Page 146 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

132.

There was one more factor, perhaps the most crucial

one, that made this deficit trade operate to the great profit

for many Americans. The tremendous importation of opium into

China more than offset the deficit that occurred in the legal

trade. Although the British country or private traders were

the primary shippers in the opium trade, the American residents

also traded in opium from Turkey and from India. Profits from

this illegal branch of the China trade complemented the profits

from the trade in teas and silks to enable commission houses

to flourish and American merchants to make fortunes in a few

years.

Resident merchants at Canton also faced the same prob­

lems in selling their exports as in buying Chinese articles.

When a vessel arrived at Canton, up to six months from the

origin of its cargo, market conditions could easily differ

from the shipper's anticipation in preparing the cargo. The

house to which the shipment was consigned then had the task

of getting maximum profits from the Chinese market. From the

late 1820' s until the demise of the "Canton. system, " a great

many American and European merchants traded specie or bills

of credit instead of merchandise. Resident merchants therefore

became a combination of banker and trader to satisfy American

and European demand for teas. Of all the American residents

at Canton, those engaged with the house of Russell & Co. were
consistently the most successful in all the above facets of the

speculative Canton trade. Russell & Co., in fact, was the

leading American house in the China trade for most of the nine­

teenth century.