ESTABLISHMENT OF A CO-HONG. 347 



to effect an accommodation, it is not surprising 

 that satisfactory arrangements were speedily con- 

 cluded ; and thus much of the trade was gradually 

 attracted to the port of Canton. 



Finally, many of the Fokien merchants, an active 

 and enterprising class of Chinese, seeing that the 

 trade was gradually leaving Amoy, began to with- 

 draw themselves with their families from that port, 

 and to domicile at Canton. Here, also, they became 

 Hong merchants; and at length, receiving the 

 countenance and aid of the superior local officers 

 of the province, they ultimately succeeded in pro- 

 curing an Imperial edict, interdicting the trade at 

 all other ports; and securing to themselves the 

 right of exclusive trade with Europeans in the 

 capacity of a Joint Stock Company or " Co-hong," 

 by which latter term this association is known to 

 Europeans. 



This association, however, did not trade openly 

 as a body, but as individuals. The prices were 

 fixed and regulated at the commencement of each 

 season, and the profits divided among the several 

 members of the company, agreeably to a scale 

 previously agreed upon. Thus, though the trade 

 bore a semblance to the European, of being for the 

 sole benefit of the individual Hong merchant dealt 

 with, the transactions, in fact, were with a company 

 who possessed all the advantages of the closest and 

 most objectionable form of monopoly. The records 

 of the East India Company, up to a very recent 



