Page 88 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

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secured, that particular Hong merchant took complete charge of

the vessel's trade. The East India Company regularly gave its

business to the same Hong merchants, but the Americans before

the late 1820'� were not in the same position. Especially in

the early days of American trade, when it was extremely specu­

lative, individual Americans could not predict if they would

return the following season. Each American trader who arrived

had to rely upon his own luck to obtain an honest and capable
Security merchant. At this point not all members of the Co-hong

were as trustworthy as later Hong merchants were reputed to be.

As the American trade to China became more regular, both in

terms of voyages and resident agents, those merchants engaged

in it sought to achieve maximum profits for their investments.

Naturally they desired to deal with the best Hong merchants.

Americans at Canton sent information on the various Hong mer­
41
chants back to the United States. By the 1830's, when Ameri­

can commission houses in Canton transacted the majority of the

American trade, each house- like the East India Company--had its

own Hong merchant with whom its partners conducted their business.

Of the Hong merchants who secured most of the American

trade the two most popular were Houqua and Pwankhes�a. In each

case three male members of the family served as head of the

Hong and therefore bore the same mercantile name. Each merchant,

when he established himself as a Security merchant with a Hong,

41 .
t
Various re f erences o Hong merchants and membership
of the Co-hong by numerous merchants in their letters show
1
how often the personnel changed. In the 1830 s the member-
ship became more stable.