Page 72 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

58.

II

These exotic scenes of Chinese life on the Pearl River

reinforced in the minds of newly-arrived Americans the fact

that they were entering a different society. A stay at

Canton, regardless of its length, was a unique experience

both in terms of life-style and of business customs. Foreign

trade in China operated under circumstances which American

merchants or any other Western merchants found in no other

market. All commercial transactions of foreigners, along with

their other activities, were under strict Chinese control.

The Imperial Government had formulated a very tightly struc­

tured system within which they conducted foreign trade. They

aimed to control closely both the foreign trade and merchants.
Traditional Chinese society merely tolerated mercantile

activities as necessary but hardly desirable. Within the

Confucian social system merchants as a group were among the

lowest classes. According to Confucianism, which theoretically

was the basis on which Chinese society operated, one could

not live as a righteous and honorable man while engaging in
21
trade. Although by the end of the Sung Dynasty in the

21
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A ccoraing o Con ucian princip es, t e economic
. 1
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.
.
foundation of the state WQS agriculture. Trade and commerce
were activic.ies that pulled men and goods awoy from the land.
These "parasitic" activities and those engaged in them re­
quired control to prevent their overtaking agriculture in
importance. Confucianists also believed that trade fostered
"crime and corruption," through misuse of its profits by mer­
chants and government officials. See Frederic Wakeman, jr.,
"High Ch' ing: 1683-18 39, 11 in Modern East Asia: Essays in
Interpretation, ed. by James B. Crowley (New York, 1970),
pp. 1-28.