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A. Bhattacharya - Canton Trade System
A. Bhattacharya - Canton Trade System
HISTORY
Subject : History
(For under graduate student)
Script
Canton Trade
From the mid-18th century China’s commercial relations
with the Western merchants were established around the
port-city of Canton, which at that time was the only port
officially opened to Western merchants. Canton Trade drew
its name from the city of Canton. The hong merchants
under the direct control of the imperial authorities formed
their trading firms known as the cohong. The quantity of
the commodities to be made available in the market, the
price to be fixed for their sale etc. was decided by the
cohong. Recently, however, Yen-Ping Hao in his book ‘The
Commercial Revolution in 19th Century China’ has argued
that the cohong was far from being a monopoly concern like
the East India Company and that it did not exercise any all-
round control over products.
The hong merchants were entrusted with the duty of
looking after the business activities of the foreign traders
and thereby amassed huge wealth. There was much
demand for Chinese silk and tea in the Western world; the
American and British merchants bought those goods in
large quantities. Areas inside the city were designated for
foreign merchants to carry on their business activities. In
History of China and Japan
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HISTORY
Subject : History
(For under graduate student)
SUMMARY