Page 197 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

183.

American importation of English manufactures, especially wool­

ens, accounted for the major share of growth in American com­

merce at Canton in the 1820's. The cause of this growth was

the willingness of manufacturers and private merchants in Eng­

land to ship their goods to China consigned to American mer-
58
chants. Without such co-operation American trade would

certainly have seriously declined in the 1820's.

Of American merchants at Canton involved in the impor­

tation of English manufactures, the most successful was Perkins
59
& Co. In 1825-26, aware of the profits being made in British

woolens at Canton, John P. Cushing decided to expand his house's

trade in such imports. Having already despatched Thomas T.

Forbes to Manila, Cushing directed Perkins & Co. vessels in

England be sent to Manila with English manufactures. Forbes

reported that such goods were in demand throughout the Islands.

He also mentioned that other American merchants besides the

Perkins concern were becoming interested in selling English

goodsin the Manila market. The most likely American speculators

were Thomas H. Smith of New York and Alexander Hubbell, one of

the founders of Peele, Hubbell & Co. of Manila. Forbes was not

worried that this competition would hurt Perkins & Co. business,

58
Foster Rhea Dulles, The� Old China Trade (Boston and
New York, 1930), pp. 115-16. Morse, Chronicles of the East
India Company, IV, 4-5, 105-06. Niles' Weekly Register, XVI,
26 (Aug. 28 ., 1819), 439, states that American trade to China
was equal to British trade in amount of dollars and tonnage
employed.
59
Although manuscrint sources are not extant for all Amer­
ican merchants in the China�trade, one can deduce that others be-
sides Perkins & Co. dealt in British manufactures. Still Perkins
& Co. was the most successful, since most other major merchants
either failed or sold their business in 1826.