Page 237 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

223.

He too finally relented in early 1822 on the requirement for
Company ships. However, developments within the opium trade

made the issue of bonds irrelevant.

In November 1821, when the five foreign vessels had

been ordered to leave Whampoa and the bond was instituted,

the Emperor demoted the official rank of the leading Hong

merchant Houqua. The reason was his failure to prevent the

importation of opium. In response to obvious moves to place

the responsibility for the opium trade. on their shoulders,

the Hong merchants decided to have nothing more to do with

the drug. Their connection to the trade even in 1821 was an

indirect one, as they themselves did not deal in opium. But

they had continued to secure foreign vessels at Whampoa

known to carry opium p thereby allowing the vessels to open

their hatches for trade. The demotion of Houqua and the

creation of the bonding system persuaded the entire Co-Hong

of the dangers of remaining even indirectly involved in the

opium trade. Therefore, they publicly declined to secure
26
any foreign vessel that might have opium on board. This

decision of the Hong merchants inaugurated an entirely new
phase of the opium trade.in China.

II

Following the vigorous strictures placed by the authori­

ties on the foreign vessels and the Hong merchants, foreigners

26
Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China,
p. 110. The author states 1820, but the date was 1821.