Page 174 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

160.

As soon as the embargo was lifted at Canton, the Ameri­
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cans resumed their trade and quickly forgot the whole affair.

The ease with which the Americans at Canton dismissed Terra-

novia and the incident demonstrated the importance they placed

on their trade with the Chinese. Still facing the merchants

was the problem of depressed commercial conditions in the Can­

ton market. Actually in the United States the economic situa­

tion was moving toward recovery. By the summer of 1822 Boston

merchants in the China trade pointed toward new economic and

commercial energy in Europe as an auspicious sign. But their

agents at Canton did not view the situation in the same terms.

In China these men still bemoaned a depressed trade with no

prospect of improvement, as "almost every article usually

brought by our Countrymen is higher than usual & there is not
one article that can be shipped at present prices with any

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prospect of advantage." The major problem was an overabun-
dance of adventurers and a surplus of American vessels at Canton.

With the return of commercial prosperity in the United

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rn all manuscript sources very little reference to the
Terranovia affair is made by American merchants at Canton.
Cushing' s only comment to his Boston partners ',vas: "We addressed
you last per Adonis since which the American trade has been
suspended 'till a few days past in consequence of the difficulty
which has occurred with the Emily & which has been settled by
the Chinese authorities taking the man out of the ship & exe­
cuting him." Letter, Perkins & Co. to J. & T.H. Perkins, Oct. 31,
1821, Perkins & Co. MSS.
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Letter, Bryant & Sturgis to J.P. Sturgis & Co., Aug.
2, 1822, Bryant & Sturgis MSS. Letter, Perkins & Co. to J. &
T.H. Perkins, Dec. 15, 1822, Perkins & Co. MSS.