8 Kenneth S. Latourcttc, 



cumbersome regulations, and were placed under their own laws 

 and a more equitable system of port rules and duties. China 

 still had a long road to travel before reaching a full appreciation 

 of other powers and entering fully into modern life. Wars, 

 rebellions, and outbreaks were to mark the mile posts. But in 

 1842-1844 she put her feet in the way, and the years since that 

 date are rightly thought of as being spent in advancing toward 

 the goal then first dimly seen. 



It is the purpose of the following chapters to trace the part 

 of the United States in the first division of the second period, 

 i. e., the years before 1844. This will lead us to show how 

 trade with China began, to trace its expansion, its changes, and 

 its influence, to find the beginnings of American missionary efl^ort 

 for the Chinese and to see its early growth, and finally to con- 

 sider the immediate effects of the first British-Chinese war and 

 the British treaty on both commerce and missions, and to give 

 the story of the first American treaty with the empire. As we 

 proceed we shall find that there are well marked chronological 

 divisions in our subject. The first includes the opening of the 

 trade and its first few years. The second begins with the sudden 

 expansion of commerce caused by the European wars and the 

 discovery of new sources of furs, sandal wood, and beche dc mer, 

 and closes with the commercial stagnation of the Second War 

 with Great Britain. The third begins with the conclusion of 

 peace in 1814, and ends with the beginning of the opium troubles. 

 The fourth and last begins with the opium troubles of 1839, 

 includes the first British-Chinese war, and ends with the treaty 

 of Whanghia, in 1844. 



Practically all the known available material on the subiect 

 has been examined. Manuscript correspondence of persons 

 intimately connected with the events narrated, especially that of 

 the consuls at Canton, preserved in the State Department in Wash- 

 ington, and that of the missionaries of the American Board and 

 the Baptist Board, preserved in the archives of these two societies, 

 forms a considerable and important source of information. 

 Manuscript logs, largely those preserved in the Essex Institute 

 and belonging to Salem ships, and those of the firm of Brown and 

 Ives of Providence, deposited in the John Carter Brown Library 

 of American History, are also important. Published journals, 

 correspondence, and especially narratives of voyages are also 



