Page 178 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

164.

II

Within several years after the reorganization of 1826,

the American corrrrission houses at Canton were doing well.

Economic conditions in the United States by 1830-31 had im­

proved until one merchant could corrrrent that "the country was

probably never in a more prosperous condition. II Another

echoed the same optimism by writing that "every thing in the

way of business in this country is now going on 'swirrrringly' .

., 24 As a rule corrrrercial developments at Canton reflected

the economic situation of the United States. But American

merchants at Canton could not merely wait for the trade to

improve. They also worked to create their own success in the

China trade. The commission houses that replaced the resident

agents were independent establishments, no longer in partnership

with houses in the United States. These houses sought to in­

crease their profits, but to do so they had to expand their

trade.
1
In the 1820 s the Americans in the China trade at Can­

ton faced a major problem. Trade between Canton and the United

States could not be expanded much further because of the limited

number of suitable American imports and the limited American

consumption of Chinese exports. The depression following the

Panic of 1819 had made this fact evident. Americans were also

24
Letters, T. Wigglesworth to A. Heard, Sep. 11, 1830
and May 14, 1831; W. Sturgis to A. Heard, Sep. 22, 1833, Harvard
Business School, Baker Library, Heard MSS.