Page 355 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

be imported from China." Attesting to the immediate success

of this action, an American merchant explained to Congress that

"articles of silk are now importing from London u .at cheaper

prices than can be obtained" at Canton. The merchant also

observed that the East India Company had purchased all the

raw silk it could find at Canton and "the result was, conse­

quently, a rise in all silk manufactures, to prices that pre­

vented purchases for this market, that would permit a saving

to the importer, and therefore, curtailed importations into

13
the American market.11
Congress did nothing in response to the merchants'

protests and pleas for change of policy. The Tariff of 1828,

the "Tariff of Abominations, 11 raised duties on foreign imports.

Subsequently, American merchants in the China trade ignored

Congress. They developed other channels of the trade to

1
replace those hurt by the tariff. In the late 1820 s the
newly-created independent commission houses at Canton began

looking elsewhere for potential markets for Chinese exports.

For the American members of these houses, American commercial

policy was less crucial. These merchants entered English

markets more effectively than the East India Company traded to

the United States. The Americans despatched their vessels

directly to London and Liverpool without going through their

home ports. European markets did not completely replace Amer-

13
From Letter, C.H. Hall, enclosing documents of the
China trade of Thomas H. Smith, Jan. 16, 1826, in U.S., Congress,
Senate, Committee on Finance, (Documents relating to the Finances
of the U.S. laid on the table by the chairman), S.Doc. 31, 19th
Cong., 1st sess., 1825-26.