28 KennetJi S. Latourette, 



Now, specie was of all commodities the one which the United 

 States could least spare at that time. They had no silver or 

 gold mines of importance. What coin came into the country was 

 largely smuggled in from the Spanish colonies and was greatly 

 needed to pay European bills. Specie was consequently hard to 

 obtain for such luxuries as China goods, and when secured, much 

 popular irritation was felt at its use for such a purpose.* 



Unless these conditions could be changed, American trade with 

 Canton would be extremely limited. Indeed, by 1790, it had 

 already been overdone and had ceased to be as profitable as at 

 the beginning.^ 



At about this time, however, two widely separated groups of 

 events partially removed both of these hindrances and gave 

 Chinese-American commerce an impetus which resulted in its 

 rapid expansion. One, the European wars following the French 

 Revolution, was still a few years off, the other, the opening of 

 new sources of supply of goods for the China market, had just 

 begun. 



* The continued existence of this feeling is shown by a clipping from a 

 Providence paper. In its issue of September 14, 1793, the United States 

 Chronicle of that city attempted to mollify public opinion by telling of 

 "fifty or sixty thousand dollars in specie," part of the proceeds of the 

 "President Washington" and her cargo which had been sold at Calcutta 

 in 1792, being deposited in the bank by Brown and Francis, "this sum 

 being more specie than they had ever shipped to the Indies, although for 

 six years past considerably engaged in the trade. It is expected it will 

 operate in the minds of thinking people to do away with a prejudice 

 against the trade, and convince them that it is our duty to encourage it, 

 as being much more advantageous than for us to continue retailers of 

 India goods for European merchants." 



^ Osgood and Batchelder, Salem, p. 138, say that the Saleni-China trade 

 seems to have been abandoned from 1790 to 1798. 



