Page 17 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

3.

trading route to a small number of wealthy men. Overwhelmingly,
American merchants despatched their captains to East India

around Cape of Good Hope. Not only were sailing conditions

much better but also there were many more opportunities along

this route for buying and selling cargo. A vessel could wend

its way to China via Europe, India and the East Indies or even

touch at South America before crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

Such circuitous and complex voyages emanated from the

search for desirable cargo to carry to China. The Chinese

desired very little of Western produce or manufactures. Specie

and bullion in the form of Spanish dollars remained the pri­

mary article of payment for Chinese teas and silks. American

merchants possessed few Spanish dollars and traded for them

elsewhere. They faced the problem of getting the most dollars

for their cargoes in European, Mediterranean and South American

markets. Distances and lack of communication also contributed

to the complexity of the East India trade. No merchant could

know what prices were at ports oceans away. Shipmasters, to

make a profitable voyage, often sailed to many ports to sell

their inward cargo at a high price and to buy outward cargo

at a low price. The East India trade, therefore, included

many commercial transactions besides the purchase of teas and
2
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American merchants employed numerous vessels in their

endeavor to make profits in the East India trade. They kept

2
H.B. Morse and H.F. Macnair, Far Eastern International
Relations (Boston, 1931), pp. 66-67.