the last century reaped a rich harvest from this traffic. In Boston alone the foundation of large fortunes was laid in the Canton trade. A list of the names of its merchants having houses in that place will indicate this, among whom are found the well-known names of Perkins, Cabot, Sturgis, Forbes, Kussell, Cushing, and Coolidge.[1]
The attention of the first Congress of the United States assembled under the Constitution of 1787 was called to the importance of affording encouragement and protection to American commerce with China, and the second act passed by that body imposed a discriminating duty on tea and other goods imported in vessels other than those owned by American citizens. The interest of our merchants in that trade is also shown by petitions to Congress from New York, Philadelphia, and other cities, "praying the protection and encouragement of the general government, either by prohibiting foreigners from interfering in the trade, or making a greater distinction than now exists between the duties imposed upon goods imported immediately from Asia and those brought by the way of Europe."
Consul Shaw died in 1794, while en route to the United States on a visit, and was buried at sea off the Cape of Good Hope. He was succeeded by Samuel Snow. The business which seemed most to occupy the latter's attention, judging from the consular records in the Department of State, was obtaining the permission
- ↑ 3 Dip. Cor. 781; 25 N. A. Rev. 458, 464; Sturgis's Northwest Fur Trade, Hunt's Mag. xiv. 536, 537; Hist. Northwest Coast, Bancroft, 373, 376; 1 Forbes's Recollections, chaps. 3 and 4.
