Page 273 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

259.

Lin was determined to enforce his edict� yet they were equally

determined to prevent the destruction of their opium. Elliot

offered a solution by directing the British merchants to

deliver all their opium to the Chinese. He received their

compliance by pledging full compensation for the opium by

the British government. This promise actually benefited the

merchants, because they would be paid at current market value

(now highly inflated). On March 17 Elliot communicated to

Commissioner Lin his offer to surrender all opium, a total

of 20,283 chests worth fifteen million dollars. Lin accepted

but added that he would continue to detain the foreigners un­

til the opium surrender was completed. Elliot had ended the

crisis but, more significantly, he had involved the British

government. English merchant James Matheson wrote to his

partners that Elliot's order was "a large and statesmanlike

measure, more especially as the Chinese have fallen into the

77
snare of rendering themselves directly liable to the Crown.11
Although all American residents had abandoned the

opium trade before Lin Tse-hsu arrived at Canton, they did

not escape the crisis in March 1839. Russell & Co. still had

about fifteen hundred chests of opium in storage. As it was

owned by British merchants, the partners did not consider the

drug the house's property. The Americans were more willing

77
Letter, J. Matheson to W. Jardine & J.A. Smith, May
3, 1839, in Greenberg, British Trade and the Opening of China,
pp. 203-04. Actually the British merchants were preparing to
despatch their ships with opium shipments to other ports. This
action would have lost them considerable profits. Elliot's
order came just in time to be a financial boon.