Canton System / 廣州體系


The Canton System (1757-1842) served as a means for China to control trade with the west within its own country. Seen from the European view, it was a complement to the Old China Trade.

Contents

[hide]
1 History
2 Legacy
3 See also
4 Further reading
[edit] History

Despite Chinese efforts to restrict European traders and citizens to Macau, European trade spread throughout China. The Canton System limited the ports in which European traders could do business with China. It also forbade any direct trade between European merchants and Chinese civilians. Instead, the Europeans, generally employees of major trading companies (most importantly the English East India Company) had to trade with an association of Chinese merchants known as the Cohong. The European (and soon the American) presence was restricted to the Thirteen Factories on the harbour of Canton (Guangzhou) during the trading season, but the foreign traders were permitted to remain on Chinese soil at Macau in the off-season (a mitigation of earlier Chinese restrictions on trade, which had banned foreign residence in the off-season).

The first trade that existed with China was for silks, porcelain ("fine china") and most lucratively tea. It was the incredible financial deficit caused by European demand for tea that spurred the British to begin shipping opium to China from its colonies in India - the only commodity besides silver bullion that Chinese merchants would accept in bulk.[citation needed]

Despite Britain's growing apprehension at the Canton System, revenue from opium eased British resentment, and the system remained intact until the Opium Wars, which established "treaty ports" in accordance with the Treaty of Nanjing. Each of these ports were governed, not by Chinese laws, but rather the laws of the country controlling the port.

[edit] Legacy

By the time Hong Kong became a full-fledged British Colony, many of the merchants would be led by a newer generation of western hong merchants. Many of these companies would become the back bone of the young Hong Kong economy.

[edit] See also

Economy of the People's Republic of China
Economic history of China (Pre-1911)
Economic history of Modern China
Colonial Hong Kong
English East India Company
Danish East India Company
Dutch East India Company
Maritime Fur Trade
Swedish East India Company
Old China Trade
Hongs
Howqua
Thirteen Factories
[edit] Further reading

Louis Dermigny, La Chine et l'Occident: le commerce à Canton au XVIIIe siècle, 1719-1833. Paris: SEVPEN, 1964.
Liu Yong, The Dutch East India Company's Tea Trade with China, 1757-1781. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007. ISBN 9004155996
Hoh-cheung Mui and H. Lorna Mui, The Management of Monopoly: A Study of the East India Company's Conduct of Its Tea Trade, 1784-1833. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1984. ISBN 0774801980
Zhuang Guotu, Tea, Silver, Opium and War: The International Tea Trade and Western Commercial Expansion into China in 1740-1840. Xiamen: Xiamen University Press, 1993.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_System