Page 186 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

172.

the East Indies from Canton, their number was not large.

Chinese merchants at Canton were pleased to see the Americans

resume the import of East Indian produce to China. They even

recommended various articles to the Americans to import into
36
the Canton market. Cushing explored the possibility of

contracting with the Dutch authorities at Batavia to estab­

lish a regular vessel to sail between Canton and Java. He

was willing to put an American vessel under the Dutch flag

in order to monopolize the trade in China good to the Dutch
37
population in the East Indies.

Cushing did not limit his efforts to developing a

trade with Batavia. He also looked eastward to the Philip­

pines. Unlike the East Indies, the Philippine market was

largely unexplored by American traders. What little in the

way of adventuring that had been tried had failed. The

Europeans had a monopoly on trade at Manila which the Ameri-

38
cans could not seem to break. Such circumstances only
intrigued Cushing. Not disturbed by the fact that other

Americans had failed to exploit the Manila market, in October
1821 he sent one of his most trusted captains on an exploring

voyage to Manila, where "the Spaniards had some considerable

trade some time since, but whether it is continued at the

36
Letter, Perkins & Co. to Addison & Co., Nov. 3, 1821,
Perkins & Co. MSS. Addison & Co. was located at Batavia.
37
Letter, Perkins & Co. to Robert Addison & Edward
Perkins, Feb. 17, 1821, Perkins & Co. MSS.
38
consular Despatches: Manila, A. Stuart, May 30 and Nov.
26, 1817. Stuart, who w;c,s American Consular-agent as Spain only
recognized an American consul in 1835, was the only American resi­
dent at Manila untiJ 1818. That year an American, Peter Dobell,
arrived to reside at Russian consul.