Page 138 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

124.

correspondingly, every agent desired to have his vessel reach

the home market first. Many would therefore buy exports at

high prices. This resulted in many vessels arriving in the

United States with high-priced merchandise. Having to sell the

cargoes at lower prices, many merchants suffered losses. The
42
reverse also occurred, but no one could predict very far in

advance with certainty how much tonnage would appear in a

given season. Over the years, the number of vessels engaged

in the China trade increased steadily. An average of thirty to

forty vessels per season in the early 1820's rose to over sixty
43
vessels per season in the early 1830's. This growth precip­

itated the development of commission houses, which could handle

a significantly larger share of business than an individual

agent. During the busiest part of the trading season all members

of a house worked frantically for weeks at a time to get vessels

loaded and despatched. This was only a small part of the trade.

The major decisions that would determine profit or loss had

occurred much earlier. These centered on when and what to
purchase.

Chinese teas were the staple export around which the
1
China trade revolved. In the 1820 s the importation of teas

42
R.B. Forbes, Remarks on China and the China Trade
(Boston, 1844), pp. 29-30. Letter, J.P. Cushing to R.B. Forbes,
Jun. 25, 1838, Forbes Family MSS. In this letter Cushing advised
Forbes_"never u_nder any circumstances to ship when prices are
high £'.'at Canto .DJ. 11
43
H.B. Morse, in Chronicles of the East India Company,
states the number of American vessels trading at Canton for each
year before 1834. But in computing lists of vessels as mentioned
in letters and other communications among merchants, the numbers
of vessels are larger than Morse claims.