Page 184 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

170.
31
.
'lk s.
C h. i na satins an d si The demand in Chile, Peru, and Mex-
ico for silks continued to grow and made such ventures profit­

able to American merchants. Although the total number of Amer­

ican ventures between Canton and South America each season

remained low, the trade justified the major American houses at

Canton establishing their own agents at each of the West Coast
32
ports to oversee the markets.

While American merchants at Canton reached out to

South America to expand their trade, they also looked to ports

in the East Indies. Since the 1780 s Salem seacaptains regu­
1
larly visited numerous islands in their East India trade. On

these voyages the most common stop was one of the ports of the

Netherlands East Indies, which offered several excellent har-

33
bors where coffee, spices, rice, and tin could be purchased.

The major port among the islands was Batavia (Djakarta) at the

tip of Java on the Strait of Sunda. A lovely city in the Dutch

31
Although American merchants at Canton sent vessels on
South American ventures, they did not own the vessels. As com­
missions agents, they could not own vessels. Merchants in the
United States owned the vessels but the Americans at Canton
directed the operations and informed the merchant-owners at home
of the results. The Canton houses profited through commissions
1
on the ventures. During the 1830 s the majority of West Coast
trade went through Wetmore & Co., because of Wetmore s contacts
1
from his years as a successful agent in Valparaiso and Lima.
32
English private traders also experimented during the
1830's in ventures to the West Coast. But they ''were too pre­
occupied with opium and the newly-freed trade with England to
undertake more than a casual correspondents. " G reenberg,
British Trade and the Opening of China, p. 94.
33
consular Despatches: Batavia, J. Shillaber, Dec. 1825.