64 Kenneth S. Latourette, 



The most marked permanent effect of this crisis was to hasten 

 - the change which was taking place in the United States in the 

 commercial machinery of the Canton commerce. Up to the 

 War of 1812 the commerce had been in the hands of a compara 

 tively large number of firms and individual investors, small for 

 the most part, and scattered among nearly all the seaports of 

 the North Atlantic states. Beginning about the time of the war, 

 trade began to decline in the smaller ports, New Haven, Stoning- 

 ton and Norwich, and later Providence and Salem, and to be 

 confined to the larger cities, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, 

 where it was concentrated in the hands of large firms. The 

 change can be best seen by sketching the history of the participa 

 tion of each of these ports in the China trade, taking them in their 

 geographical order. 



Salem, the northernmost port of importance, began its con 

 nection with China in January, 1786, when the &quot;Grand Turk,&quot; 

 belonging to Elias Hasket Derby, sailed for Canton. 47 In 1790 

 four ships were entered from Canton. 48 The trade then seems 

 to have been abandoned for several years, and we do not find 

 that another China ship arrived until I798. 49 For several years 

 after this the trade was on the increase. It suffered somewhat in 

 the troublous times preceding and during the War of 1812, and 

 shared the rapid growth after the war. After 1820, however, 

 it fell off permanently and was thereafter continued only inter 

 mittently. In all, from 1790 on, thirty-five cargoes are entered 

 in the Salem custom house as being from Canton, and five more 

 which are entered from other ports on the Canton trade route 

 contained tea. 50 After all that has been popularly reported 

 about the importance of Salem in the China trade these figures 



47 Rantoul, The Port of Salem, Histl. Cols, of the Essex Instit, 10: 55. 

 ^Digest of Duties of the Salem Custom House, 1789-1852. MS. in 

 Salem Custom House. 



49 Ibid. 



50 By years the figures are as follows from the opening of the United 

 States Custom House in Salem: 1790, 4; 1798, i; 1800, i; 1802, 2; 

 1803, i ; 1804, i ; 1807, i ; 1808, i ; 1810, 2 ; 1812, i ; 1817, i ; 1818, 3 ; 

 1819, 3; 1820, 2; 1825, 2; 1826, i; 1829, 2; 1830, i; 1831, i; 1832, i; 

 1834, i ; 1836, i ; 1841, i. Total, 35. All but two of the voyages from 

 1829 on were made by one ship, the &quot;Sumatra.&quot; Digest of Duties, Salem 

 Custom House. 



