Page 123 - Chinese SIlver By Adrien Von Ferscht

Imperial Court! Houqua remained virtually the only Hong merchant to stay solvent,
attaining the eventual status of “the wealthiest man in the world”. Another reason it was
deemed necessary to keep the incumbent Hong merchants’ heads above water was the
practice of the Imperial Court to banish bankrupt merchants to a solitary life of poverty. It
was a case of the “devil you know rather than the devil you don’t know” for the British and
even Houqua.

Between 1840 and 1850 more Chinese silversmiths operating in Canton and making
silver some of it for export, some for the Chinese home market and the vassal states semi-
dependent on China. Until this time all trade by the foreign merchants, whether it be import
or export, had to be conducted through the Hong merchants. The Country Traders and the
ships’ captains now ventured into the nearby streets - Old China Street, New China Street
and the alleys that lead from them and they bought directly from the silversmiths. This had
the added benefit of purchases being exempt from the Hoppo taxes. This new status quo
attracted new silversmiths to appear near to the foreign “factories” that were keen to take
advantage of what was essentially a new form of trade, albeit illicit.

Understanding any Chinese phenomenon is complex. The consensus of opinion today,
particularly by the Chinese, is that the makers’ marks we find on Chinese Export Silver are
invariably the names of retail silversmith shops. My own research, particularly into the
English journals of the late 18th and early 19th centuries paint a slightly different picture.
Take the maker Cutshing for example. Cutshing was an old house that was famous for
producing fine luxury items of silver, silver gilt, carved ivory, lacquer wares and jade. But
Cutshing and comparable contemporaries such as Lin Chong were actually manufacturing
their own items in their own workshops. The House of Carl Fabergé in St Petersburg
would be a good comparable - Fabergé maintained a showroom at the front of the
premises at 24 Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa. Behind and above the showroom were the
workshops where regular clients could enter and discuss new commissions with the
artisans; this was the same model that Cutshing operated at his New China Street and his
later Old China Street premises.

New China Street, Canton - circa 1830