1832.] 
COMMERCIAL RIVALRY. 
379 
Such was the fehcitous commencement of our commercial 
intercourse with the " Celestial Empire ;" a commencement that 
will form an epoch in the history of our foreign trade, to which 
the pen of the commercial historian must ever recur with feelings 
of national pride. Our trade from that period increased rapidly, - 
and we regret that our limits compel us to pass on, without being 
able to notice many incidents full of interest, which we had 
collected for the embelhshment of this part of our work. 
By seventeen hundred and ninety-five, 6ur exports to China and 
the East Indies generally, amounted to one milhon twenty-three 
thousand two hundred and forty-two dollars ; while our imports 
were one million one hundred and forty-four thousand one hundred 
and three dollars. By the year seventeen hundred and ninety- 
nine, our imports had increased to the astonishing amount of three 
millions two hundred and nineteen thousand two hundred and 
sixty-two dollars. Java, Sumatra, Ceylon, indeed, every accessi- 
ble part of India, had now seen the flag of the new -people who 
had so recently sprung into existence in the far west. Canton 
was the point of greatest attraction, for there was centred the 
heaviest portion of our commercial operations in the east ; and 
there it has continued, as will be seen by the following table, 
showing the number of vessels, amount of tonnage, quantity of 
specie imported into, as well as the value of merchandise ex- 
ported from Canton, in American vessels, from the years eighteen 
hundred and four and five, to eighteen hundred and thirty-two and 
thirty-three, inclusive. 
