Page 431 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

417.

made the appointment at the request of Forbes• cousin Robert

Bennet Forbes. Enclosed in the commission was Webster's noti­

fication of the Administration's decision to despatch an envoy

to China. Congress had appropriated funds for a diplomatic

mission to settle commercial and political relations between the

United States and China. The Secretary instructed Forbes to

inform the Chinese government of the intended arrival of a

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special envoy from the United States. On October 2 the new
1
consul met with Imperial Commissioner Ch i-ying and Governor­
1
general Ch i Kung to present his credentials. He dutifully

advised the Chinese officials of the American mission and reported

that Commissioner Ch'i-ying "stated that· not only the Emperor &

himself but also the people of China looked upon the Americans
,.44
as friends. That same month the Chinese government

officially opened the ports of Amoy and Shanghai to foreign trade.

The English despatched consuls to the new ports, as commercial

affairs began to operate "tolerably well" under the new system.

American merchants did not wait for the mission to arrive but

despatched their own vessels to the coastal ports. They neverthe­

less anxiously awaited the envoy•s arrival to give the status of
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Americans in China under the new system a legal foundation.

43
u.s., Department of State, Consular Instructions: Canton,
May 18, 1843. Forbes acknowledged the instructions in Consular
Despatches: Canton, P.S. Forbes, Oct. 7, 1843.
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consular Despatches: Canton, P.S. Forbes, Oct. 7, 1843.
Ch'i-ying memorialized to the Emperor on the same meeting, in
I-wu-shih-mo: Tao-kuang, LXIX, 3, and Swisher, Management of
American Barbarians, pp. 133-34.

45
Letter, Nye, Parkins & Co. to A.A. Low, Nov. 4, 1843,
Library of Congress, Low Family MSS. Letter, A. Heard & Co. to
W. Appleto� & Co., Feb� 11, 1844, William Appleton & Co. MSS. The
auotation is Heard's, in Letter, A. Heard to S. Russell, Dec. 13,
1843, Library of Congress, Russell & Co. MSS.