FOREIGN  TRADE

281

they  had  to  keep  well  with  the  officials  at  Canton,  especially
their  over-lord,  the  Hoppo  ;  and  every  one  who  knows
China  knows  that  they  had  to  gain  and  keep  the  good  will
of  every  subordinate  of  every  official,  down  to  the  humblest
gate-keeper.  When  Canton  submitted  in  1841  to  pay  a
ransom  of  $6,000,000,  the  Hong  merchants  contributed
from  their  private  means  $2,000,000.  And  yet  the  best
known  among  them,  Howqua,  himself  stated  in  1834,  nine
years  before  his  death,  that  his  estate  was  valued  at
$26,000,000,  a  great  fortune  for  those  days,  probably
the  largest  mercantile  fortune  in  the  world.
Up  to  1834  China  was  the  admitted  master  of  the
situation.  China  it  was  that  laid  down  the  terms  on  which
alone  foreign  trade  was  permitted,  and  foreign  nations,
represented  by  the  trading  interests  alone,  accepted  those
terms  and  submitted  to  them  without  a  murmur  ;  while
the  traders  themselves  were  quite  content,  at  Canton  as
at  Nagasaki,  to  accept  a  position  of  recognised  inferiority
so  long  as  their  trade  was  profitable.  The  arrival  of  Lord
Napier  as  British  Envoy  introduced  another  question,  that
of  equality  between  sovereign  powers,  and  on  this  the
Chinese  were  stubborn  ;  and  a  further  element  was  thrown
into  the  crucible  by  the  suddenly  revived  but  undoubtedly
honest  prohibition  sentiment  of  the  Imperial  Court  towards
opium.  The  contest  lasted  for  twenty-six  years,  from
1834  to  i860,  and  had  behind  it  four  main  elements  of
strife—
ist,  The  claim  for  equality  of  treatment  as  between
nations  :  this  was  settled  by  the  British  treaty  of  1842,
and  finally  settled  in  i860.
2nd,  The  opium  question  :  this,  in  their  treaty  of  1842,
imposed  at  the  cannon’s  mouth,  the  British  left  alone,  and
it  was  finally  settled  incidentally  by  the  inclusion  of  opium
in  the  tariffs  annexed  simultaneously  to  all  the  treaties
of  1858.
3rd,  The  monopoly  of  the  Co-Hong  and  the  irregular
incidence  of  taxation  :  this  was  settled  in  1842.
4th,  Security  to  foreigners  for  life,  limb,  andjproperty.