Page 179 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

165.

aware of both a collapsing demand for and a dwindling supply

of furs and sandalwood, the major articles imported by Ameri­

cans from outside the United States. In order to expand their

trade, therefore, Americans had to search elsewhere for other

goods to become part of their trade at Canton. The idea of
venturing to other ports throughout the world was not a novel

one, for American seacaptains had long sailed all over the

world in their voyages to and from East India. During the
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1820 s Americans at Canton merely systematized the former

global voyages into shorter and more regular ventures. These

voyages between ports in South America, the East Indies, Europe

and Canton would both increase sources of imports to China

and destinations for exports from China. The financial debacle

of 1826 catalyzed this process, as it forced the remaining

agents and the new commission houses to become more efficient.

In so doing, the houses sent their own agents abroad to direct

various segments of the growing and complex Canton trade. Ports

chosen for expanding the trade were naturally those which Amer­

ican masters had long included as potential stops in their search

for cargoes.

As in all developments in the American China trade be­

fore 1830, the man who took the lead in expanding the trade was

John Perkins Cushing of Perkins & Co. (Russell & Co., succes­

sor of Perkins & Co., continued this leadership in the China

1
trade throughout the nineteenth century.) In the early 1820 s,

when trade between the United States and Canton was suffering

the effects of depression, Cushing decided to send vessels to