Page 191 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

177.

of American shipping at Manila during these years listed Can­

ton as either port of origin or port of destination. Usually

the vessels were on their way to Canton, having brought a cargo

of domestics and specie (or bills), which they exchanged

totally or partially for rice. The amount of exports from
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Manila amounted to roughly a million dollars annually.

American trade at Manila was the major beneficiary of

the growing China trade in the 1830's. Primary reasons in­

cluded its proximity to Canton and its lax cormnercial regula­

tions. The inception of carrying rice to Canton, though, also

resulted in increased American trade at Batavia. Although

Perkins & Co. and other Americans had traded at Batavia for tin

long before 1830, they only began transporting rice after 1826.

In that year the Netherlands Trading Company obtained a vir­

tual monopoly of commerce in Java. This monopoly only affec-
48
ted the American trade in coffee and sugar. The .Dutch were

not as interested in restricting rice and tin which then be­

came the major American exports. American vessels, moreover,

represented a large share of the carrying trade to and from

Batavia. They were second in number to Dutch vessels. This

partially was the result of preferential treatment given

Americans by the Dutch, who sought to use them against the

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11Consular Returns for American Vessels arriving at
& departing from the Port of Manila ,. " Consular Despatches:
Manila. The value of exports consistently was double or even
triple that of imports.
48
At its inception in 1826 the Company was not to have
monopolistic privileges, but by 1835 it had an effective monop­
oly over �offee and sugar at Batavia. Consular Desnatches:
Batavia, J. Shillaber, Feb. 27, 1826 and O.M. Roberts, Dec. 1835.