In the year 1786 a vessel of three hundred and fifty tons burden
sailed from an American port for Canton. She was the first to carry
the flag of the United States to the shores of Cathay, and to begin a
commerce that has since assumed enormous proportions. European nations
had carried on a limited trade with the Chinese before that time, but
they were restricted to a single port, and their jealousy of each
other prevented their adopting those measures of co-operation that
have recently proved so advantageous. China was averse to opening her
territory to foreign merchants, and regarded with suspicion all their
attempts to gain a foothold upon her soil. On the north, since 1727,
the Russians had a single point of commercial exchange. In the south
Canton was the only port open to those who came to China by sea, while
along the coast-line, facing to the eastward, the ports were sealed
against foreign intrusion. Commerce between China and the outer world
was hampered by many restrictions, and only its great profits kept it
alive. But once fairly established, the barbarian merchants taught the
slow-learning Chinese that the trade brought advantage to all engaged
in it. Step by step they pressed forward, to open new ports and extend
commercial relations, which were not likely to be discontinued, if
only a little time were allowed to show their value.
As years rolled on, trade with China increased. For a long time the
foreigners trading with China had no direct intercourse with the
General Government, but dealt only with the local and provincial
authorities. It was not until after the famous “Opium War” that
diplomatic relations were opened with the court at Pekin, and a common
policy adopted for all parts of the empire, in its dealings with the
outer world. Considering the extremely conservative character of the
Chinese, their adherence to old forms and customs, their general
unwillingness to do differently from their ancestors, and the not
over-amiable character of the majority of the foreigners that went
there to trade, it is not surprising that many years were required for
commercial relations to grow up and become permanent. The wars between
China and the Western powers did more than centuries of peace could
have done to open the Oriental eyes. Austria’s defeat on the field of
Sadowa advanced and enlightened her more than a hundred years of peace
and victory could have done, at her old rate of progress. The
victories of the allied forces in China, culminating in the capture of
Pekin and dictation of terms by the foreign leaders, opened the way
for a free intercourse between the East and West, and the immense
advantages that an unrestricted commerce is sure to bring to an
industrious, energetic, and economical people.
With a river-system unsurpassed by that of any other nation of the
world, China relied upon navigation by junks, which crept slowly
against the current when urged by strong winds, and lay idle or were
towed or poled by men when calms or head-breezes prevailed. Of steam
applied to propulsion, she had no knowledge, until steamboats of
foreign construction appeared in her waters and roused the wonder of
the oblique-eyed natives by their mysterious powers. The first
steamboat to ascend a Chinese river created a greater sensation than
did the Clermont on her initial voyage along the Hudson or her Western
prototype, several years later, among the Indians of the upper
Missouri.[E] In 1839 the first steam venture was made in China. An
English house placed a boat on the route between Canton and Macao, and
advertised it to carry freight and passengers on stated days. For the
first six months the passengers averaged about a dozen to each
trip—half of them Europeans, and the rest natives. The second
half-year the number of native patrons increased, and by the end of
the second year the boat, on nearly every trip, was filled with
Chinese. The trade became so lucrative that another boat was brought
from England and placed on the route, which continued to be a source
of profit until the business was overdone by opposition lines. As soon
as the treaties permitted, steamers were introduced into the
coasting-trade of China, and subsequently upon the rivers and other
inland waters. The Chinese merchants perceived the importance of rapid
and certain transportation for their goods in place of the slow and
unreliable service of their junks, and the advance in rates was
overbalanced by the increased facilities and the opportunities of the
merchants to make six times as many ventures annually as by the old
system.
[Footnote E: A gentleman once described to me the sensation produced
by the first steam vessel that ascended one of the Chinese rivers. “It
was,” said he, “a screw steamer, and we were burning anthracite coal
that made no smoke. The current was about two miles an hour, and with
wind and water unfavorable, the Chinese boats bound upward were slowly
dragged by men pulling at long tow-lines. We steamed up the middle of
the stream, going as rapidly as we dared with our imperfect knowledge,
and the necessity of constant sounding. Our propeller was quite
beneath the water, and so far as outward appearance went there was no
visible power to move us. Chinamen are generally slow to manifest
astonishment, and not easily frightened, but their excitement on that
occasion was hardly within bounds. Men, women, and children ran to see
the monster, and after gazing a few moments a fair proportion of them
took to their heels for safety. Dogs barked and yelped on all the
notes of the chromatic scale, occasional boats’ crews jumped to the
shore, and those who stuck to their oars did their best to get out of
our way.”]
Probably there is no people in the world that can be called a nation
of shop-keepers more justly than the Chinese; thousands upon thousands
of them are engaged in petty trade, and the competition is very keen.
Of course, where there is an active traffic the profits are small, and
any thing that can assist the prompt delivery of merchandise and the
speedy transmission of intelligence, money, credits, or the merchant
himself, is certain to be brought into full use. No accurate
statistics are at hand of the number of foreign steamers now in China,
but well-informed parties estimate the burden of American coasting
and river-vessels at upward of thirty thousand tons, while that of
other nationalities is much larger. Steamboats, with a burden of more
than ten thousand tons, are owned by Chinese merchants, and about half
that quantity is the joint property of Chinese and foreigners. In
managing their boats and watching the current expenses, the Chinese
are quite equal to the English and Americans, and are sometimes able
to carry freight upon terms ruinous to foreign competitors.
Foreign systems of banking and insurance have been adopted, and work
successfully. The Chinese had a mode of banking long before time
European nations possessed much knowledge of financial matters; and it
is claimed that the first circulating-notes and bills-of-credit ever
issued had their origin during a monetary pressure at Pekin. But they
were so unprogressive that, when intercourse was opened with the
Western World, they found their own system defective, and were forced
to adopt the foreign innovation. Insurance companies were first owned
and managed by foreigners at the open ports, and as soon as the plan
of securing themselves against loss by casualties was understood by
the Chinese merchants, they began to form companies on their own
account, and carry their operations to the interior of the empire. All
the intricacies of the insurance business—even to the formation of
fraudulent companies, with imaginary officers, and an explosion at a
propitious moment—are fully understood and practised by the Chinese.
By the facilities which the advent of foreigners has introduced to the
Chinese, the native trade along the rivers and with the open ports has
rapidly increased. On the rivers and along the coast the steamers and
native boats are actively engaged, and the population of the open
ports has largely increased in consequence of the attractions offered
to the people of all grades and professions. The greatest extension
has been in the foreign trade, which, from small beginnings, now
amounts to more than nine hundred millions of dollars annually. Where
formerly a dozen or more vessels crept into Canton yearly, there are
now hundreds of ships and steamers traversing the ocean to and from
the accessible points of the coast of the great Eastern Empire.
America has a large share of this commerce with China, and from the
little beginning, in 1786, she has increased her maritime service,
until she now has a fleet of sailing ships second to none in the
world, and a line of magnificent steamers plying regularly across the
Pacific, and bringing the East in closer alliance with the West than
ever before.
[Illustration: CHINESE PUNISHMENT.]
Railways will naturally follow the steamboat, and an English company
is now arranging to supply the Chinese with a railway-system to
connect the principal cities, and especially to tap the interior
districts, where the water communications are limited. There is no
regular system of mail-communication in China; the Government
transmits intelligence by means of couriers, and when merchants have
occasion to communicate with persons at a distance they use private
expresses. Foreign and native merchants, doing an extensive business,
keep swift steamers, which they use as despatch-boats, and sometimes
send them at heavy expense to transmit single messages. It has
happened that, on a sudden change of markets, two or more houses in
Hong Kong or Shanghae have despatched boats at the same moment; and
some interesting and exciting races are recorded in the local
histories.
The barriers of Chinese exclusion were broken down when the treaties
of the past ten years opened the empire to foreigners, and placed the
name of China on the list of diplomatic and treaty powers. The last
stone of the wall that shut the nation from the outer world was
overthrown when the court at Pekin sent an embassy, headed by a
distinguished American, to visit the capitals of the Western nations,
and cement the bonds of friendship between the West and the East. It
was eminently fitting that an American should be selected as the head
of this embassy, and eminently fitting, too, that the ambassador of
the oldest nation should first visit the youngest of all the great
powers of the world. America, just emerged from the garments of
childhood, and with full pride and consciousness of its youthful
strength, presents to ruddy England, smiling France, and the other
members of the family of nations, graybeard and dignified China, who
expresses joy at the introduction, and hopes for a better acquaintance
in the years that are to come.
During his residence at Pekin, Mr. Burlingame interested himself in
endeavoring to introduce the telegraph into China, and though meeting
with opposition on account of certain superstitions of the Chinese, he
was ultimately successful. The Chinese do not understand the working
of the telegraph—at least the great majority of them do not—and like
many other people elsewhere, with regard to any thing incomprehensible,
they are inclined to ascribe it to a satanic origin. In California,
the Chinese residents make a liberal use of the telegraph; though
they do not trouble themselves with an investigation of its
workings, they fully appreciate its importance. John, in California,
is at liberty to send his messages in “pigeon-English,” and very
funny work he makes of it occasionally. Chin Lung, in Sacramento,
telegraphs to Ming Yup, in San Francisco, “You me send one piecee
me trunk,” which means, in plain language, “Send me my trunk.” Mr.
Yup complies with the request, and responds by telegraph, “Me you
trunkee you sendee.” The inventor of pigeon-English is unknown, and it
is well for his name that it has not been handed down; he deserves the
execration of all who are compelled to use the legacy he has left. It
is just as difficult for a Chinese to learn pigeon-English as it would
be to learn pure and honest English, and it is about as intelligible
as Greek or Sanscrit to a newly-arrived foreigner. In Shanghae or Hong
Kong, say to your Chinese _ma-foo_, who claims to speak English,
“Bring me a glass of water,” and he will not understand you. Repeat
your order in those words, and he stands dumb and uncomprehending, as
though you had spoken the dialect of the moon. But if you say, “You go
me catchee bring one piecee glass water; savey,” and his tawny face
beams intelligence as he obeys the order.
In the phrase, “pigeon-English,” the word pigeon means “business,”
and the expression would be more intelligible if it were
“business-English.” Many foreigners living in China have formed the
habit of using this and other words in their Chinese sense, and
sometimes one hears an affair of business called “a pigeon.” A
gentleman whom I met in China used to tell, with a great deal of
humor, his early experiences with the language.
“When I went to Shanghae,” said he, “I had an introduction to a
prominent merchant, who received me very kindly, and urged me to call
often at his office. A day or two later I called, and inquired for
him. ‘Won’t be back for a week or two,’ said the clerk; ‘he has gone
into the country, about two hundred miles, after a little pigeon.’ I
asked no questions, but as I bowed myself out, I thought, ‘He must be
a fool, indeed. Go two hundred miles into the country after a pigeon,
and a little one at that! He has lost his senses, if he ever possessed
any.’”
Nearly all the trade with China is carried on at the Southern and
Eastern ports, and comparatively few of the foreign merchants in China
have ever been at Pekin, which was opened only a few years ago. But
the war with the allied powers, the humiliation of the government, the
successes of the rebels, and the threatened extinction of the ruling
dynasty, led to important changes of policy. The treaty of Tientsin,
in 1860, opened the empire as it had never been open before.
Foreigners could travel in China where they wished, for business or
pleasure, and the navigable rivers were declared free to foreign
boats. Pekin was opened to travelers but not to foreign merchants; but
it is probable that commerce will be carried to that city before long.
There is an extensive trade at Tientsin, ninety miles south of the
capital, and when it becomes necessary to carry it to the doors of the
palace of the Celestial ruler, the diplomats will not be slow to find
a sufficient pretext for it.