Page 82 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

68.
open seas. After March, as the southwest monsoons began to

regain strength, a passage through the Strait of Sunda off Java

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Head was necessary. The hazards of shipwreck and piracy were
much greater sailing through the East Indies by this route. By

the end of March the trading season at Canton dwindled to a

few ships. All vessels hoped to clear the South China Sea
before the height of the monsoons in June.

For hundreds of years this system operated efficiently.

During the summer monsoon months any Europeans remaining in

China retreated to Macao, where they preferred the cooler tem­

peratures, fresher air and more open spaces. When the first
1
Americans arrived in China in the 1780 s, foreign trade still

operated in the same fashion it had when the Europeans first

arrived. But this highly structured and formal system was

beginning to erode. The limits of the trading season were

not so strictly observed as formerly. Although the East India

Company operated according to the seasons, the English country

traders as well as others arrived at various times besides the

autumn months. With bigger and better vessels, the more

daring masters ventured into Canton at all seasons. Although

the majority still came in the autumn, the trading season was

extended at both ends. The constant increase in vessels put more

pressure on the foreign merchants who desired to reside in the

Factories beyond the limits prescribed by Imperial law. Year-

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The sailing routes from Christmas Island in the Indian
Ocean to Macao: Winter: through the Straits of Malucca, past
eastern side of Philippines; Spring: through Strait of Sunda,
between Banka and Billiton Islands, close by Borneo; Summer:
through Strait of Sunda, between Sumatra and Bali Islands, close
by C?ast of Indochina; Fall 7 between Java and Bali, through
Straits of Macassar and Celibes Sea, around eastern side of
Philippines and through them at Manila.