Page 287 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

273.

trade through the early months of 1840.

American residents knew that their trade would remain

open only until the British fleet from India arrived. Since

the time of the British surrender of their opium, the Ameri­

cans had been aware that the British would eventually force
92
the Chinese to atone for this loss. The fleet was expected

to arrive in late spring. Meanwhile the British waited and

the Chinese prepared militarily. American merchants tried

to complete as much business as they could. By April Elliot

received news that the fleet would enter Chinese waters dur­

ing June. For Americans its arrival would signal the end of
that season's trade, as Elliot had announced the fleet would

blockade the river. Vice-consul Warren Delano sent a petition,

signed by most of the American residents, to the Chinese

authorities to speed up procedures of trade. The residents

were concerned that they might not complete the lading of all

their vessels, especially those destined for American ports.

Although the governor-general replied scornfully that the

British could not blockade Canton, "a new impulse was given
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to the business of the port."

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Journal of R.B. ForDes, Mar. 28, 1839, Forbes Family
MSS. Letter, J.P. Cushing to R.B. Forbes, Nov. 15, 1839, Forbes
Family MSS.
93
Letter, W.H. Low to A.A. Low, Apr. 29, 1840, in "The
Canton Letters, 1839-41, of William Henry Low, 11 ed. by Jame.s
Duncan Phillips, Essex Institute, Historical Collections, 84
(1948), 313-14. Journal of R.B. Forbes, Apr. 29, 1840, Forbes
Family MSS. Forbes commented that the reply was "very satis­
factory and very mild & it is very friendly to the Americans. 11
Delano's petition and Chinese reply are in Chinese Repository,
IX, 1 (May 1840), 53-54.