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Aspects of the Trade Between China and America1, 1840–1870

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Mary Gertrude Mason
Mary Gertrude Mason
Affiliation:
New York City
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Extract

Very little, apparently, has been written on the China trade during the three decades from 1840 to 1870. But, in reality, these years constitute one of the most picturesque and glamorous eras in the annals of the Eastern trade. As a result of the growing demand for a more speedy delivery of tea, especially, from China, the “Clipper Ship” period began about 1843; and, gaining impetus through the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and in Australia in 1859, it ended, approximately, with the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. During those years, our merchants and sea captains vied with each other in building fast ships of which the Houqua, the Samuel Russell, the Oriental, and the Sea Witch were the pioneers of a numerous fleet. So much activity in shipbuilding would naturally imply an active and growing trade to make use of these fast carriers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , April 1936 , pp. 24 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1936

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References

2 Clark, A. H., The clipper Ship Era (New York, 1911)Google Scholar, preface.

3 Articles of trade mentioned in the George H. Allen Letters (Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts); Augustine Heard and Company, Prices Current; Augustine Heard and Company to Benjamin Newton, New York, July 21, 1851 and July 2, 1852 (Baker Library, Soldiers Field, Boston, Massachusetts).

4 Heard, John, “Diary,” p. 139. (Original typescript in Baker Library.)

5 The treaties of Tientsin (1858) allowed foreign merchant vessels on the Yangtze and opened four ports, including Hankow, on that river.

6 Heard, John, “Diary,” pp. 127–139. Cf. John Heard's letter to Parents, May 16, 1861.

7 Letters—Captain William Cole to William Appleton and Company, 1845, 1857. Captain John Baxter to William Appleton and Company, 1859 (Baker Library); Captain D. H. Hutchinson to Silsbee and Pickman, May 22, 1863 (Essex Institute).