplomatic powers, and therefore is not entitled to communicate with the
Government of the country in which he resides." United States Congress,
Senate, General Instructions to the Consuls and Commercial Agents of the
United States, S. Doc. 83, 22d Cong., 2d sess., p. 13; United States
Congress, Message of President Van Buren; Robert Wain, Jr., "Embassy From the
United States to China", National Gazette, February 5, 7, 20, 21, 1821; From
a correspondent, "Outline of a Consular Establishment," CR 6 (May 1837),
69-82; Letter: John Latimer to Sarah Latimer, April 28, 1827, Latimer Papers,
University of Delaware.

47. Forbes, Personal Reminiscences, p. 150; Downs, "American Merchants," p.
435; Morse, International Relations, 1, p. 2 10. Averages taken from slightly
different figures in Greenberg, British Trade, p. 220, come out virtually the
same.

48. Paullin, Negotiations, pp. 183-84.

49. For eyewitness accounts and Chinese and American documents on the
immediate antecedents of the Opium War, see CR 7 (March and April 1839),
599-656; 8 (May 1839), 1-37, 57-83; Fitch Taylor, The Flag Ship, II (New
York: Appleton, 1840), pp. 110- 11.

50. United States House, Memorial of Sturgis; Letter: King to Talbot, ca.
1837-38. See also Letter: William Wain to Lewis Wain, August 12, 1840,
Society Miscellaneous Collection, HSP.

5 1. United States House, Memorial of Sturgis.

52. United States Congress, Senate, Correspondence Between the Commander of
the East India Squadron and Foreign Powers ... During the Years 1842 and 1843,
 S. Doc. 139, 29th Cong., Ist sess., pp. 21-36; CR 12, no. 8 (1843), 443-44;
Dennett, Americans, p. 124; Tong, Diplomacy, pp. 13-16; see also the series
of letters between Kearny and the members of Olyphant & Co. in the Charles
Nicoll Talbot Papers owned by Frances Talbot.

53. White, "Trade," p. 44.

54. "Exports to Foreign Countries from the Port of Philadelphia," Philadelphia
 Price Current I (February 16, 1828), 155; Robert Wain, Jr., "Abstract of
Philadelphia Trade to Canton," WP; Dennett, Americans, p. 10.

55. Letters: James Bancker to C. N. Bancker, August 24, 1842, October 26,
1846; to Anne Bancker, January 17, 1846, JB; John Dorsey Sword, Business
Letters, passim, HSP. Thill, "Delawarean," pp. 114, 262-63.

56. W. Cameron Forbes, "Houqua: the Merchant Prince of China. 1769-1843," Bull
etin of the American Asiatic Association 6 (December 1940), 9-18; William
Cadbury and Mary Jones, At the Point of a Lancet: One Hundred Years of the
Canton Hospital, 1835-1935 (Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, Limited, 1935);
Kwang-Ching Liu, Anglo-American Steamship Rivalry in China (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1962), pp. 12, 16, 179; Downs, "Merchants," p. 426.

57. George Cooke, China (London: G. Routledge, 1858), p. 179.

58. United States Congress, Senate, Dispatches from ... Ministers to China, Le
tter, William Reed to Secretary of State Cass, June 30, 1858, S. Ex. Doc. 30,
36th Cong., Ist sess., p. 357. See also John Fairbank, "The Legalization of
the Opium Trade Before the Treaties of 1858," Chinese Social and Political
Science Review 17 (July 1933), 215-63; Owen, British Opium, p. 265.

59. Shaw, Journals, p. 133.

60. Letter: Arthur Grelaud to SG, May 16, 1816; Nora Wain, The House of Exile
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1933), pp. 3-17; Wildes, Midas, p. 269; Girard
College artifacts are catalogued A-2, 2046, R-2046, and #50; China Trade, p.
17, figure 92.

61. Hunter, Fan Kwae, pp. 40, 48.

62. W. Cameron Forbes, "Houqua," pp. 9-14. See also: John Murray Forbes, Remin
iscences of John Murray Forbes, ed. Sarah Hughes, I (Boston: George H. Ellis,
1902), pp. 140-41; Robert Bennet Forbes, Reminiscences, 3rd ed. rev., 1892,
pp. 370-71.

63. Benjamin Low, "Houqua," in The China Trade Post-Bag of the Seth Low
Family, ed. Elma Loines (Manchester, Me.: Falmouth Publishing House, 1953),
p. 60. See also the following commentary by American traders on the
uprightness of Chinese merchants: "Generosity and Gratitude of a Chinese
Merchant," in Freeman Hunt, ed., Worth and Wealth: A Collection of Maxims,
Morals, and Miscellanies for Merchants and Men of Business (New York:
Stringer & Townsend, 1856), p. 82; a similar account appears on p. 110.
-----
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Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
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