Page 102 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

88.

Factories constantly faced the threat of fire, and before 1844

they had burned to the ground at least twice. Once a fire began

at Canton, crowded housing conditions and lack of fire-fighting

equipment allowed the flames to cover a large area in a very

brief time� The Co-hong was responsible for protecting the for­

eigners and their Factories from all disturbances including fire.

Although the Hong merchants maintained boats and coolies for

this purpose, they were usually unsuccessful in combatting fires.

The foreigners managed to escape with their lives, account-
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books and treasury but lost their buildings and goods. Not
1
until the late 1820 s did the American merchants bother to

carry any insurance on their merchandise.

In front of the Factories was a paved expanse about one

hundred yards deep. Called Factory Square by the foreign resi­

dents, this esplanade reached all the way to the river. At its

edge was a landing-place, known as Jackass Point, for the boats

that brought foreigners up from Whampoa. (There were no wharves

at Canton since the cargo vessels were unloaded and loaded at

Whampoa.) Foreign residents used the Square as their place of
exercise. Regulations prohibited them from venturing anywhere

inside Canton and the China countryside or from rowing and

sailing on the Pearl River. So their only opportunity for

exercise, as had been the case aboard ship, was walking or

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A disasterous fire razed the Factories in 1822.
Letter, Perkins & Co. to J. & T.H. Perkins, Nov. 7, 1822,
Harvard Business School, Baker Library, Perkins & Co. MSS;
Journal of Benjamin Hoppin, jr., Memorandum. Concerning fire
insurance, see Letter, Wetmore & Co. to G. Peabody, Nov. 10,
1836, Salem, Essex Institute, George Peabody MSS.