Page 353 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

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managed to pass a protectionist tariff only in 1824. A simi­

lar tariff had narrowly missed passing Congress in 1820.

American mercantile interests opposed all protec­

tionist policies, but Americans in the China trade especially

feared such measures. With the surge of new adventurers into

the trade after 1815, the established merchants realized they

could not profit by teas alone. Chinese textiles, especially

silk piece goods, provided the only other really viable import
10
.
. into American mar e s. High duties on silks would likely
k t
erase the profit margin on this article. As early as 1820,

leading merchants in Boston began to organize efforts to

1
prevent future protectionist measures. Boston s largest com­
mercial house in the China trade, J. & T.H. Perkins, took the

lead in mobilizing that city s mercantile interests. The
1

house did not limit its efforts to Boston. Writing to a
leading New York commercial house, LeRoy, Bayard & Co., the

Perkinses asked for help in organizing a "committee of corres­

pondence to communicate with the commercial towns" so that
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commercial interests could produce a general impression when

the time comes to make the impression." The Perkinses empha­

sized to the New Yorkers.that everyone interested in American

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silks were always a more profitable import from Canton
than nankins. The value of silks imported into the United States
before 1830 averaged ten times that of nankins. After 1830 the
percent was even greater, as the United States began to export
"domestics" to China. Americans annually imported about one-two
million dollars worth of silks. Until 1834 the value of silk
imports nearly equalled that of teas. The Merchants• Magazine
and Commercial Review, III (1840), 477-79.