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this opinion be just, it must be confessed that a great danger threatens the British commerce; a very productive source of gain would be lost-a great many seamen in Great Britain wou be thrown out of employment-and even the commerce with the European continent could not but decrease, since Europe would have no occasion to draw from Great Britain its supplies of Chi nese produce, which it would receive directly, and upon more advantageous terms from the Americans.

On the other hand, the vast advantages which the American republic may derive, and most certainly will derive, from an active intercourse with the Chinese Empire, are almost incalculable, Considered merely as an excellent school for the marine, it is of the highest importance to a state whose external security wholly depends on a numerous and formidable navy. The goods which find a ready sale must partly be fetched from very remote countries, and the dangers and privations with which the seaman has to contend, in seas hitherto but little frequented, and on unknown coasts, call forth all his energies, enrich him with useful experience, and dexterity. Thus, a large number of sailors may be kept in constant employ, and the prospect will not only excite in the natives, particularly the inhabitants of the sea-coasts of America, a continually increasing propensity to a sea-faring life, but also attract crowds of able seamen from foreign countries, especially from the British islands, who will settle with their families in America, and promote the population, the increase of which is so favourite an object with the American Government. In the country itself a new source of gain will be opened at the same time, to thousands of industrious persons; the spirit of speculation will receive a new impulse, and numerous merchants, even from England itself, will settle in America, in order to share in so promising a prospect of gain, and to acquire riches in a short time. The nations of Europe are too much accustomed to the use of many Chinese productions easily to renounce them, and the possession of the trade withChi

na will therefore give the Americans an opportunity for a most advantageous commercial intercourse with Europe, and to double their gains.

Not only have the Americans a much shorter way to China than the English and the other nations of Europe, but they are able to obtain the produce and merchandise of that Empire on much more favourable terms. The Europeans are obliged to purchase all they want of the Chinese for the most part with ready money, or silver bars, and China is therefore considered by Europe, as the country to which the precious metals chiefly flow, so that the gold and silver of Mexico and Peru go again from Europe to Asia, where they are swallowed up by a gulph from which they do not easily return. The Americans on the contrary, are not obliged to carry on the Chinese trade with the precious metals: they carry to the Chinese market either various articles of their own produce, which are highly esteemed there, or others which they have obtained in exchange for them; and are thus able to employ for other purposes the money which they must otherwise take to Asia. If the trade which Europe carries on with China may be called in the highest degree passive, that of the United States is very far from being so.

China is an immense market, which now offers itself to the activity of the American merchant, the more this trade increases, the more persons it will employ ; and the gain which it gives is so very great, that even on account of this single branch of American commerce, the speculative merchant is perhaps no where in a situation so favourable for coming soon and easily rich, as in the United States. By this commerce, which is capable of being greatly extended, and has numerous concomitant advantages, America will enrich itself more and more, at the expense of Great Britain; and the turn thus given to a main branch of the commerce of the world, cannot but be very advantageous to the rest of Europe.

An article that is especially in request, in the Chinese provinces from Canton

VOL. 6.]

American Trade with China.

27

to Pekin, and to the extreme frontiers clothes, and all kinds of toys which look shewy, but are of no value. Most of these things are purchased by the American merchants at very low prices, and the vessels which sail with cargoes of this kind from the American ports, may be sure of obtaining in exchange the richest cargoes of furs and skins. With these they proceed directly from the north-west coast of America to China, and exchange their goods for Chinese produce with which they return, always with great gain, to the United States.

of Chinese Tartary, is fine furs. Both the Chinese and Mantchews are eager to possess them, and the more distinguished and wealthy the Mandarins, the richer and finer must be the furs which they require for their oriental dress. This article of trade can therefore never fail of a certain sale in that vast and populous Empire; for the use of it is inconceivably extensive, and the wearing of furs, not merely a luxury, but a habit, which has rendered them indispensably necessary. But the Americans by their almost exclusive trade with the northwest coast, and their great Continent extending from California to the North Pole, possess an inexhaustible source from which to supply the Chinese market with this favourite article, and the competition which they have to fear from other nations, particularly the English and the Russians, cannot do them any injury worth mentioning. The Americans, therefore, seem to be destined by nature to be the chief factors in this trade with China, which is inconceivably profitable, and must in time monopolize it entirely; as the period is certainly not remote, when the population of the United States, taking its direction from east to west, will extend to the shores of the great South sea, and their ships be then able to navigate directly from thence to the Pacific ocean. On the north west coasts of America, above California, which are but thinly inhabited by wild tribes, there are sea otters, black, dark brown, and white bears, wolves, foxes, beavers, deer, raccoons, white American lynxes, or great wild cats, ermines, seals, rabbits, martins, and other wild animals, whose fur is more or less beautiful and precious, in such abundance, that the natives can procure them with little trouble, and in their uncivilised state, willingly exchange them for the most insignificant trifles. The American ships bring to these savages, pieces of iron, nails, knives, chisels, shovels, buttons of cop per, and of coloured glass, little looking glasses, tobacco, brandy, powder, arms, coarse cotton, and woollen goods, old

It is evident how greatly America must gain by this simple mode of intercourse, which does not even require a large capital, not to mention other advantages attending it. First the merchant gains in the purchase of trifles of little worth, which are agreeable and useful to the savages, and the manufactory of which employs many hands and promotes internal industry. For goods, the purchase of which requires but a small capital, there is an opportunity of procuring articles which are of great value in a remote and extensive Empire, and then exchanging them for other articles which may be disposed of with great profit both in America and Europe. The trade may be carried on too, in small vessels, of 100 or 150 tons burden, the equipment of which is not expensive, (America being so rich in materials for ship building,) and which require but a few sailors to man them; so that an American merchant may carry on so profitable a trade with a very moderate capital. Even those who have no capital, may carry it on upon credit, since the expence of the articles to be provided for bartering is so very small, that means are easily found to obtain them. If one will share the profit with the ship owner and the captain, it is not necessary to advance any money, and profit may be made without the smallest risk. A few cannon and muskets, are sufficient on board a ship that sails to the north-west coast of America, as a defence, in case of need, against the natives; and small vessels are even better than larger ones, because they can sail up the creeks. If several vessels

sail at once on such an enterprise, which in case of need can assist each other, there is not the least danger.

The north-west coast is now so well known to the enterprising and experienced sailors of the United States, that they do not consider a voyage to it as more important and dangerous than one to Europe, or even to the West Indies. The smallest American vessels, brigs, and even schooners under a hundred tons burden, sail thither without any apprehension. They have no need of spending a long time after their arrival, to procure the necessary cargo of more or less valuable skins and furs; in China they have not long to wait to exchange their cargoes for the productions of the country, and it may be calculated, that unless some extraordinary accident happens, the return cargo gives a profit of from 300 to 500 per cent. including the articles for barter, provisions, pay of the sailors, and other expenses.

This trade, which so amply rewards the activity and enterprise of the merchants and mariners, continues to engage the attention of more and more persons in almost all the American seaports. Many merchants at Boston and Salem in New England, at Bristol, in Rhode Island, at New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Charleston, &c. have thus attained great wealth, in a few years, and the more intimate and various the relations with China become, the greater advantages does it promise in future. The friendly footing on which the Americans are with the natives of Nootka or King George's Sound, and of many other parts of the northwest coast, of the New World, so fully secures to them this rich fur trade, the basis of the intercourse with China, that they may be said to have it entirely in their own hands, and to have no rival to fear.

In this trade to the north-west coast the British Merchant is greatly impeded by the East India Company, which possesses the exclusive privilege of trading with China. With the active spirit of the Americans, the exportation from the United States to the north

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west coast, will continue to increase, and they must bear away the prize, as their principal rivals cannot carry on the trade with the same advantages as they can.

Hence the American trade with China will become more active and extensive, while that of Great Britain will continually decline. The price of sea otter skins is now so high at Macao and Canton, that £20 sterling are often paid for a single skin: many an American sailor brings home a profit of several thousand dollars for his own share; we may judge then, what must be the gain of the American merchant.

The valuable and beautiful furs, which the north-west coast of America supplies in such great abundance, are not the only articles which the Americans furnish the Chinese with. They are in want of many other things with which they are furnished from the United States, and thus the ties formed by commerce between China and America, must become more firm and durable. Above all, a remarkable production deserves to be mentioned here, which grows in America itself, and is almost peculiar to the United States; a production which is almost wholly unknown in Europe, but has been in use in China from time immemorial, and is held there in extraordinary esteem. This is the root Panax quinquefolia, or Ginseng. The Chinese writers call this plant a precious gift of nature, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, more valuable than fine gold, and jewels, and pearls, a glorious gift of heaven, bestowed by the gods upon mortals for their happiness, and their enjoyment on earth. with the philosopher's stone, it is called the food of immortality, and it passes among the priests and physicians for a universal remedy, wholesome for all weakness of the frail body, applicable to all diseases; nay, it is even said to prolong life, invigorating the nerves, strengthening the understanding, cheering the soul, soothing the mind, taming the wild passions, and bestowing inexhaustible delights upon our mortal existence.

Placed on a par

The reigning dynasty of the Mant

VOL. 6.]

American Ginseng.

29

chews, in China, were proud that Na- attached to the numbers three and five, ture produced this wonderful root, with which these leaves present to the eye, such magical powers, in their original the plant obtained, in ancient times, in country; for it was found in Chinese China, the character of particular saMogul Tartary; but sparingly scatter- credness. The growth of this singular ed in certain places and districts. Here plant is extremely slow, but then it atit was considered as one of the regalia tains an age unusual in plants of this of the crown, only the emperor had the kind; when it has stood fifteen years right to have it gathered, and guards or more, the root is not yet an inch in were posted at the places where it grew, diameter. Every year the stalk makes that no one might presume to take open- at the upper part of the root, at each ly, or by stealth, what was for the em- new shoot, marks, which show by their peror alone. How fortunate was it for number the age of the plant. The root the Americans that they accidentally itself is of an elliptical form and comdiscovered, not very long ago, that this monly consists only of one piece. The root, so highly esteemed in China, and plant bears but a few seeds; two or paid for there with its weight in gold, three grains are all that can be gathered which it had been always supposed was from one stem; these are of a bright red only to be found in Tartary, as the Chi- colour, in shape and size like those that nese had always boasted, was indigen- may be collected from the honeysuckle. ous in the United States, and might be They ripen in America, in the latter there collected in far greater abundance half of the month of September, and than in China, bitherto the only coun- their taste is more aromatic than that try where it was known to grow. of the root itself, but less bitter.

It grows in the United States, in the whole of the immense tract from the Canadian Lakes to Georgia; is found even in the northern states of New York and Pennsylvania, and flourishes in Virginia and the two Carolinas. Nature has spread it here, particularly in the tract between the Alleghany Mountains and the sea, and it thrives especially where the mountains take a south westerly direction. It loves a fertile soil and cool shady spots on the declivity of the mountains.

While Europe produces nothing which it can offer to the Chinese in exchange for their productions, America possesses in this remarkable plant an article peculiarly its own, which is, above all others, proper for the trade with China.

Many of your readers may, perhaps, be curious to be better acquainted with a plant so esteemed by the great Chinese Mandarins, and in the Harems. The stalk of this plant, which attains the height of about a foot from the ground, is of a dark red. It is adorned with elliptical leaves, three of which always grow together, and each of which is again divided into five little leaves. On account of the symbolical meaning

In China the greatest care is taken in gathering this valuable root. It is not done till it has attained the highest perfection and maturity: this is during the autumn and winter. In America they long committed, from ignorance and inattention, the great fault of collecting the root from the spring to the first frost. As it is always soft and watery at this season, it naturally shrunk together in drying, became very hard, and lost not only in weight but in goodness. This mistake is still committed in some parts of the United States, where the inhabitants make the collecting of the root only an occasional object; and wheu they are hunting or travelling,dig up the plant at all seasons when they happen to meet with it. But by this they deprive the ground of a valuable production, which would be far more valuableif it were tended and cultivated with due care. Though the Ginseng roots thus collected by ignorant persons do not fetch in China the high prices which are given for such as have attained their proper maturity, yet the demand for them is not the less brisk. The American merchants in the interior purchase large quantities by the pound, or the hundred weight, of the country people.

who employ themselves in collecting and digging this root, and gain by exporting it to China, about one hundred per cent.

But the profit is incomparably greater when Ginseng roots, perfectly ripe, and carefully gathered at the proper time, are brought to Macao or China, The Americans begin to be more sensible of this advantage, in proportion as the intercourse with China becomes more active. They have made themselves better acquainted with the nature of the plant, and the taste of the Chinese; employ greater care in gathering, and acquire more skill in digging it. One man can gather about eight or nine pounds daily. Hence the quantity of this article exported from the United States increases at the same time that its quality improves; and the trade with Ginseng roots in the Chinese markets continues to become more and more profitable to America. The exportation already amounts to at least 500 cwt. annually.

In China they understand the art of preparing the Ginseng, in such a manner, that it appears semi-transparent: in this case a much higher value is set upon it. In America they have also learnt this art, and the process employed is very simple. The merchants in the American commercial towns purchase the roots so prepared, and rendered partly transparent, at six or seven piastres a piece; and sell them in China, according to the quality, at from fifty to a hundred piastres a piece. Even in Louisiana and Kentucky, they carry on this extremely profitable export trade to China.

A great part of the East India trade, in which such large capitals are now employed, by the merchants of the United States, is also calculated chiefly with a view to China. The Americans have found means to obtain in the East In dies, a considerable sale for many of the productions of their country; and

for these, they take in return East India goods, which they dispose of to advantage in the Chinese markets, and, at the same time, gain the freight. Besides their own produce and manufactures, they carry, also, manufactured goods which they have purchased in Europe, directly from the ports of the United States to Canton. Articles particularly in request there, are opium, Indian birds' nests, benjamin, scarlet berries, gum lac, Russia leather, cordovan, coloured linen, white, black, and spotted lamb skins, writing paper,razors, grindstones, carpets, pen-knives, coarse cloth, buttons, axes, scythes, locks, watches, and numerous other articles, which the Chinese have hitherto received almost exclusively by the ships of the English East India Company.

The American merchants, on the other hand, bring back from the Chinese seas, partly for home consumption, partly for the supply of Europe, immense quantities of tea, of the most various kinds, porcelaine, indian ink, lackered articles, pearls both genuine and artificial, coral, paints, half silk stuffs, fans, cowries, various kinds of silk, pictures and drawings in India ink, &c.

I have thu, Mr. Editor, given a sketch of what may be called the American view of this important question; though it is, doubtless, partial, and may be in some particulars exaggerated, it still seems to merit the serious consideration of those who appreciate the importance of our China trade: I forbear from examining what may be said to weaken the force of the reasonings above stated, in the hope that some of your readers, better qualified than myself, may be induced to take up so interesting a subject, and either shew them to be ill founded, or else point out what change (if any) in our system, may enable us to avert the threatened loss of so valuable a branch of our commerce.

H. E. L.

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