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American merchants attention returned to their trade
after the Napier Affair. The 1834-35 season was a very pros
perous one for the Americans. They continued the extensive
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commercial network they had constructed in the 1820 s. But
the China trade would never quite be the same. The demise of
the East India Company and the rise of the private British
merchants had irrevocably changed the fundamental attitudes
on which British trade at Canton operated. Although Lord
Napier had failed, others would follow. Furthermoreu the
ascendance of the private traders had also encouraged them
to flaunt the formerly submerged opium trade. American mer
chants had also become involved in the opium trade, although
to a smaller extent than the English. The Chinese, in seek
ing to maintain the "Canton system" of trade, could not afford
to allow such an illegal trade to continue unabated.