Page 58 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

44.

fluence. The British government was not anxious to see the

Hawaiian Islands become an American possession, and moreover

it welcomed any lessening of American dominance. But the
British government did not push any policies to prevent that

growing dominance. No English merchants established them­

selves as rivals to the Americans. No English missionary

society sent representatives to the Islands to compete with

the American Protestants already there. Consequently, the

United States developed even closer ties with the Islands.

This was especially true as the importance of the American
1
trade with China became more apparent in the late 1830 s.

The role of the Hawaiian Islands in the Canton trade to

California and South America was by then an integral one.

When the American government finally decided to take formal

action in 1842 in regard to American policy toward China, the

Tyler Administration included the Hawaiian Islands as part of

its concern with the present and future American role .in

China.