Page 153 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

139.

Cushing offered Russell and Ammidon his contacts in India, he

was not making much of a sacrifice. Perkins & Co. had so many

sources of trade and profit they did not need consignments. In

fact they considered consignment business a bother. Unlike the

other American establishments at Canton in the period, Cushing

and his house were a world-wide mercantile enterprise. James

and Thomas Handasyd Perkins were at the top of a pyramid­
structure that had agents in virtually every major port. For

the most part related by blood or marriage, the "Boston Concern"

had two major houses, one at Boston which they managed and one

at Canton which Cushing operated. This enabled the Perkinses

to have a large number of vessels engaged in a trade that plied

between the United States and Canton but involved Southeast Asia,

India, the Mediterranean, Europe, Spanish America and the North­

west Coast. Combined with the Perkinses in this venture was

the house of Bryant, Sturgis & Co., investors more than mer­

chants. They usually financed ventures to Canton in conjunction
68
wi e er
"th th P k" inses.
In 1827 Cushing, now forty years old, retired from active

participation in the China trade. He left Canton in April 1828

68
The bulk of letters to Perkins & Co. in the Perkins
& Co. MSS are from Bryant & Sturgis and T.H. Perkins. Their
friendship c1nd business connection is obvious in the number
of joint ventures. Bryant & Sturgis had an agent, Sturgis'
nephew James Perkins Sturgis, in China also. But he con­
ferred with Cushing and handled primarily Bryant & Sturgis'
Northwest trade.