COMPANY AND PRIVATE TRADE AT CANTON, 1817-33

Unfortunately for the student seeking statistical clarity the trade between India and China was never quite co-extensive with that of the private merchants. Not only did the Company continue to import to Canton some Indian goods on its own account, but the private merchants hired tonnage on the Company's ships as well as using the private ‘Country’ ships; while the early J.M. papers reveal occasions, admittedly rare, where the Company availed itself of space in the private ships. In some years, indeed, to encourage the Country trade the Company granted free tonnage on its ships to private merchants; thus in 1788, out of 61,632 piculs of Indian raw cotton taken to China on Company ships, only 3,300 piculs were on Company account. This was, however, an exceptional year in which the Company's servants admitted ‘we were utterly incapable of supplying the deficiency from our own resources’. Furthermore, after 1821 Country ships often made several unrecorded journeys a year to illicit ‘outer’ anchorages (see Chapter III). These considerations affect the interpretation of the statistics of the Old Canton Trade; because the familiar lists compiled by Morse and other of ‘Company’ ships and ‘Country’ ships at Canton do not provide that precise picture of British and India trade with China which is intended. To add to the confusion, the ‘privilege’ trade of the Company's marine officers, mainly in all kinds of minor articles with which the Company did not wish to trouble itself, is called by most writers ‘Private trade’.