Expanding Possibilities 351
especially in seeking trading and shipping information around the βirst
half of the nineteenth century. The only disappointment that might
befall readers is that the related documents have a strong bias toward
British trade with China and betray British determination to establish
formal trade relations with the Qing authorities. The question of the junk
trade only arose in their minds now and then, when the magnitude of
the Chinese carrying trade was thought to be a threat to British trade
interests. By and large, the western trading companies in Canton, the
British country traders on the China coast or the company personnel in
Southeast Asia were all likely to have been more intent on establishing
contacts with private Chinese traders.
Around the mid-nineteenth century, which is also the cut-off point of
the time period of this chapter, the fate of the junk trade seemed to be
at a crossroads. Four contemporary documents that speciβically describe
the state of the Chinese junk trade during the time will be referred to.
In May 1852, John Bowring, the then British Consul in Canton and
Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, was seeking information on
the foreign trade carried by Chinese junks that traded with the British
consular ports in China, his intention being to look into the prospect of
transferring the more valuable portion of this trade to foreign vessels.
Some six months later, Bowring received three reports on the matter
from his consular ofβicers in Canton, Shanghai and Foochow (Fuzhou).^11
One great disappointment was the absence of a response from the British
Consulate in Amoy, which was the home port of so many Chinese junks.
Probably this gap can be attributed to the ill-health of John Backhouse,
the ofβiciating Consul, and the lack of consular personnel to conduct
an adequate investigation.^12 Nevertheless, three comprehensive and
very informative surveys compiled by the Ofβiciating Consul Adam W.
Elmslie, Consular Interpreter Harry S. Parkes, both in Canton, and Consul
Rutherford Alcock in Shanghai made up to some extent for the seemingly
- Great Britain, Foreign Ofβice, FO 228/136, no. 151, Bowring to The Earl of
Malmesbury, 2.11.1852, and Enclosures. The author has published a preliminary
study of these documents; see Ng Chin-keong, “Challenge and Persistence:
Chinese Junk Trade Around 1850”, in Ajia Taiheyō Sekai to Chūgoku, Chūgoku
Ryōiki Kenkyū, no. 10 中国领域研究, 第 10 号, アジア太平洋世界と中国 [The
Asia-Paciβic and China, China Area Studies Series, no. 10], ed. Murata Yujiro and
Okamoto Masataka (Tokyo: Ministry of Education Speciβied Area Studies 113,
1998), pp. 7‒23. - John Blackhouse had ofβiciated as Consul in Amoy since Consul G.G. Sullivan’s
death. “No extra Vice Consul was appointed ... to assist Blackhouse.” See FO
228/149, “List of all Persons on the Fixed Establishments of the Superintendency
and Consulates in China on the First day of January 1853.”