Page 445 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

431.

misapprehended the intense impact of England's victory in the

Opium War on their foreign trade and relations. Even though the

English had forced them to concede operational changes in the

1
"Canton system, 1 the Chinese continued to mold their attitudes

around the fundamental assumptions of that system. More impor­
tantly, they presumed that the Americans, who had adhered to

the "Canton system" even during the Opium War, did so too. The

Imperial Court and its officials did not realize that the Ameri­

cans, fearing the commercial advantages England could reap

through its military power, were determined to compete profitably

in the "new China trade. 11 Unlike the Chinese, American merchants

11
knew that the English had effectively destroyed the Canton system. 11
Cushing himself shared the conviction that the English

military victory and treaties had created a different situation

in China. A resolute person, Cushing rarely swerved from his

determined purposes. In Congress this characteristic had pushed

him to Tyler's defense and ostracism by Henry Clay's Whigs.

1 1
Cushing, therefore, refused to be swayed by Ch eng s arguments.
He re-emphasized to the governor that he carried two commissions

from the President, to conclude a treaty and to present his cre­

dentials to the Emperor. When Cushing arrived in China, he fully

1
intended to accomplish both instructions. But Cushing s primary

objective throughout his mission remained the negotiation of a
1
treaty with China. Only when Governor Ch eng refused to treat

the American envoy with the respect and urgency Cushing felt he

deserved, Cushing made the trip to Peking into a major issue. In
1 1
reply to Ch eng s communications of March 17, he perfunctorily