Expanding Possibilities 367
prosperity of the port city. He describes Amoy and its inhabitants in the
following words:
Its excellent harbour has made it ... one of the greatest emporiums
of the empire, and one of the most important markets of Asia....
Endowed with an enterprising spirit and unwearied in the pursuits
of gain ..., they ... visited and settled in the Indian Archipelago,
Cochin-China, and Siam.... The natives of this district seem to be
born traders and sailors....^56Another great emporium along the China coast was Canton, where all
sorts of products were available. Although the native Cantonese were not
active in the seafaring activities, their local industries allowed them to
conduct very extensive trade in the inland provinces. As Harry Parkes
comments, “the people of Canton are fully alive to the advantages of
commerce, but ... prefer to invest their speculations in inland, rather than
in maritime channels. They are to be met with at Soochow [Suzhou], at
Peking [Beijing], or at the chief entrepots of the centre and west.”^57 The
city sent large quantities of inexpensive local manufactured goods and
foreign imports to these places. The most constant import from India
was low-cost cotton that offered low-rate raw materials to thousands
of local handicraft manufacturers. Their products were sold all over the
country. The local lapidary industry that cut all sorts of precious stones,
including cornelian, agate, topaz, and worked in pearls, making beads
and other trinkets especially bracelets, enjoyed the highest reputation
in the country. Its annual sales amounted to several million dollars.
Moreover, Canton glass also found its way throughout the country and
this branch of industry engaged thousands of producers. The Canton
manufacturers even exported their elegant furniture to other countries.^58
Just as extensive was the silk industry that, as Edmund Roberts reported,
had a workforce of 17,000.^59
Besides the goods they exported to the interior, they also brought
in all sorts of commodities. Large quantities of rice from Guangxi were
transported via the tributaries of the Pearl River. Cassia was another
item fetched from there. The imports from Yunnan included such metals
as copper, lead, zinc, and tin, as well as precious stones and betel-nut.
- Charles Gutzlaff, Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of China in 1831, 1832,
1833 (orig., 1834; reprint, Taipei: Cheng Wen chubanshe, 1968), pp. 173‒4,
192‒3. - Harry Parkes in FO 228/136, no. 151, John Bowring to The Earl of Malmesbury,
2.11.1852, Encl. 10, pp. 54b‒55a. - Anon., “A Dissertation”, pp. 30‒1.
- Edmund Roberts, Embassy to the Eastern Courts, pp. 119‒21.