Page 115 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

101.

After this debacle fewer merchants speculated in Canton voy­

ages and those who did had already enjoyed some success in
5
them.

At Canton there was also a shift in organization. A

new structure, the commission house, appeared. Initially,

these houses were simply a combination into partnership of

two or more resident agents, each of whom brought their own

business into the house. But the members of the house restric­

ted their business activity entirely to commission work. In

other words, they merely bought and sold cargoes on consignment

from merchants in the United States and Europe. These houses

became independent commercial agencies, no longer part of

American mercantile houses. The individual members of the

house, as well as the house itself, did not own any interest

in merchant vessels. This type of organization operated very

successfully. The commission house employed the talents of

several merchants in China and simplified the trade for mer­

chants elsewhere. As the China trade expanded and became more

sophisticated in the 1830's, the success of the commission house
was very apparent. With the separation of shipowners and mer­

chants, with the virtual disappearance of the supercargo's

duties, with the growing complexities in world trade, the com­

mission house was eminently more practical than the individual

agent. Much of the trade was done on freight and a commission

5
This conclusion is drawn from information from various
manuscript sources regarding participants in the trade and their
vessels at Canton. Use of the "Consular Returns of American
Vessels arriving at and departing from the port of Canton" inclu­
ded in U.S., Department of State, Consular Despatches: Canton
is also useful.