Page 294 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

280.

to Chinkiang and Nanking. By August they had stopped all

traffic into the Yangtze and into the Grand Canal, which con­

nected Nanking with Tientsin (Peking's river port). The Eng­

lish now controlled the major ports of China and had access

to the Imperial capital. This turn of events convinced the

Imperial Court that it could not afford protracted hostilities.

On August 14u as the English prepared an assault on Nanking,

the Chinese surrendered. Two weeks later two High Commis­

sioners concluded the Treaty of Nanking with Pottinger. The

Treaty's major tenets included those aims set forth by the

British government in early 1840: namely, cession of Hong

Kong, more ports open to trade, an indemnity, abolition of

the Co-Hong, and equality between Chinese and foreign officials.

Thus ended the "Canton system" of trade. The system

had been deteriorating gradually in the nineteenth century

but had managed to operate effectively and profitably for

those engaged primarily in the regular Canton trade. Opium

caused its downfall. Around the opium trade arose an entirely
different system of exchange, the profits from which were so

great as to make the "Canton system" appear obsolete. Commis­
sioner Lin's disruption �f the opium trade precipitated the

English decision that the commercial system at Canton had to

change, even if by force. William C. Hunter, a witness to

the events of the period 1839-42, concluded somewhat nostal­

gically" 11The seizure of the opium in its consequences was

the feature in the breaking up of the exclusive conditions of

foreign trade at Canton, as it had existed since 1720. The