Page 90 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

76.
But once established, the opportunities for making a fortune

were enormous. With their monopoly of foreign trade and the

heavy foreign demand for teas and silks, a Hong merchant who

was a shrewd businessman could reap tremendous profits in a

short period. The best example was Houqua, who in 1834 was

worth twenty-six million dollars. Besides monetary rewards

there also existed social rewards for the successful Hong
merchants. In return for "gifts, 11 the Emperor often bestowed

titles and ranks on the merchants or their sons. Also they

could purchase degrees from the government for their sons. In

these ways the merchants, members of the lowest class of

Chinese society, permeated the Confucian social hierarchy and
44
moved their families up the social ladder.

Few Hong merchants made and retained tremendous for­

tunes. Like American merchants in the China trade, they en­

dured numerous and severe vicissitudes of fate as well as

successes. Many of them suffered serious financial problems

which occasionally left them bankrupt. The cause often was

speculation on credit without sufficient capital. The Hong

merchants, adventurous businessmen like their American counter­

parts, invested in both Chinese and foreign commercial ventures.

They accomplished the latter under cover of the commission

houses at Canton. But their credit also came from the same
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source, American merchants and English country traders. If

44
This can be seen in the biographical sketches, Hummel,
1
Eminent Chinese of the Ch ing Period, pp. 501-2, 605-6, 867, 877.
45
Evidence of this appears in numerous letters from Amer­
ican merchants at Canton to their partners and consignors in the
United States. See letters in Russell & Co. MSS.