Page 86 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

72.

the Westerners. Unlike the majority of Chinese who typically

condescended to pity the "barbarians," the Hong merchants

endeavored to comprehend the attitudes and methods of opera­

tion of foreigners. They were often successful in this effort.

The Hong merchants, to be sure, had ulterior motives. Without

foreign merchants and their trade they would lose lucrative

profits. But they nevertheless formed an important link

between Westerners and Chinese. During this early period,

when contacts between the West and China were limited to

commerce, the Hong merchants were the interpreters of the

images on which both sides built their respective attitudes.

As known to American merchants in Canton during the

early nineteenth century, the Hong merchants were members of

the Co-hong (Pidgin English for Kung-hang), the collective

body of the Chinese merchants engaged in the foreign trade.

Limited to representatives of the thirteen foreign Hongs or

factories, the Co-hong was a monopolistic organization that
was part of the Imperial government's plan of control of

foreign trade at Canton. During the eighteenth century the
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Ch ien-lung Emperor had created this body. In the following

years he alternately abolished and recreated the Co-hong in

response to demands and bribes by various factions of Cantonese

merchants, some of whom were financed by the East India Company.

The Chinese merchants, unlike the Company, basically desired

some form of organization in order to control the Canton market.
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But the local officials excessively squeezed money from them.
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As the Co-hong dispersed the responsibility for individual