HONG MERCHANT. 345 



guarantee to the Government the proper payment 

 of the duties before the goods are delivered, and 

 no other. 



So far as the sanction of law and custom prevailed, 

 the European enjoyed all privileges in common 

 with the native trader. Nevertheless, it does 

 appear, that even in our earliest intercourse with 

 the Chinese, the right of free trade was imperfectly 

 and with difficulty maintained. Various and un- 

 tiring were the efforts of the Chinese to establish 

 some form of monopoly. On some occasions it 

 appeared in the person of a privileged individual 

 engrossing the whole trade, or granting licences to 

 others, in his capacity of imperial merchant ; on 

 others, in the form of an association of the tea-men, 

 the dealers from remote provinces, the shopkeepers 

 of Canton, and the Hong merchants collectively ; 

 and, lastly, by the Hong merchants exclusively. 

 The former attempts failed ; but the Hong merchants 

 ultimately succeeded in obtaining the privilege of 

 exclusive trade ; which association was maintained, 

 under forms more or less stringent, for more 

 than a century. Consequently the non-restrictive 

 policy now obtained by the treaty of Nanking is 

 no more than a return to the original privilege of 

 free trade, Avhich we might have enjoyed had our 

 industry prompted us to master the language. 

 But Europeans, ignorant of the language, and 

 ignorant of the customs and regulations of the 

 empire, too readily suffered their transactions with 



