Earh' Relations hctxvcen the United States and China. 13 



indeed if advantage had not been taken of the opportunity thus 

 given. ^- 



In the Hght of these causes we are not surprised to find in the 

 United States widespread movements in 1783 and the years imme- 

 diately following to take advantage of the China trade. In 1783 

 Salem and Boston began to agitate the matter/^ and Boston 

 merchants had already planned a voyage. In 1784 such a venture 

 seems to have been planned in Connecticut, and was defeated only 

 because the amount of state aid asked was larger than the sturdy 

 yeomen would grant. ^* In 1784 a Boston vessel got as far as 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and returned with a cargo of fresh 

 teas purchased there from the British.^"' 



It was in this same year, 1784, that an American ship first 

 reached China. In the latter part of November, 1783, Robert 

 Morris wrote to Jay, "I am sending some ships to China in order 

 to encourage others in the adventurous pursuits of commerce."^'' 

 This probably referred to the "Empress of China," John Green, 

 Master.^' Robert Morris and Daniel Parker and Company of 

 New York joined in fitting her out,^"^ and engaged as supercargo 



" Fitzsimmons, in a speech on the tariff, Apr. 16, 1789, describes the 

 situation quite exactly. Thomas Hart Benton, Abridgment of the 

 Debates of Congress from 1769 to 1856, 1857-1861. New York. 1842. 



"Joseph B. Felt, Annals of Salem. 2 v. Salem. 1845-9. 2:285, 291. 



"William B. Weeden, Economic and Social History of New England, 

 1620-1789. 2 V. Boston and New York. 1890. 2:821. He quotes from 

 the Connecticut Archives, a manuscript collection at Hartford. 



'" This was advertised for sale in July, 1784.- Hamilton Andrews Hill, 

 The Trade and Commerce of Boston, 1630 to 1890, in Justin Winsor, 

 Memorial History of Boston, Boston. 1881. 4:203. 



^'^ Nov. 27, 1783. The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, 

 edited by Henry P. Johnston. New York and London. 1891. 3:97. See 

 also Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Robert Morris, Patriot and Financier, 

 1903, p. 222, and William Graham Sumner, The Financier and Finances 

 of the American Revolution. 2 v. New York. 1892. 2: 162. 



" This seems to have been universally believed at the time, and no one 

 has ever questioned it. There seems to be no evidence which would lead 

 one to doubt it. 



^* The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw, the first American Consul at 

 Canton, edited, with a life of the author, by Josiah Quincy, Boston, 1847, 

 give a full account of this voyage, and are reliable, since the author was 

 the supercargo of the ship and wrote from his journals kept on the trip. 

 The account of the voyage, unless otherwise indicated, is taken from him. 



