Page 10 - China Trade Grand Turk Salem MA

Model of the ship Friendship, 347 tons, built at Salem in 1797, a
letters of credit. Drafts on London were indis- typical vessel of the era of Salem's expanding ocean commerce.
pensable to Mr. Derby's captains and supercargoes Courtesy of the Peabody Museum of Salem
in cases where it was impossible to return shipments
at the same ports or from the same merchants that lying at Whampoa, the anchorage for Canton, no
had received the inward cargoes. Letters of credit less than 11 other vessels flying the Stars and Stripes
on London were acceptable in most parts of Europe, appeared. In spite of the appeal of the China
but, beyond the Cape of Good Hope, Spanish trade, direct trade relations were impractical
dollars were the principal medium of exchange for because of the very few American articles that
foreign merchants. Hence, on voyages to the were suitable for the Canton market. Ginseng, an
East, it was a common practice for Derby ships to herb which grew wild in New England and was
stop at ports in Spain or Portugal to secure Spanish used by the Chinese for compounding most of
dollars in exchange for drafts on London. their medicines, was the one native product that
The Isle of France and India remained the chief met with a ready sale. Vessels making voyages
centers of Elias Hasket Derby's eastern commerce directly to Canton, therefore, carried all the ginseng
until his death in 1799. The great merchant's that could be gathered in New England, New
contact, however, reached to even more distant York, and Pennsylvania.
markets. The Grand Turk had extended her first The arrival of a fleet of American merchantmen
voyage to the Isle of France in 1786 as far as Can- as large as that at Whampoa in 1789 at once
ton, the only Chinese port then open to foreigners, depressed the market for ginseng and raised the
and had brought back to Salem the next year a price of tea. In 1790, a total of 2,601,852 pounds
cargo of teas and chinaware which sold at a great of tea was imported into the United States. Of
profit. After this voyage, the number of American this amount, 728,871 pounds came to Derby
ships visiting China increased rapidly. During Wharf in the Astrea and the Light Horse, two of the
the autumn of 1789, while 4 of the Derby fleet were vessels at Canton the previous autumn. As no

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