Page 349 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

335.

agement in American trade at Canton was all that the Confed­

eration Congress could extend to Shaw and his associates in

1785-86.

Within a few years the United States had acquired a

new constitution and the China trade had attracted a much

larger number of participants. American merchants in the

China trade, who overwhelmingly lived in the Northeast,

found their interests well-served by the commercial policy

of the Washington Administration. The Navigation Act of 1789

and the Tariff Acts of 1789 and 1791 heavily discriminated in
favor of American shipping and commerce. Looking to foreign

trade as a major source of revenue, the newly-created Congress

imposed high duties on imported articles, especially those

brought in foreign bottoms. The tariff of 1789 levied a

twelve-and-a-half percent duty on all articles from East India,

except for t�a which carried a duty of forty-five cents per
5
pound. This latter tax made tea almost unsalable, although

tea imported in American vessels received a ten percent dis-

count. (The tariff allowed such a discount on all articles

imported in American bottoms.) In addition, the Navigation Act

placed tonnage duties on foreign-owned vessels at fifty cents

per ton, compared to six cents per ton on American-owned
6
vessels.

5
Before 1844 the price of teas at Canton vacillated from
season to season, depending on supply, quality and demand. The
price varied from roughly fifteen cents to thirty-five cents per
pound. In all cases the duty on teas was much higher than the
original cost.
6
Myers, in Financial History of the United States, pp.
56-57, explains the first tariff and also Hamilton's measures
to encourage foreign commerce