Page 202 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

188.
66
again annoying us.11

After 1828 American trade in textiles between Canton
and England gradually became a vital part of the American China

trade. The sale of English manufactures constituted the pri­

mary legitimate import of Americans at Canton, until the intro­
1
duction of American domestics (cotton cloths) in the mid-1830 s.
1
Particularly involved in this branch of trade during the 1830 s

were the major American commission houses of Russell & Co.,

Wetmore & Co. and Olyphant & Co. Because of the absorption of

all Perkins & Co. business in 1830-31, Russell & Co. became the

largest and wealthiest American house at Canton. Only the East

India Company itself handled more trade than Russell & Co. and

the other American houses to profit as they did. By its charter

the Company retained a monopoly over all exports from England

to Canton. This monopoly, in prohibiting other English mer­

chants from dealing in manufactures, effectively limited com­

petition to the benefit of Americans. The Company's monopolis­

tic charter also predisposed its Directors to be conservative

in trade, since the Company could not risk failure. It there­

fore operated in terms of fixed prices and amounts. Consequently,

American merchants were able to trade on better terms than the

Company and yet not fear any threat of competition from other

English merchants. For that reason the Americans, although

they ridiculed the Company's arrogance and stuffiness, were

66
william S. Wood, Sketches of China with Illustrations from
Original Drawings (Philadelphia, 1830), pp. 63-64. An American
Merchant, Remarks on British Relations and Intercourse with China
(London, 1834), in Chinese Repository, III, 9 (January 1835), 408.