Page 23 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

9.

Shaw profitably traded the ginseng for teas, and the "Empress

of China" returned to New York in May 1785. This initial voy­

age had lasted almost fifteen months but had made a profit of

twenty-five percent for the investors. The widely hearlded

success of this adventure signalled the beginning for American

7
merchants to rush into the China trade.
During the five years after the return of the "Empress

of China, 11 merchants in other American ports took over the lead

in adventures to China. All voyages nevertheless followed the
basic pattern set by Green and Shaw. The vessels carried gin­

seng as inward cargo and teas as outward cargo. According to

Shaw's reports from Canton, the Chinese market for ginseng was

immense. Since the appearance of American vessels at Canton

the annual consumption of ginseng had tripled and the price

had surged upward. Outside the East Indies, the American

continent remained the major source of the root. Shaw wrote in

his journal that "it must be a most satisfactory consideration

to every American, that his country can carry on its commerce

with China under advantages, if not in many respects superior,
8
yet in all cases equal, to those possessed by any other people."

These advantages included the importation of ginseng instead of

7
Thc ,Journc1ls of Md_ior S,1muel Shaw, the American Consul
at_Canton, ed. by J·osic1h Quincy (Boston, H-347), is the memoirs of
the supercargo on the first American vessel to trade at Canton;
see pp. 133-213. Kenneth S. Latourette, "The Story of the Early
Relations between the United States and. China," Transactions of
the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. XXII (New
Haven, 1917), pp. 13-15.

8
Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, p. 233.