Page 348 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

334.

American voyage to Canton immediately despatched a report to

Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay. He briefly described

the ship's reception at Canton by both the Chinese and the

Europeans already trading at the port. Accompanying the re­

port were two pieces of Chinese silk, which the Kwang-chiu-fu

or head magistrate of Canton had presented to Shaw 11as a mark

3
of his good disposition towards the American nation.11 Jay,
in response, expressed Congress' pleasure concerning the suc­

1
cess of the "Empress of China s 11 voyage. The body had resol­
ved, he wrote, "That Congress feel a peculiar satisfaction in

the successful issue of this first effort of the citizens of

America to establish a direct trade with China, which does so

much honor to its undertakers and conductors." Congress also

1
consented to Shaw s appointment as American Consul at Canton,

although the Confederation could not offer him any remuneration.
t:
Secretary'...,ay added in explanation of the appointment:

"Neither the salary nor perquisites are annexed to it, yet so

distinguished a mark of the confidence & esteem of the United

States will naturally give you a degree of weight & responsi­

bility which the highest personal merit cannot very soon ob­
4
tain for a stranger in a foreign land.11 Interest and encour-

3
Letter, S. Shaw to J. Jay, May 19, 1785, in The Journals
of Ma -j or Szrnmel Shaw, the American Con:c;ul at Canton, ed. by
Josiah Quincy (Boston, 1847), pp. 337-41. Shaw also noted that
the Chinese called Americans "the New People; and when by the
map we conveyed to them an idea of the extent of our country,
with its present and increasing population, they were highly
pleased at the prospect of so considerable a market for the
productions of their own empire."
4
Foster Rhea Dulles, China and America: The Story of
)
their Relations since 1784 (Princeton, 1946 , p. 3.