Page 85 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

71.

38
Chinese counterparts in the trade honest and trustworthy. In

fact these Chinese merchants, the Security merchants or more
simply the Hong merchants, were the essential link in the "Canton

system." All trade went through them; without the guarantee of

a Hong merchant a shipmaster could not open his vessel's

hatches. Besides trade, all communications between officials

of the Imperial government and foreigners passed through them.
1
With the advent of a new system in the 1840 s the abolishment

of the Hong merchant in the foreign trade was the major innova­

tion imposed on the China trade. Until then the Hong merchants

had made the "Canton system" work profitably for the foreign

merchants.

III

At Canton the Hong merchants were a unique group, mer­

chants as familiar with Westerners and their customs as with

Chinese. Since their own success and welfare were equally

dependent upon foreign merchants and the local authorities, the

Hong merchants depended on their ability to co-operate with

these two often antagonistic groups. They were caught in the

web of misunderstanding and mistrust which foreign merchants

and Imperial officials displayed toward each other. Since

Imperial decree proscribed all contact between barbarian

merchants and Chinese officials, little opportunity for

mitigating this alienation occurred in pre-treaty China.

Interesting to note, the Hong merchants often leaned toward

38
Hunter, 'Fan Kwae' at Canton, p. 97.