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merchant  having  a  treasury  which  must  always  be  kept
stocked  with  specie,  an  individual  factory  having  frequently
over  a  million  dollars  on  hand  ;  only  the  East  India  Company
worked  its  India  and  its  China  trade  one  into  the  other,
and  drew  or  gave  bills  on  Bombay  or  Calcutta,  receiving
or  shipping  treasure  only  when  funds  were  not  sufficient
to  cover  its  bills.  To  some  extent  the  Dutch  India  Company ­
  could  do  the  same,  but  generally  the  movement  of
merchandise  from  the  Dutch  Indies  was  outward,  as  it  was
from  China.  This  course  was  not  open  to  others,  and  the
lading  of  a  ship  of  498  tons  which  left  New  York  for  Canton
in  1824  may  probably  be  taken  as  more  or  less  typical  ;
it  consisted  of  furs  (coal  to  Newcastle  !),  bar  and  scrap
iron  (probably  as  ballast),  lead  (required  for  packing  tea,
but  also  mined  in  China),  quicksilver  (in  demand,  import
779,600  lbs.  in  1868  and  156,000  lbs.  in  1905),  and  350,000
Spanish  dollars  in  kegs.  That  veracious  historian,  J.
Fenimore  Cooper,*  writing  in  1847  of  a  trade  of  which
he  had  some  knowledge,  describes  two  voyages  of  the
good  ship  Rancocus  in  1796  and  1798.  In  the  first  she
sailed  from  Philadelphia  to  Europe,  and  there  engaged  in
trade,  profitable  to  neutrals,  “  until  a  certain  sum  in  Spanish
dollars  (specie  was  scarce  in  America  at  that  time)  could  be
collected,  when  she  was  to...  make  the  best  of  her  way
to  Canton,”  and  load  tea.  In  the  second  she  sailed  for
the  South  Pacific  islands  with  “  trade  goods  ”  and  axes  to
pick  up  a  cargo  of  sandalwood  (with  some  misgivings  in
the  minds  of  her  owners  as  to  its  employment  for  idolatrous
purposes),  and,  after  an  interrupted  voyage,  arrived  in
Canton,  sold  her  sandalwood  at  good  prices,  bought  tea,
and  had  some  thousands  of  dollars  surplus,  also  spent  in
Canton,  but  for  another  purpose.  In  the  year  1831,  so
Hunter  informs  us,  three  ships,  arriving  from  New  York,
brought  with  them  $1,100,000  in  coin.  Even  as  late  as
1859,  a  year  in  which  the  imports  and  exports  of  merchandise
at  Shanghai  about  balanced,  the  import  of  treasure  at  that
port  through  foreign  channels  was  Tls.10,483,550  and  the
*  “  The  Crater.”