Page 252 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

238.

48
their own. The Parsees, furthermore, moved into the coastal
trade with clippers and station ships. Russell & Co., in order

not to lose all its trade in Indian opium, decided to procure

a clipper for its own use on the coast. The partners sought

more advances from correspondents in the United States. With

such advances the house could expand its opium business at

49
Calcutta and Bombay. Although Russell & Co. was able to

sustain its profits in the opium trade, the vast growth of

the English and Parsee trade in the mid-1830's overshadowed

its own opium traffic.

Until this point in the sale of opium the foreign

merchants had been able to profit handsomely because of the

connivance of local Chinese authorities at Canton. These men

profited as much from the opium trade as did the foreigners.

Chinese opium dealers at Canton had formed an association,

which was responsible for paying off the officials to allow

the trade to continue. Many of the local officials even

trafficked in the drug themselves. The tremendous monetary

rewards to be reaped from the trade persuaded virtually all

Chinese officials in the area to overlook restrictions and

even the Emperor's edicts prohibiting foreign importation of

opium. In the early decades of the nineteenth century such

48
Letter, J.C. Green to S. Russell, Dec. 13, 1834,
Russell & Co. MSS. Letter, J.M. Forbes to Baring Bros. &
Co., Sep. 30, 1834, Russell & Co. MSS. L8tter, A. Heard to
S. Russell, May 31, 1834, Russell & Co. MSS.
49
Letter, J. Coolidge to S. Russell, Jan. 4u 1836, Russell
& Co. MSS. Letter, S. Russell to A. Heard, Mar. 17, 1836, Heard
MSS. Downs, "American Merchants and the Opium Trade, " p. 440.