Page 248 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

234.

At the same time Russell & Co. was eager to increase
its business in the booming trade of Malwa opium. The part­

ners decided to stabil i ze and expand their connections with
merchants in the Malwa market at Bombay. This port appeared to

be where the future of the opium trade lay. Russell & Co., with

the agreement and encouragement of Houqua and a prominent Parsee

merchant, despatched Joseph Coolidge to Bombay in the summer

of 1833 to oversee the house's business in Malwa opium. He

hoped to displace some of the consignments going to Russell &
43
Co.•s major English competitors.

Although the boom in Malwa opium in the early 1830's

was welcome to all merchants engaged in the trade, it had the

adverse effect of flooding China with Indian opium. In China

the price of both Bengal and Malwa dropped drastically. The

only solution was to increase markets and the efficiency in

supplying those markets. Jardine, Matheson & Co., the major

English house at Canton, took the lead in expanding the opium

trade outside the Canton area. In autumn 1832 that house

despatched two small schooners, the "Sylph" and the "Jamesina, 11

along the southeast China coast. The purpose of the vessels,

opium clippers, was to transport opium obtained in India directly

to Chinese dealers in coastal towns. These vessels' voyages

were very profitable. There had been attempts previous to this

one to establish a coastal trade in the drug. Almost ten years

43
Letters, W.H. Low to S. Russell, Jun. 23 & Jul. 26,
1832, and Jun. 29, 1833, Russell & Co. MSS.