Page 31 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

17.

the sea. England had two trading companies, Hudson's Bay

Company and the Northwest Company (of Montreal)� composed

of voyageurs and mechanics who trapped and cured the furs.

These companies had built permanent outposts along the Coast

to facilitate and protect their operations. Russian traders

operated along the Coast from settlements scattered in the

Bering Sea area. At first these Europeans resented the grow­
ing American infringement upon their established trade.

Within a few years the Americans became part of both
the English and the Russian operations. In fact American

vessels became the only means by which the European fur

traders could profitably send their furs to Canton. In 1791

the Chinese government decreed a prohibition of Russian impor­

tation of furs to China. Although Russia later procured the

right to import furs into China through Peking, during the

1790's Russia had no market for its furs. American traders,

willing to try any way to make profits, offered to aid the

Russians. They agreed that Russian traders would charter

American vessels to carry their furs to Canton in the guise of

American cargo. American vessels also began to transport the

English companies' furs .to Canton. English mercantile laws

bound the Northwest Company, a Canadian-based group, to trade

in Canton only through East India Company vessels. Sending

their furs to China via England considerably cut into profits.

Employing American vessels instead meant less costs through a
19
more direct trade. Continuing their trade with the Indians,

19
Irving, Astoria, p. 24 (footnote). Carl Seaberg and
and Stanley Paterson, Merchant Pr�nce of Bos�on: Colonel T.H.
Perkins, 1764-1854 (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 267-68.