Page 241 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

227.
30
as ever."

Although storing and selling opium at the Outer

Anchorages seemed to offer the best alternative to Whampoa,

foreigners in the trade considered moving their operations

to another port. The English private traders briefly exam­

ined the ports of Singapore and Manila as anchorages for re­

ceiving ships. Fast, light boats would ply to and from China

to sell the drug. Vicissitudes of distance and especially

31
weather persuaded the English against using these ports.
Cushing also looked elsewhere, namely to the port of Batavia

in Java. Like the English, Cushing never viewed Batavia as

a substitute for Lintin. But he integrated the opium trade

to Java with the China trade, so that Batavia always pro-

vided an alternative market for opium as well as other articles.

Perkins & Co. maintained vessels which constantly plied

between Canton and Batavia to keep the agents at both ports

informed of market conditions. Cushing used Manila in the

same way. Especially attractive at Manila was its proximity

to the southeastern provinces of China, where great quantities

of opium were consumed. The Chinese buyers would "find it as

y_'Uite as convenient to go to Manilla l_sii/ for their supplies

as to come" to Lintin. These dealers would also "avoid the

30
Letter, Perkins & Co. to Capt. F. W. Conunerford, Nov.
16, 1821� Letters, Perkins & Co. to J. & T.H. Perkins, Nov. 17 and
Nov. 23, 1821, Perkins & Co. MSS. With the move to Lintin, Cush­
ing feared unknowing captains might have their vessels seized.
As a precaution he told his Boston partners that in all des­
patches the word gum should be substituted for opium.
31
Greenberg g British Trade and the Opening of China, pp.
123-25.