Canton System
Canton System | |
---|---|
Hanyu Pinyin | Yīkǒu tōngshāng |
Wade–Giles | I1-k'ou3 T'ung1-shang1 |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Jyutping | jat1 hau2 tung1 soeng1 |
The Canton System (1757–1842;
From the late seventeenth century onwards, Chinese merchants, known as
History
Origins
At the start of his reign, the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722) faced a number of challenges, not the least of which was to integrate his relatively new dynasty with the Chinese Han majority.[2] The Manchu-led Qing dynasty had only come to power in 1644, replacing the Ming dynasty. Support for the previous rulers remained strong, particularly in the south of the country.[3]
Kangxi twice banned all maritime trade for strategic reasons, to prevent any possible waterborne coup attempt. Now the whole country is unified, everywhere there is peace and quiet, Manchu-Han relations are fully integrated so I command you to go abroad and trade to show the populous and affluent nature of our rule. By imperial decree I open the seas to trade.[6]
Hǎiguān (海關), Hoi Gwaan, or customs stations, were subsequently opened at
Great Britain | France | Holland | Sweden | Denmark | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
East India Company |
Itinerant traders |
|||||
Number of Ships | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 |
Tonnage | 2,250 | 350 | 1,450 | 1,450 | 2,600 | 850 |
Cannon | 112 | 12 | 60 | 64 | 120 | 36 |
Crew | 400 | 100 | 300 | 220 | 510 | 150 |
Black Tea (piculs) | 7,194 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 5,000 | ||
Green Tea (piculs) | 6,151 | 1,450 | 550 | 1,400 | ||
Raw Silk (piculs) | 28 | 250 | ||||
Woven Silk (bales) | 11,074 | 6,000 | 7,000 | 7,500 | ||
Nankeens | 15,699 | |||||
Chinaware (chests) | 844 | 600 | 800 | 400 | ||
Tutenag1 (piculs) | 1,800 | |||||
1An alloy of copper, nickel and zinc | source: Gao (2003) |
The Qing Court under Kangxi set up a trading company in Canton in 1686 to deal with Western trade known as the Yánghuò Háng (洋貨行, literally "Ocean Trading House"). This dealt with both imports and exports with sub-offices responsible for taxes and import/export declarations respectively. When a ship arrived or departed, the Chinese merchant involved would visit the Ocean Trading House to pay any taxes due. This set up became the basis for the later Thirteen Factories through which all foreign trade would be conducted.[9]
Although many ports on the coasts of China were open, most Westerners chose to trade at Canton as it is closer to Southeast Asia and it was not profitable to go further north.[10]
In 1704, the Baoshang system was established. This system licensed trade with Western merchants: licences were granted to a number of Chinese merchants as long as they helped to collect duties from the Westerners, successfully aligning trading interests with the government's revenue collection. This was the predecessor for the later Cohong system.[11]
Although he now had the foreign trade situation under control, Kangxi's liberal attitude towards religion led to a clash between Chinese and Christian spiritual authority. After Pope Clement XI issued his 1715 papal bull Ex illa die, which officially condemned Chinese religious practices,[12] Kangxi expelled all missionaries from China except those employed in a technical or scientific advisory capacity by the Qing Court.[13]
Implementation of the Cohong
In 1745, Kangxi's grandson the Qianlong Emperor ordered his court to implement changes to the Ocean Trading House system. Thereafter a local Chinese merchant stood as guarantor for every foreign trading vessel entering Canton Harbour and took full responsibility for the ship and its crew along with the captain and supercargo. Any tax payments due from a foreign trader were also to be guaranteed by the local merchant. With permission from the authorities, in 1760 Hong merchant Pan Zhencheng (潘振成) and nine others hong specializing in the western trade joined together to become the intermediary between the Qing government and the foreign traders. The role of the new body would be to purchase goods on behalf of the foreigners and deduct any taxes and duties payable for imports and exports; at the same time, according to Guangdong customs records (粵海關志, jyut6 hoi2 gwaan1 zi3, Yuèhǎi guān zhì), they established a new harbour authority to deal with tribute from Thailand and handle pay for the troops involved in trade as well as manage domestic maritime trade in the South China Sea.[14] Henceforth, the Cohong possessed imperial authority to levy taxes on the foreign merchants as they saw fit.
Flint Affair
In 1757 the Qianlong Emperor banned all non-Russian ships from the ports of northern China.[15] Russians were however not allowed to use Canton. All customs offices other than the one at Canton were closed. The emperor did this after receiving a petition regarding the presence of armed Western merchant ships all along the coast. The Western merchant ships were protected from pirates, and guarded against, by the Guangdong Navy, which was subsequently increased in strength.[16]
Thereafter all such commerce was to be conducted via a single port under what became known as the Canton System (Chinese: 一口通商;
The emperor and his officials became alarmed at this breach of normal protocol and realized that something had to be done to control the situation.[5] The Qing court's previous laxity had effectively allowed a coterie of Chinese merchants and local officials to take over foreign commerce in the southern port according to their own best financial interests.[19] One of the fundamental tenets of traditional Chinese diplomacy prohibited contact with Beijing except in the case of tributary envoys from other states.[20]
The new rules, known as the Vigilance Towards Foreign Barbarian Regulations (Chinese: 防範外夷規條; pinyin: Fángfàn wàiyí guītiáo; Jyutping: fong4 faan6 ngoi6 ji4 kwai1 tiu4 ) or Five Counter-Measures Against the Barbarians (Chinese: 防夷五事; pinyin: Fáng yí wǔ shì; Jyutping: fong4 ji4 ng5 si6) contained the following provisions:
- 1) Trade by foreign barbarians in Canton is prohibited during the winter.
- 2) Foreign barbarians coming to the city must reside in the foreign factories under the supervision and control of the Cohong.
- 3) Chinese citizens are barred from borrowing capital from foreign barbarians and from employment by them.
- 4) Chinese citizens must not attempt to gain information on the current market situation from foreign barbarians
- 5) Inbound foreign barbarian vessels must anchor in the Whampoa Roads and await inspection by the authorities.[21]
These rules did not apply to all Western merchants alike. Russians had nominally had an open trade route into northern China since the signing of the
Evaluation
The discovery of underground missionary activity in the late 1750s may have contributed to the Emperor's decision to concentrate foreigners in a single port. In his edict to establish the restriction, the Emperor specifically mentioned concerns about the strategic value of the interior regions to foreigners: Chinese government consultants were aware of Western military technological superiority and Westerners' record of having "set out to conquer every land they visited". The Kangxi Emperor, considering the Westerners to be highly successful, intrepid, clever, and profitable, already had concerns early on about the serious omnidirectional Western threat to China, if China ever became weakened.[26]
The Canton system did not completely affect Chinese trade with the rest of the world as Chinese merchants, with their large three-masted ocean junks, were heavily involved in global trade. By sailing to and from
Under the system, the Qianlong Emperor restricted trade with foreigners on Chinese soil only for licensed Chinese merchants (Cohongs), while the British government on their part issued a monopoly charter for trade only to the
The First Opium War
A seemingly insatiable western demand for tea from China towards the end of the 18th century caused a significant deficit in the British balance of trade. The Chinese had little interest in Western goods and would only accept silver in payment. This spurred the East India Company to sell opium grown on its plantations in India to independent traders, who shipped it on to China to sell in exchange for silver, despite the fact that opium was already illegal in China.[34] China tried to stop the importation of this opium, but the traders persisted. Chinese attempts to regain control led to the First Opium War, when British gunboat diplomacy quickly forced China to sign an unequal treaty of trade.[35][36]
Abolition
Following the signature of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, British subjects are "allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without molestation or restraint" at Canton, Shanghai, Amoy (Xiamen), Ningbo and Fuzhou. In addition, Article V of the Treaty specifically abolishes the Canton system, allowing British merchants, and eventually all foreign merchants, to deal with whomever they please in the newly opened ports.[37]
In 1859 Canton's trade moved to a new site on the reclaimed sandbank of
Legacy
The Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, the Boston Athenæum, the Bunker Hill Monuments, public libraries, and an orphanage were built with the proceeds of opium smuggling.[39]
By the time
See also
- Century of humiliation
- Economic history of China before 1912
- Old China Trade
- Hongs
- Howqua
- Thirteen Factories
- Wu Tingju
Notes and references
Notes
- ^ "Scene in China" (PDF). The Wesleyan Juvenile Offering: A Miscellany of Missionary Information for Young Persons. IX. Wesleyan Missionary Society: Vignette. 1852. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-59884-415-3.
- ISBN 978-0-674-01212-7.
- ^ Schottenhammer 2007, p. 31.
- ^ a b Li 1977, p. 363.
- ISBN 978-7-80758-499-5.
- ^ Schottenhammer 2010, p. 126.
- ^ Taipei Research Institute (台北研究院) (1987). "Fifth compilation of Ming/Qing historical material (明清史料戊编)". Taipei: Zhonghua Publishing Bureau (台北: 中华书局). p. 102.
{{cite web}}
: Missing or empty|url=
(help) - ^ Chinese Culture MediaCentre (中国文化传媒网). Archived from the originalon February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
- ^ Po, Chung-yam (28 June 2013). Conceptualizing the Blue Frontier: The Great Qing and the Maritime World in the Long Eighteenth Century (PDF) (Thesis). Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. p. 186.
- ISBN 978-1108424615.
- ^ Mantienne 1999, p. 178.
- ^ Dun 1969, p. 22.
- ^ Gao & Feng 2003, p. 109.
- ^ a b Schottenhammer 2007, p. 33.
- ^ Po, Chung-yam (28 June 2013). Conceptualizing the Blue Frontier: The Great Qing and the Maritime World in the Long Eighteenth Century (PDF) (Thesis). Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. pp. 147–149.
- ^ Stifler 1938.
- ^ Shurtleff & Aoyagi 2012, p. 1711.
- ^ Farmer, Edward L. (1963), "James Flint Versus the Canton Interest (1755–1760)", Papers on China (17), East Asian Research Center, Harvard University: 38–66
- ^ Fairbank & Têng 1941.
- ^ "Western Cultural Policies during the Qianlong and Jiaqing Eras (乾嘉时期清廷的西方文化政策)" (in Chinese). Historychina.net (中華歷史网). Retrieved January 30, 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-674-78115-3
- ^ ISBN 978-84-19036-13-1.
- ISBN 0-8264-5749-5
- ISBN 978-90-04-15599-2, 277 pages, 17–89, 91–117
- ^ Po, Chung-yam (28 June 2013). Conceptualizing the Blue Frontier: The Great Qing and the Maritime World in the Long Eighteenth Century (PDF) (Thesis). Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. pp. 174, 183, 200–201.
- ^ Po, Chung-yam (28 June 2013). Conceptualizing the Blue Frontier: The Great Qing and the Maritime World in the Long Eighteenth Century (PDF) (Thesis). Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. pp. 149–150.
- ISBN 978-0495913238.
- ISBN 978-1472526403.
- ^ Po, Chung-yam (28 June 2013). Conceptualizing the Blue Frontier: The Great Qing and the Maritime World in the Long Eighteenth Century (PDF) (Thesis). Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. pp. 203–204.
- ISBN 039324251X.
- ISBN 039324251X.
- ISBN 039324251X.
- ^ Fay, Peter Ward, The Opium War, 1840–1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the early part of the nineteenth century and the way by which they forced the gates ajar (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 2000) pp.73-4
- ^ Julia Lovell, The Opium War: Drug, Dreams and the Making of China (2011)
- ^ Peter Ward Fay, Opium War, 1840-1842: Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War by Which They Forced Her Gates (1998)
- ^ "The Government of China having compelled the British Merchants trading at Canton to deal exclusively with certain Chinese Merchants called Hong Merchants (or Cohong) who had been licensed by the Chinese Government for that purpose, the Emperor of China agrees to abolish that practice in future at all Ports where British Merchants may reside, and to permit them to carry on their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please".
- ^ Dennys 1867, p. 138.
- ^ Martha Bebinger (July 31, 2017). "How Profits From Opium Shaped 19th-Century Boston". WBUR. Archived from the original on 31 July 2017.
Bibliography
- Dennys, N.B. (1867). The Treaty Ports of China and Japan: A Complete Guide to the Open Ports of Those Countries, Together with Peking, Yedo, Hongkong and Macao. London: Trubner. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-108-04590-2.
- Dun, Jen Li (Trans.) (1969). China in transition, 1517–1911. New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, Inc. ISBN 0-442-04778-9.
- Fairbank, J.K.; Têng, S.Y. (1941). "On the Ch'ing Tributary System". Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 6 (2): 135–246. JSTOR 2718006.
- Li, V. H. (1977). Law and Politics in China's Foreign Trade. Asian law series. University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-80387-6.
- Mantienne, Frédéric (1999). ISBN 978-2-914402-20-0.
- Schottenhammer, Angela (2007). The East Asian Maritime World 1400–1800: Its Fabrics of Power and Dynamics of Exchanges. East Asian economic and socio-cultural studies. Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-05474-4.
- Schottenhammer, Angela (2010). Trading networks in early modern East Asia. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-06227-5.
- Stifler, S.R. (1938). "The language of students of the East India Company's Canton factory". Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 69.
- Gao, Shujuan(高淑娟); Feng, Bin (冯斌) (2003). Comparative Outline of Chinese and Japanese Foreign Policy: Central Trade Policy in the Final Years of the Imperial Era (中日对外经济政策比较史纲: 以封建末期贸易政策为中心). Qinghua University Chinese Economic Historiography Series (清华大学中国经济史学丛书) (in Chinese). ISBN 978-7-302-07517-2.
- Shurtleff, W.; Aoyagi, A. (2012). History of Soy Sauce (160 CE To 2012). Soyinfo Center. ISBN 9781928914440.
Further reading
- Louis Dermigny, La Chine et l'Occident: le commerce à Canton au XVIIIe siècle, 1719–1833. Paris: SEVPEN, 1964.
- Downs, Jacques M. (1997). The Golden Ghetto: The American Commercial Community at Canton and the Shaping of American China Policy, 1784-1844. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press; reprinted, Hong Kong University Press, 2014. ISBN 0934223351.
- Liu Yong, The Dutch East India Company's Tea Trade with China, 1757–1781. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007. ISBN 90-04-15599-6
- Hoh-Cheung Mui and H. Lorna Mui, The Management of Monopoly: A Study of the East India Company's Conduct of Its Tea Trade, 1784–1833. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984. ISBN 0-7748-0198-0
- Johnson, Kendall A. (2017). The New Middle Kingdom: China and the Early American Romance of Free Trade. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9781421422510.
- Paul Arthur Van Dyke. The Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700–1845. Hong Kong University Press, 2005. ISBN 962-209-749-9.
- Paul Arthur Van Dyke. Merchants of Canton and Macao: Politics and Strategies in Eighteenth-Century Chinese Trade. Hong Kong University Press.2011. ISBN 978-988-8028-91-7
- Zhuang Guotu, Tea, Silver, Opium, and War: The International Tea Trade and Western Commercial Expansion into China in 1740–1840. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 1993.