stamped permit) would be granted to each ship to proceed to Whampoa to trade. By the year 1715, a regular routine had been established and British ships now began to omit the visit to Macao and to proceed, on arrival in Chinese waters, straight to the Bogue, where, after anchoring for some days, everything was settled by the Supercargoes as above.
A new change was made in the conduct of the foreign trade in the year 1720, when an ad valorem duty of 4 per cent. was laid on all imports and exports and a Committee of Chinese merchants, henceforth known as the Co-Hong, was substituted in place of the one Emperor's Merchant. But this Committee was likewise placed under the supervision of the Hoppo, and, as before, made answerable to the Viceroy and Governor for all dues on trade. These Co-Hong Merchants were as a body solidarily responsible for the solvency of each member of the Co-Hong, both as regards indebtedness towards the foreign merchants and as regards the share of the Provincial Authorities in their profits. Moreover they were responsible, as a body, for the payment of all fees and duties by every foreign ship, and even for any offences or crimes committed by the ships' officers or crews. By an Imperial Edict (A.D. 1722) they were also commissioned to levy an import duty on opium, amounting to 3 taels per picul.
This system was nominally improved upon by the introduction (A.D. 1725) of a fixed tariff. Upon this measure the Imperial Authorities at Peking had insisted to enable them better to gauge the proper amount of their own share in the profits of this flourishing foreign trade. Nevertheless, the publication of the tariff failed to do away with the previous system of bribery and corruption, as both the Hoppo's officers and the Co-Hong looked upon the tariff only as the minimum basis of their own accounts with the Provincial and Imperial Governments. Consequently they systematically exacted from the foreign ships as much over and above the tariff charges as they could possibly screw out of them.
