Page 266 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

252.

Partners in Russell & Co. finally feared official re­

taliation against their trade in teas and silks, if they con­

tinued. to deal in opium. Without the regular trade the house

would lose the majority of its constituents. The house was

afraid that some customers, hearing exaggerated accounts of

the Chinese government's suppression of the opium trade and

of Russell & Co.'s participation in that trade, would switch

to other consignees at Canton or reinstate supercargoes on

their vessels. Other American houses at Canton traded in

opium, but apparently very few, if any, openly acknowledged
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this branch of their business. In short, Russell & Co. did

not want to diminish its commissions on the regular trade.

Added to this explanation of Russell & Co.'s own reasons for

leaving the trdde was its prognostication concerning future

trade in China. As long as the opium trade continued, pros­

pects for the regular trade remained uncertain. Russell &

Co. hoped "that the British Government seeing the danger likely

to accrue to their revenue from tea will discourage the culture

of opium" in India. The house correctly pointed out that only

purpose. In early January the Hoppo protested to the residents
that some boats refused to stop for examination by Mandarins.
He accused the boats of smuggling opium. Illegal use of these
boats by the English outraged Russell & Co. Chinese Repository,
VII, 9 (January 1839), 501-02. Consular Despatches: Canton,
P.W. Snow, Feb. 24, 1839. One boat was owned by a man named
Peirce. Although not listed in rosters of residents, an Ameri­
can W.P. Peirce resided at Macao at that time.
69
of .A.�erican houses at Canton in the late 1830's only
one is known not to have engaged in the opium trade, namely
Olyphant & Co. Evidence shows Wetmore & Co. (second largest
American house) and Gordon & Talbot were involved, and one can
assume that Russell, Sturgis & Co. also dealt in it.