Page 229 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

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vastly superior to Turkey opium. The latter had a more pun­

gent and bitter flavor. Opium from Turkey always sold at a

lower price in China than Indian opium, but there was enough

demand for both. Supplies of Bengal opium at Canton generally

determined the price and profits of Turkish.

Americans engaged in the opium trade profited until

1807, but during the Embargo and the War of 1812 their trade

fluctuated like all branches of the China trade. Throughout

this period some Americans, especially those residents at Can­

ton, were able to profit from opium. But overall, the opium

trade before 1815 was a rather haphazard one with little or­

ganization. After the war the American trade in opium under­

went changes. More merchants speculated in the drug than

before 1807. Unlike them, however, these men put a much

larger share of resources into their operations. Besides the

Wilcocks brothers, Stephen Girard and the Perkins brothers,

the major shippers of opium now included John Jacob Astor of

New York, Joseph Peabody of Salem, John Donnell of Baltimore,
12
and Bryant & Sturgis of Boston. As with every other branch

of the American China trade, the Perkins establishment forged

a careful organization to exploit the opium trade. As a result,

the "Boston Concern" garnered the major share of American trade

in Turkish opium.

From Boston the Perkins brothers despatched George

Perkins to Smyrna and Frederick W. Paine to Leghorn (Livorno)

12
Downs, "American Merchants and the Opium Trade," pp.
424-26.