Page 198 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

184.

since the demand at Manila for English goods was so large as
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to allow profit for everyone.

Because of the co-operation given American merchants

by English manufacturers and merchants, the East India Company

could not prevent the expanding American trade in English

goods. This was especially true in a market like Manila,

where Company ships did not even appear. American merchants

nevertheless remained very conscious of Company trade at Can­

ton. These men knew that a large share of their profits in
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the China trade were made at the expense of the Company.

They were very sensitive to the statistics of volume and value

of trade, of their own and of the Company, for each season at

Canton. In 1825 Americans became incensed over what they

considered a major threat to their home markets by the Company.

Aware of the Directors in London having sent out extra ships

to Canton with orders to carry teas to Canada, Americans were

certain these cargoes were destined to be smuggled into the

United States from Canada. The East India Company supplied all

1
tea to Canada, still a possession of England in the 1820 s.
But Americans at Canton concluded that Canadians could not

possibly consume all the.extra tea being shipped there since,

as one American reasoned, a great percentage of Canadians were

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Letters, T.T. Forbes to S. Williams, Dec. 29, 1825, and
T.T. Forbes to J. & T.H. Perkins & Sons, Jan. 1, 1826, Forbes MSS.

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of the average value of American imports to China
during the period 1821-39 ($2,400,000), about $2,000,000 repre­
sented foreign merchandise. U.S., Congress, House, Committee on
Foreign Affairs, China Trade, H. Doc. 248, 26th Cong., 1st. sess.,
1839-40.