THE NEW TREATY PORTS--FOOCHOW, AMOY, NINGPO.
Visit of Chinese commissioners to Hongkong -- A
supplementary treaty negotiated -- Chinese thereby obtain
control of junk trade of colony -- Vain efforts to recover
the lost ground -- New ports criticised -- Amoy -- Alcock's
temporary residence there, 1844 -- Interpreter Parkes --
Foochow -- Bad beginning -- Insolence of mandarin and mob
-- Lost ground recovered during Alcock's consulate -- His
family arrive -- Little trade -- Difficulties of diverting
the Bohea trade from old routes -- Alcock's commercial
reports -- Their grasp of salient points in a fresh range
of subjects.
It accorded with the fitness of things that the negotiator of the
treaty should remain to carry out its provisions. Sir Henry Pottinger
was appointed the first Governor of Hongkong, Chief Superintendent of
Trade, and Minister Plenipotentiary for Great Britain; Kiying and two
associates Imperial Commissioners for China. Intercourse between them
was of the most agreeable character. Though the wound to the pride of
China was deep and still fresh, the Imperial Commissioners' acceptance
of the new state of things exceeded what the most stoical philosophy
could call for. They came in person, on invitation, to the alienated
island, there to exchange the ratifications of the Nanking treaty;
entered heartily into the life of the community, showed great interest
in their nascent institutions, and "returned to Canton charmed with
English civilisation." China then was really converted, and Kiying the
patron saint of the young colony! That adroit Manchu, however, had a
purpose to serve by his effusive _bonhomie_: it was nothing less than
to undermine the treaty of Nanking.
So long as Sir Henry Pottinger was negotiating under the guns of her
Majesty's ships he was master of the situation, but when pitted
against the Chinese in the open field the position was reversed, for
they had definite aims and knew how to gain them. Arrangements were
found necessary for the conduct of trade at the five consular ports;
the relations between the colony of Hongkong and the empire of China,
as regards criminals, debtors, &c., required definition; and, more
important still, the native shipping frequenting its harbour had to be
regulated. The negotiations required for these purposes afforded
Kiying a favourable opportunity for giving effect to the reactionary
policy of the Chinese Government. The supplementary treaty was
negotiated at the Bogue between Sir Henry Pottinger and Kiying in
October 1843. The Chinese version seems to have been signed by the
British agent without his having before him a textual English
translation: by its provisions the Chinese authorities engaged to
protect the junk traffic in colonial waters. Sir Henry Pottinger did
not realise the kind of weapon he had thus placed in the hands of his
friends until its damaging effects were demonstrated by experience.
Then what had been lost by diplomacy was sought to be partially
regained by persuasion. To this end strenuous efforts were made by
successive governors of Hongkong to induce Kiying to forego some of
the powers which had been inadvertently conferred on him, as their
exercise was proving ruinous to the trade of the island. But as this
result was precisely what had been intended by the Chinese, nothing
short of another war would have moved them to yield a single point.
His hesitation to exercise the right of entry into the city of Canton
conferred by the treaty of Nanking, while allowing the Chinese the
full advantage of the concessions gained by them under the
supplementary treaty, must likewise be held as a blemish on the policy
of Sir Henry Pottinger. The best palliation of these errors of the
first treaty-maker is perhaps to be found in the fact that his
successors, with many years of actual experience to guide them, have
fallen into the same errors of both omission and commission.
In other respects Sir Henry Pottinger's arrangements for giving effect
to the treaty seem to have been as practical as the untried
circumstances would allow.
[Illustration: THE LAKES, NINGPO.]
The opening of the new ports, with the exception of Shanghai, was
unfavourably commented upon by a section of the English press, not
perhaps unwilling to score a point against the "Tory Government, which
was alone answerable for the treaty of Nanking." They denounced the
opening of so many ports on the ground that it would only multiply
points of collision with the Chinese. Three years later the 'Times'
pronounced "Amoy, Foochow, and Ningpo as good for nothing as places of
trade," while Hongkong itself was equally despised as a commercial
colony. Some of the journals resuscitated the idea which had been
freely discussed during the years preceding the war, and advocated the
acquisition in sovereignty of islands as emporia instead of ports on
the mainland, and it is worthy of remark that the same idea was again
revived by Mr Cobden twenty years later. "Get two other small
islands," he said in 1864; "merely establish them as free ports" on
the model of Hongkong. And this with a view to superseding the treaty
ports on the coast, where trade had been established for twenty years.
Three of the new ports--Shanghai, Ningpo, and Amoy--were opened under
Sir Henry Pottinger's auspices in 1843; Foochow in 1844. These places,
distributed at approximately equal intervals along the coast-line of
1000 miles between Shanghai and Canton, were not chosen at random.
They had all been at one time or another entrepots of foreign commerce
with either Europe, Southern Asia, or Japan. Foochow had been many
years before strongly recommended by one of the East India Company's
tea-tasters as most desirable for the shipment of tea. An expedition
equipped by the Company under Mr Hamilton Lindsay, who, like the other
servants of the Company, was versed in the Chinese language, visited
the northern coast in the chartered ship Amherst in 1832, and gained
the first authentic information concerning the commercial capabilities
of Shanghai. Mr Gutzlaff, who acted as secretary and coadjutor to Mr
Lindsay's mission, made several adventurous voyages, including one in
Chinese disguise, in a native junk, to Tientsin. Though the coast had
not yet been surveyed, and navigation was in consequence somewhat
dangerous, a good deal of fairly accurate information, some of it
already obsolete, was by these means placed at the disposal of those
who made the selection of the treaty ports. Ningpo was noted for its
literary culture, for the respectability and intelligence of its
inhabitants, and their friendly disposition towards foreigners. But
although it was the entrepot of a flourishing coasting trade, the
shallowness of its river, the want of anchorage at its embouchure, and
its vicinity to Shanghai, combined to preclude the growth of foreign
commerce at the port of Ningpo.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE FIRST CONSULAR RESIDENCE AT FOOCHOW.]
It was to Foochow that Mr Alcock was appointed in 1844, by Mr Davis
(as he then was), who had recently succeeded Sir Henry Pottinger. The
new consul, however, made his actual _début_ at Amoy, where he was
detained for four months, from November 1844 to March 1845, acting for
the titular consul at that port. There he at once displayed that
energy and clear-sightedness which were to become so conspicuous in
his subsequent career. Two important matters had to be arranged within
the period named--the evacuation of the island of Kulangsu by the
British garrison and the future residence of the consul. Trifling as
this last may seem, it was a matter of no small consideration in
China, where, to paraphrase Polonius, the dwelling oft proclaims the
man. It was one of the innumerable devices of the Chinese authorities
for degrading new-comers in the eyes of the populace to force them to
live, as at Canton, within a confined space or in squalid tenements.
Mr Alcock knew by instinct the importance of prestige, while his
Peninsular training had taught him the value of sanitation.
Following these two guiding stars, he overbore the obstruction of the
officials, and not only obtained a commodious site but had a house
built to his own specification during his temporary incumbency of the
office. That, and his general bearing towards the authorities, stamped
on the Amoy consulate the impress of dignity which has never been
wholly effaced. He was most fortunate, it must be allowed, in his
instruments, chiefly in the interpreter whom he found at Amoy, a man,
or rather a boy--for he was only sixteen--entirely after his own
heart. That was Harry Parkes, one of the bravest and best of our
empire-builders. It is indeed to the journals and letters of Sir Harry
Parkes, edited by Mr Stanley Lane-Poole, and to notes supplied for
that biography by Sir Rutherford Alcock himself in 1893, that we are
chiefly indebted for the record of their joint proceedings at Amoy,
Foochow, and to some extent also Shanghai, from 1844 to 1848. The
consul made a favourable first impression on the young interpreter,
who described him in a family letter as "tall but slimly made,
standing about six feet in his boots; ... very gentlemanly in his
manners and address, and exceedingly polite." It was not, however,
till he reached his proper post, Foochow, that the mettle of the new
consul and interpreter was seriously tested.
Foochow was of superior rank to the other two ports, being, like Canton,
at once a provincial capital and the seat of a governor-general or
viceroy of two provinces--namely, Fukien and Chêkiang--and possessing
a Manchu garrison. The Chinese Government was believed to have been
most reluctant to open Foochow as a trading port at all, which seemed
reason enough for the British negotiators insisting on its being
opened. Its trade was small, which perhaps rendered the port the more
suitable for the experimental purpose of testing the principles which
were to govern the new intercourse.
As the leading occurrences there have been set forth at some length by
Mr Stanley Lane-Poole in the above-mentioned work, there is the less
reason for us to linger over details. We find that on arrival at the
end of March 1845 Mr Alcock discovered that he had not to maintain,
but to regain, the prestige which had already been lost at Foochow.
Canton was, in fact, repeating itself both as regards the arrogance of
the Chinese and the acquiescence of British officials. Exclusion from
the city and various other indignities had been imposed on the consul,
who, on his part, had followed the course which had proved so fatal at
Canton of currying favour by submission. Living in a shed,[14] where
Mr Davis on a flying visit was ashamed to receive return calls from
the native authorities, keeping up no great state, afraid even to
hoist his consular flag for fear of hurting the feelings of the
Chinese, the consul soon brought upon himself and his nationals the
inevitable consequences of his humility. Mob violence and outrages,
encouraged at first by the authorities in order to cow the foreigners,
had attained dimensions which at last alarmed the authorities
themselves, all within two years of the opening of the port. Mr Alcock
set himself sternly to oppose this downward current, but a year
elapsed before the violence of the people and the studied rudeness of
the officials were finally stamped out. For, curiously enough, as Mr
Lane-Poole has so well pointed out, every outrage in Canton found its
echo at Foochow, showing clearly where lay the "centre of
disturbance," as our meteorologists express it.
In the end, however, the ascendancy of the British authority was
completely achieved. The consul and the interpreter between them
succeeded in getting proud Tartars put in the common pillory and
lesser ruffians severely flogged, while before they left Foochow in
1846 they had extorted from the authorities substantial pecuniary
compensation for injuries sustained by British subjects. The credit of
these vigorous measures no doubt belonged in the first instance to Sir
John Davis, the chief superintendent, who had been so struck with the
deplorable condition of things on his first official visit to the port
in 1844 that he empowered the new consul to find the remedy. The
effect of this resolute policy on the mandarins was as prompt and
natural as the effect of the submissive policy had been, and it is
instructive to read the testimony of Sir John Davis that, after
redress had been exacted, "the consul was on the best terms with the
local authorities," which is the perpetual lesson taught in all our
dealings with the Chinese.
Foochow is distinguished among the coast ports of China by the beauty
and even grandeur of its scenery and the comparative salubrity of its
climate. The city itself contains above half a million of people,
covers an extensive area on the left bank of the river Min, and is
connected with the foreign quarter by a stone bridge of forty-five
"arches," which are not arches but spaces between the piers on which
huge granite slabs are laid horizontally, forming the roadway. The
houses and business premises of the merchants, the custom-house and
foreign consulates, are all now situated on Nantai, an island of some
twenty miles in circumference, which divides the main stream of the
Min from its tributary, the Yungfu. In the early days the British
consulate was located within the walled city, in the grounds of a
Buddhist temple, three miles from the landing-place and business
quarter on Nantai, and approached through narrow and exceedingly
foul-smelling streets.
Mrs Alcock joined her husband as soon as tolerable accommodation could
be prepared for her, and being the first foreign lady who had set foot
in the city, her entry excited no small curiosity among the people. A
year later Mrs and Miss Bacon, Mrs Alcock's mother and sister, were
added to the family party, and though curiosity was still keen, they
were safely escorted through the surging crowd to their peaceful
_enclave_ in the heart of the city. The situation was suggestive of
monastic life. Being on high ground the consulate commanded a superb
mountain view, with the two rivers issuing from their recesses and the
great city lying below forming a picturesque foreground, while in the
middle distance the terraced rice-fields showed in their season the
tenderest of all greens. The circumstances were conducive to the
idyllic life of which we get a glimpse in the biography of Sir Harry
Parkes, who shared it. He speaks in the warmest terms of the kindness
he received from Mr and Mrs Alcock, who tended him through a fever
which, but for the medical skill of the consul--no other professional
aid being available--must have ended fatally. They helped him with
books, enlarged his field of culture, and there is no doubt that daily
intercourse with this genial and accomplished family did much to
supply the want of that liberal education from which the boy had been
untimely cut adrift. The value of such parental influence to a lad who
had left school at thirteen can hardly be over-estimated, and he did
not exaggerate in writing, "I can never repay the Alcocks the lasting
obligations I am under to them."
[Illustration: BRIDGE OVER RIVER MIN.]
During the first few years there was practically no foreign trade at
Foochow except in opium, which was conducted from a sea base beyond
port limits, a trade which was invisible alike to Chinese and British
authorities in the sense in which harlequin is invisible to clown and
pantaloon. The spasmodic attempts which were made to open up a market
for British manufactures met with no encouragement, for only one
British merchant maintained a precarious existence, and the question
of abandoning the port was mooted. The prospect of commercial
development at Foochow depended on its vicinity to that classic centre
of the tea cultivation, the famous Bohea range, about 250 miles to the
westward, whose name, however, was used to cover many inferior
products. Ten years more elapsed before this advantageous position was
turned to practical account, owing to the serious obstacles that stood
in the way of changing the established trade route to Canton and the
absence of aggressive energy sufficient to overcome them. Through the
enterprise of an American merchant in alliance with Chinese, Foochow
began to be a shipping port for tea about the year 1853, growing year
by year in importance until it rivalled Canton and Shanghai. But as
its prosperity has always rested on the single article, the fortunes
of the port have necessarily fallen with the general decay of the
Chinese tea trade.
Apart from the task of putting the official intercourse on a good
working basis, of maintaining order between the few foreigners,
residents, and visitors, and the native population, the consular
duties at a port like Foochow were necessarily of the lightest
description. But it was not in Mr Alcock's nature to make a sinecure
of his office. He was a stranger to the country, about which he had
everything to learn. He was surrounded by problems all of great
interest, and some of them pressing urgently for solution, and he had
to make a success of his port or "know the reason why." Among the
fruits of his labours during the latter part of his term at Foochow
are a series of commercial reports, partly published by Government,
which bear witness to exhaustive research into every circumstance
having any bearing on the genesis of trade, and applying to those
local, and to him absolutely novel, conditions the great root
principles which are of universal validity. Considering how alien to
his previous experience was the whole range of such subjects, his at
once grappling with them and firmly seizing their salient features
showed a mind of no common capacity. For there was nothing perfunctory
about those early treatises; on the contrary, they were at once more
polished and more profound than most things of the same kind which
have appeared during the subsequent half century. The principal
generalisations of recent commentators on the trade of China were in
fact set forth in the three Foochow consular reports of 1845-46, while
many supposed new lights which the discussions of the last few years
have shed on Chinese character and methods had been already displayed,
and in a more perfect form, in the buried records of the
superintendency of trade in China.
[Illustration: THE SECOND CONSULAR RESIDENCE AT FOOCHOW, 1848.]
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTE:
[14] "Mr Lay, who has been officiating as consul for some weeks, has
been located in a miserable house built on piles on a mud flat, apart
from the city, and above the bridge, where the tide, as it ebbs and
flows, daily sweeps up to his door; and all efforts to obtain even
decent accommodation in the city, where he is entitled to demand it,
or in any but this pestilent locality, have been in vain."--'Times'
Correspondent, Hongkong, October 22, 1844.