Early Relations hctivccn the United States and China. 71 



but before 1844. a number of swift boats of comparatively Hgbt 

 tonnage were built for carrying opium. They were owned by 

 J. M. Forbes and Russell and Company and soon controlled the 

 opium trade. So, although clipper ships did not attain their 

 supremacy until after 1844, their lines first began to be worked 

 out in the thirties.-' 



The period between 181 5 and 1839 was marked by changes in 

 imports and exports to and from China no less noticeable than 

 those in the commercial organization. No generalization can 

 safely be made : one must rather take up the principal articles 

 individually. 



Of the American imports to China the most important was 

 specie.** Until bills of exchange began to take its place, it 

 formed half and even three-fourths of the total, amounting in 

 one instance to nearly seven and one-half millions of dollars.*'^ 

 The drain was heavy but necessary. American merchants found 

 it profitable to imj)ort teas, even when paying for them with so 

 expensive a commodity. In some years it was in such demand 

 that a premium had to be ofifered in the United States to obtain 

 enough for a cargo."" Most of it was in the form of Spanish 

 milled dollars obtained from the Spanish West Indies, South 

 America, Portugal,"^ and Gibraltar."- So accustomed to these 

 dollars did the Chinese merchants become that when those of the 

 new South American states began to come in, they were received 

 only at an excessive discount.'''' x\bout 1827 bills of exchange 

 on England began to take the place of specie."^ The large 



^' A. H. Clark. The Clipper Ship Era. New York and London. 191 1. 

 pp. 58-60. 



*^ For tables see footnote 3 on page 469. 



*^ In 1819 the imports of specie to Canton amounted to $7,414,000. 

 Pitkin, Stat. View, ed. 1835, p. 303. 



""The Columbian Centinel, Boston, on Feb. 13, 1802, and Oct. 20, 1802, 

 contained advertisements offering a premium on Spanish dollars for 

 ships about to sail to Canton. 



'" Weeden. Early Oriental Commerce of Providence, pp. 274-276. 



"' Letters and Recollections of J. M. Forbes, i : 70. 



"^ It required a special edict of the Hoppo to reduce this discount to a 

 just one. The Canton Register, Canton, 1827 et sqq. Vol. 8:91835. 

 No. 10. 



"^ See tables footnote 3, page 469. 



