Early Relations between the United States and China. 8i 



of course, taken to the countries where tea was imported, 

 although not to so large an extent. ^*^ 



During the years following the War of 1812 the peculiar com- 

 munity life which grew up at Canton under Chinese regulations 

 took on its completed form. Americans had long since won their 

 place among the foreign merchants and were second in influence 

 and importance only to the English. The American factory was 

 one of the best in the thirteen, ^^° but business had outgrow^n it 

 and had overflowed into other hongs. The American firms were 

 mostly commission houses, often closely allied to firms in the 

 United States, but organized separately and under different names. 

 Of the one hundred and thirty-three foreign residents at Can- 

 ton, Macao, and Lintin, in 1832, twenty were Americans/^^ and 

 by 1841 the number had increased to thirty-seven.^^- Of these 

 American firms, the earliest was Shaw and Randall, and the most 

 famous were Milner and Bull, Talbot, Olyphant and Company,^^^ 

 Samuel Russell and Company (1818-1823) — which was suc- 

 ceeded by Russell and Company (1823-1824)^^* — Russell, 

 Sturgis, and Company ( ? -December 31, 1839),^^^ P. W. 



"''Pari. Papers, 1821, 7:381, 382, give an account of nankeens brought 

 into Marseilles in 1817 and 1818, and Pari. Papers, 1833, E. India Co. 

 Papers, relating to trade with India and China, p. 14, give the exports 

 from Canton in American vessels destined for other places than the 

 United States. 



^^ In 1838 the chaplain of the frigate "Columbia" described it as "an 

 extensive building, three stories high, fronting the grounds on the river, 

 and extending back for some three or four hundred feet, with an open 

 passage way or narrow court running through its center from the front 

 to the back walls. The builcfing is divided into three compartments. . . . 

 Within this range of walls are the store rooms, and rooms occupied by 

 the comprador, coolies, and other servants attached to the hong^ com- 

 prising the .... ground floor, and the second story affording fine 

 drawing rooms and chambers, both spacious and airy, two requisites for 

 comfort in this climate. The top of the building is crowned by a 

 turret .... from which an extensive view is had." Taylor, Flagship, 

 2:170. See as well a description in PauUin, Diplomatic Negotiations of 

 American Naval Officers, pp. 171-173. 



^^' Roberts, Embassy to Ern. Courts., p. 130. 



^" Chinese Rep., 10 : 58-60. 



^" Griffis, America in the East, p. 71. 



"* Hunter, Fan Kwae in Canton, pp. 156, 157. 



'"Canton Press, Jan. 25, 1840. 

 Trans. Conn. Ac.\d., Vol. XXII 6 1917 



