vessel arrived. Consul Shaw says that "on the whole, the situation of the Europeans is not enviable, … and it must be allowed that they dearly earn their money."[1]
The American commerce with Canton, the only port in China with which any trade was permitted, soon assumed considerable proportions. The second year after the first vessel reached Canton, 1786, five American merchant ships arrived in port, and three years later, 1789, fifteen, which made the trade of the United States second only to that of Great Britain. In 1800 twenty-three American vessels visited Canton, and the value of their export cargoes was $2,500,000; and in 1801 thirty-four vessels with exports valued at $3,700,000. For the year 1805, the exports to the United States from Canton amounted to $5,300,000, and the imports to $5,100,000, and for the four years ending with 1807, the exports averaged annually $4,200,000, and the imports $4,100,000, and the average arrival of vessels was thirty-six.[2] The entire commerce of the United States at that period was comparatively small, and the trade with China constituted a very considerable part of it, and was relatively much greater then than at the present day; but the foregoing figures may give a somewhat exaggerated idea of the aggregate trade. No statistics are available in the Treasury Department
- ↑ 3 Dip. Cor. 781; 1 The Chinese, Davis, 34; 2 Chinese Repository, 301, 302; 1 Letters and Recollections of John M. Forbes, Boston, 1899, p. 86; 2 Remarks on China and the Chinese Trade, by R. B. Forbes, Boston, 1844. For account of Macao, An Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China, by A. L. Jungstedt, Boston, 1836.
- ↑ Statistical View of U. S., Pitkin, 246; 2 Hist. China, Gutzlaff, 270, and tables of appendix; 2 Chinese Repository, 300.
