Page 465 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

CONCLUSION

Several days before the formal signing of the Treaty

of Wang-hsia, Consul Paul S. Forbes wrote to his Boston cousins

that Caleb Cushing "has settled the principles of a very satis-
factory Treaty. II Other American merchants at Canton agreed

with Forbes, although many of them had previously viewed
1
Cushing's mission skeptically. At the end of the Opium War

the majority of American residents had felt satisfied with

the new commercial conditions established by the English. After

Imperial Commissioner Ch'i-ying promised Commodore Lawrence

Kearny that American merchants and their vessels would possess

equal commercial rights and privileges at the new ports, Ameri­

can residents believed they had obtained all that was necessary

to insure profitable trading in China. Sixty years' experience

had accustomed Americans to accept Chinese commercial regula­

tions and restrictions. During this time acquiescence to the

"Canton system" formed the cornerstone of a very successful com­

mercial enterprise. Although American merchants at Canton num­

bered very few and enjoyed no military support, they had competed

successfully with the overwhelmingly larger and more powerful

1
Letter, P.S. Forbes to R.B. Forbes, Jul. 1, 1844, Har-
vard Business School, Baker Library, Forbes MSS. Letter, Wetmore
& Co. to G. Peabody, Jul. 20, 1844, Salem, Essex Institute,
George Peabody MSS.

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