Page 262 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

248.
62
.
. d t
h
f urt er incl en .
Following the riot, the foreign trade at Canton re­
mained suspended. During December, one of the busiest months

commercially, a large number of vessels arrived at Whampoa

to trade. Still the Hong merchants refused to secure any of

them. This situation lasted into January, causing both for­

eigners and Chinese to lose profits. As January wore on how­

ever, an American resident reported that foreigners 11expected

the Hoppo iwoulQ7 give orders to secure the ships directly as

63
his Treasury iwa�7 getting low--11 This period of suspended
trade, which lasted more than a month, persuaded the partners

of Russell & Co. to reconsider their involvement in opium traf­

fic. As the largest American consignee of opium at Canton,

this house had more financial stake in the new Chinese policy

than other American residents. The growing number of arrests
and executions throughout 1838 had convinced the house that

this time the Chinese were determined in their efforts to des­

troy the opium trade. Events in December reinforced this con-

62
Journal of R.B. Forbes, Dec. 18, 1838, Forbes Family
MSS. Hunter, 'Fan Kwae' at Canton, pp. 74-77. Hunter, an ob­
server of the entire incident u claimed the seamen were the crew
of the Company ship "Orwell.11 He and Gideon Nye were the Ameri­
cans who went to Houqua for help. Nye, in The Morning of My Life
in China (Canton, 1873 ), pp. 58-59, claimed he and John C. Green
were the Americans. In this case Hunter, much younger and more
adventuresome than Green was probably correct.
1
63
Letters, R.B. Forbes to S. Russell, J.C. Green to S.
Russell, Jan. 12, 1839, Russell & Co. MSS. Letter, A.A. Low
to S. Low, Jan. 2, 1839, in The China Trade Postbag of the Seth
Low Family of Salem and New York, 1829-1873, ed. by Elma Loines
(Manchester, Maine, 1953), p. 66.