Page 100 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

86.

apartments connected by passage-ways. Except for the New

English Factory, which was the residence of the East India

Company, several commercial establishments occupied a single

Factory. These Chinese had originally given each Factory a

mme. Over the years the names of the European trading com­

panies that had occupied the Factories remained associated
1
with them, even though many had long departed. By the 1820 s

and 1830's the Foreign Factories were known by both of their

appellations, Chinese and English.

One Factory, the Kwang-yuan Hong or Factory of Wide

Fountains, had been taken over by American merchants and sub­

sequently called the American Factory. This building consisted

of three apartments, each occupying three floors side by side.

The ground floor consisted of storerooms, a kitchen and quarters

for the Chinese servants. More importantly, on this floor also

were the counting-rooms or offices and the treasury. This

latter room was essential to all cormnercial establishments,

since there were no banks in Canton. Although in the 1830's

the merchants largely used bills in trade, specie was the

predominant commodity imported to pay for teas and silks.

Built of granite with iron doors, the treasury in every pros­

61
perous house contained about one million dollars in bullion.
No one actually guarded the vault, although during the day the

house's Shroff was always present. The Shroff was a Chinese
money-dealer employed to handle the actual receipt and payment

61
Hunter, 'Fan Kwae' at Canton, pp. 24-25.