Page 372 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

3 58.
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t
aggran d. izemen . Nevertheless, these consuls served the in-
terests of the American merchants at Canton. They completely

overlooked the opium trade and any American participation in

it. Since this branch of trade was illegal, it encompassed

many irregularities, such as improper changes in ships• papers

and registers or false declarations in bills of lading and

invoices. Not one consul took action to correct or even to

39
report any illegal action. As the foreign trade expanded
to include coastal voyages and the Outer Anchorages, the con­

sular despatches from Canton contained little notice of these

important changes. Although centered on the sale of opium,
this expanded trade also dealt in imported American cotton

cloths and English woolen cloths.

Coincident with the expansion in the China trade in

the 1830's was an increased interest in the American consular

system within the American government. Under the Van Buren

Administration the State Department began to investigate the

consular service and discuss the regularization of the system.

A logical initial step would be the institution of salaries

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wilcocks used his position to facilitate his profits
in the opium trade, although the Chinese seized one of his ships
in 1821. Consular Despatches: Canton, B.C. Wilcocks, Dec. 19,
1821. In 1839 Snow defended his honesty regarding fees in re­
sponse to complaints from thG Department that h0 overcharqed
fees. Consular Despatches: Canton, P.W. Snow, Jul. 13, 1839.
Charges against 11.im appear in Letter, J. Griswold to D. Webster,
Jun. 25, 1841, in Consular Despatches: Canton. Snow, who had
to leave Canton in-r8'4Iecause of his broken health, was
heavily in debt. He was able to depart when the Hong merchant
Houqua paid all his debts for him.
39
Charles o. Paullin, Diplomatic Negotiations of Amer-
ican Naval Officers, 1778-1883 (Baltimore, 1912), pp. 192-93.