Page 210 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

196.

chants and promised the addition of new appointments to the

Co-hong. Having attained their primary goal, the Corrunittee

backed off and announced the resumption of trade in February
79
1830. Although the situation seemed on the exterior to

return to normal conditions dictated by the "Canton system,"

underneath the English merchants at Canton began to chafe at

Chinese restrictions. Neither the Chinese nor their system had

changed, but the British were not as willing to obey them.

This feeling was especially expressed by the private merchants,
whose number yearly increased at Canton. Trading almost en­

tirely in Indian opium and raw cotton, these men had been

operating an illegal trade for years. Furthermore, they were

relative newcomers to the Canton trade and, having never

really operated within the "Canton system," had no vested in­

terest in its continuance. The private merchants also did not

care for the position of inferiority in which the Chinese

cast them. As Englishmen, they felt at least equal to the

Chinese and trade between the two countries should reflect

this equality. There was also the growing American trade

in English manufactures, a trade from which the private mer­

chants were prohibited. These men felt frustrated by the East

India Company's conservatism and willingness to compromise

79
Morse, Chronicles of the East India Company, IV,
219-21. Because of this affair the Company did not go up
to Canton for the trading season of 1829 until February
1830 (instead of October). The Select Com�ittee would
have resumed trade earlier but for internal dissension.