Page 80 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

66.

early days of the trade the captain or supercargo transacted

the business for the vessel. After 1815 the captain consigned

the vessel to a resident agent or a corrunission house. Conse­

quently, the "time hung heavily on his hands 11 also. One captain

1
when asked his opinion of Canton answered, 'When the Almighty
had finished the world on a Saturday night, He must have made

Canton out of the chips1 11 32
Not only foreign vessels and cargoes but also the

foreign merchants who conducted the trade faced regulation and

restriction. Most importantly, Canton was the only Chinese port

open to foreign trade. All other ports and internal areas

remained closed to an foreign presence. The Imperial government

had originally allowed foreigners to be at Canton only for the

purpose of concluding their business. They stayed in the

Factories along the riverfront, buildings the Chinese had

reserved for the sole use of the foreign factors or merchants.

To ensure that the foreigners would not obtain any sort of foot­

hold in Canton, the government decreed a number of ordinances

designed to inhibit the activities of foreigners there. The

most important regulation proscribed the presence of any foreign

women or fire-arms in the Factories, as the Chinese reasoned

that foreigners could not establish permanent residence without

families or the means to protect them. This was the most

vigorously enforced of the edicts governing Western barbarians. 11
11
The interdiction against Western women remained a canon with

32
Hunter, Bits of China, pp. 3-7, 72.