We had no custom-house business to attend to; our inward cargoes were landed and stored, and our outward ones shipped off, by the Linguists, to whom we had but to intimate in which Hong the former should be landed or the ship to which the latter were to be sent. All merchandise was purchased at long price, and all sold at short price; this was the rule, and saved us an infinity of trouble. We were under no apprehension as to the outturn of the quality or weight of the teas and silks which we shipped. The ingenious process of augmenting the brilliancy of tea by a clever facing of 'Prussian blue' or 'Chinese yellow,' of adding to the bulk by an admixture of chopped willow or elm leaves, of increasing its weight by iron filings, was not yet practised by those 'heathen Chinee.' Possibly the absence of these 'industries' formed a very primitive mode of carrying on business!
On the other hand, we were obliged to make our own ink (out of powders from England), in which we resembled the Jews, who arrived in China and settled at Kae-Fung-Foo any time between B.C. 1122 and 249! Historians have not settled this point, but they have ascertained that, whenever it might have been, 'those people used split bamboos for pens, and at the Feast of Tabernacles made sufficient ink for the ensuing year'! Our letters and shipping documents were despatched under wafer or seal, as no such thing as envelopes yet existed (they had been in use in China for centuries!), nor did we enjoy the luxury of postage-stamps. Moreover every consignee of a ship was his own 'post office' for all letters brought out by her, and he delivered them to suit his own convenience. I have known cases in which outward letters were delivered when the vessel that brought them was outside the Bogue, homeward bound. This custom of not always delivering letters on the arrival of a ship from the United States was mutually understood, and considered as the privilege of any house. It can easily be imagined that a New York firm, in sending the 'Huntress' to a market 12,000 miles away for a valuable cargo, might suffer greatly in its interests if she carried letters from a rival house deliverable on arrival, informing its correspondent that it should despatch the 'Levant' shortly, give him particulars of her outward cargo and orders for a return one. Thus very reasonably, letters were detained until the agent of a ship had concluded his purchases—at least he had the privilege of detaining them. There was, of course, the chance of the passage out, and the difference that might result to the quickest ship.
When a ship had anchored at Whampoa, the pilot reported her arrival to the Hoppo through a branch Hoppo station at that place. This would be done, not by giving the name of the ship, but that of the captain. Two boats were then made fast to her, to see that no smuggling was carried on; they were attached one on each quarter. Meanwhile the agent would select a Hong merchant to become 'security' for her and a Linguist to transact her business with the Hoppo's office, to send boats to bring her cargo to Canton, and to take to Whampoa her outward cargo, and these were all the 'official' duties that the agent had to attend to.
Before she could open hatches, the formality of 'Cumsha and Measurement' had to be gone through. The first word signifies 'present,' and was a payment made by the earliest foreign vessels for the privilege of entering the port; and the second is equivalent to tonnage duties. On a day of which notice was given to the agent, a specially appointed mandarin from the Hoppo's office was sent on board, attended by pursers and numerous servants. He was always received with some ceremony, and regaled with wine and biscuit. As with all the officials, they were men of a good deal of dignity and ease of manner. The captain would receive him at the gangway, while all hands were rigged out in their 'Sunday suits.' After the ordinary salutations, enquiries as to the passage out, &c., the measurement would be made by one of the attendants attaching the end of a measured tape to the forward part of the rudder head and running it to the after part of the foremast, then calling out the length, which others would note in writing; the breadth was then taken amidships close abaft the mainmast, between the plankshears, which being booked, a calculation was made of the dimensions for duty. As the details were peculiar I give those of the ship 'Maria' (Captain Evans), of New York, whose tonnage was about 420 (Canton, June 1830).
| Length, 67 covids; breadth 22; total | ||
| 147-4/10 covids. Deducting one-fifth | ||
| according to the regulations for | ||
| second-class ships. Equal to taels[54] | 842.2.8.5 | |
| Loss in converting into Sycee-silver | 75.8.0.6 | |
| For work of converting, 1/5 per cent. | 15.1.6.1 | |
| Cumsha | 810.6.9.1 | |
| ————— | ||
| 1,743.9.4.3 | ||
| The Hoppo's 'opening barrier fee' | 480.42.0 | |
| ————— | ||
| 2,224.3.6.3 | ||
| Transport to Pekin and weighing in | ||
| Government scales | 150.1.4.5 | |
| To the Superintendent of the Treasury | 116.42.4 | |
| Add 1-1/10 per cent. converting into Sycee | 1.2.8.0 | |
| ————— | ||
| 2,492.2.1.2 | ||
| Difference in weights between Canton and | ||
| Pekin, 7 per cent. | 174.4.5.5 | |
| At 72 per dollar, are $5,092-59/100 | Taels 3,666.6.6.7 | |
| =========== |
Vessels coming to Whampoa with rice only were subject to the modified port charges of $1,150 up to the year 1833, but in that year, owing to a great famine that existed, they were done away with. The Viceroy Loo then issued a lengthy proclamation, in which the Hong merchants were ordered to make known the cessation of those charges to 'all the foreign barbarians,' 'who would leap for joy, and go backward and forward in search of rice cargoes.'
The 'Cumsha and Measurement' having been duly disposed of, a permit was granted for 'opening hatches,' and the unloading went on uninterruptedly. The outward cargo was then shipped off, and the vessel ready for sea. Tea ships exclusively met with no great delay at Whampoa—on the average about three months—but if silks constituted her homeward lading, frequently six months passed before they were ready. It then happened that not a solitary foreign vessel remained at the anchorage; I have seen this to occur on several occasions.