|
| |
TRADE RELATIONS BETWEEN SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS AND CHINA.
Term Paper ID:30502
|
|
|
Essay Subject:
Discusses the influence of the China trade on Salem.... More...
|
10 Pages / 2250 Words
6 sources, 6 Citations,
APA Format
$40.00
Return to List of Papers
|
Paper Abstract:
Discusses the influence of the China trade on Salem. History of 17th and early 18th Centuries of Salem shipbuilding. Connection to Hong Kong merchants. Using Opium as currency in China. Economic impact of profits from trade with the Orient on U.S. Government and Salem merchants. Importance of Nathan Bowditch's mesuring devices to the shipping trade.
Paper Introduction:
Introduction
Salem, Massachusetts is best known, historically, for
its witch trials. What is less known about the village, and
what is of far more importance, is the impact that the sea
had upon the village. There was a confluence of events that
made Salem a natural seaport. First, and most important was
fair and natural leeward harbor. Second was a close
proximity to Boston, which had a burgeoning sea economy of
its own. Third was land that was rich in timber providing
the lumber for ship building. Fourth was a strong merchant
base, since the town attracted and nurtured mercantile
families such as the Peabody's, the Perkins, the
Crowinshields and the Cabots (Albion, 1978).
The reasons for the Salem-China nexis are not as clear
cut. This paper will exami
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
The first docks were built inSalem in the 167 s but no commercial trade of any sortfollowed, partially b cause of the unfavorable rumors ofwitchcraft. Derby has handpicked his captain, one Samuel Shaw because of his greatsailing skills, but more importantly, for his fightingskills. Bowditch create a series of elegant clocks that woulddetermine the correct longitude and give seafarers a way tocontrol their destiny at sea. The American Heritage Historyof Seafaring America. TheBritish had been bringing in Opium purchased in Turkey, andto keep a steady market, thought that addicting the Asianswould be a sound business venture. Fourth was a strong merchantbase, since the town attracted and nurtured mercantilefamilies such as the Peabody's, the Perkins, theCrowinshields and the Cabots (Albion, 1978). Laing, Alexander (1974). Likewise, Derby was a loyalcitizen of Salem and he saw the wisdom of opening upchannels of trade between China and Salem. On June 3 , 17841, the ship returned to Salem and itscargo of precious teas, spices, silks, and ceramics wereunloaded. And from the families of Salem came a young inventor,Nathan Bowditch who came up with an idea that wouldeventually revolutionize seafaring but made the tripbetween Canton and Salem completely error-free, cuttingseven months off of the "trip. Then he went tosea and while at sea began trying to deal with the problemof longitude. One scholar of Bowditch explains it likethis: Determining approximate latitude was fairly easily done, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. Third was land that was rich in timber providingthe lumber for ship building. Norton & Co. Second was a closeproximity to Boston, which had a burgeoning sea economy ofits own. The Perkins brothers, James, Thomas and SamuelPerkins, took over their father's shipping interests whenhe died in 1773 and e brothers were quick to negotiatemany deals with Derby and with another Salem emigree,Joseph Peabody. New York: Checkmark Books Chapelle, Howard I. Inaddition to shipbuilding, there were many chandlers, sailmakers and so on, as ell as constant pass through ofitinerant and wayfaring strangers. Long-distance voyages, such as those made by Christopher Columbus, were achievable by sailing du west from Europe, thus maintaining a constant latitude, and returning in the same fashion. New York: W.W. Early Salem Salem was found in of 1626 as the village of Naumkeag byRoger Conant, who was scouting for areas away from Bostonwhere he could earn his fortune. Somesources estimate tha1 in today's dollars, his cash andtrade positions would have a value of about $3 billion. This was primarily because Salemwas close to Boston, but not considered as political,thereby attracting seafaring families that wanted todevelop trade without too much interference from the law. The Canton ConnectionShaw was empowered to establish trade relations withCanton, China, and he carried with him a cargo of wines andopium. One historian describes itthis way: External trade was heavily regulated as the Chinese, suspicious of Europeans and Americans alike, had ruled that these foreigners had to conduct all their China trade through Canton and even there, they were limited to trading and negotiating with a small number of Chinese intermediaries, known as the Hong merchants, such as Howqua, Mowqua or Kingqua, men who extracted huge fortunes .from international trade (Bruce & Cogar, 1998). It is to Derby's credit as a capitalist that hedecided to share the wealth with his fellow Salemmerchants. (1978), Five Centuries of FamousShips: From the Santa Maria to the Glomar Explorer. It was, but the drugalso created so many problems that the Chinese Emperorwanted to control it ( and also profit from it ). Hehad heard of the fabled Hong merchants and theirshipbuilding expertise. After the War withEngland, several merchants on the East Coast continued tobuild trade routes with foreign countries, and much of thistrade developed in Salem. This caused an increase in shipping, and Salemresponded by establishing several shipbuilding yards. Salem, Massachusetts: Marine ResearchSociety. In this position, he was able to negotiate many finedeals that gave exclusive rights to Chinese products toDerby's company. Robert Morris, who wasone of the first organizers of the United States Treasuryand the Bank of the United States, was the principalinvestor and his company was empowered to also explore thepossibility of trade relations with the Orient. He worked a deal with the Perkins family tocreate the American China Trading House, the Great IndiaTea Company, and other trading companies that would reshipgoods imported to Salem to Europe. New York: American HeritagePublishing Company, 1974. Bruce, Anthony, and William Cogar(1998), AnEncyclopedia of Naval History. Thiswill divide the paper into the following sections: EarlySalem; Early Ships; The Canton connection; The moon andStars; and, The Glory Fades. By the mid 16 's tradewith the West Indies developed, favored by the NavigationActs of 166 and 1663 which gave the American colonies avirtual monopoly on such trade(Bruce & Cogar, 1998). When the possibility ofselling Opium to the Chinese became apparent, the Britishdemanded that they be allowed to sell. H. He insisted that all negotiations with foreign devilsmust be handled by a group of ministers and priests andonly in the seaport of Canton. One of the Perkins'descendants in 1894 loaned the start up capital to John D.Rockefeller who wanted to start the oil company that becameStandard Oil. Soon he recognized that they containederrors that had potentially fatal consequences for marinerswho relied on them (Matthews, 193 ). Perkins & Co prospered andbecame one of the largest trading concerns of mercantileAmerica. And the only way to do this was to not getlost, which was an amazing problem for ancient mariners. Also, while at sea, during his early voyages,Bowditch used and studied the lunar tables in use in themost popular treatise of the day, John Moore's NewPractical Navigator. He basicallywent empty-handed, but carried with him a noble plan. He had agood mind, was good at math, and was soon allowed access tothe town's library of European scientific writings, all ofwhich, unfortunately, were in Latin and French. What these Hong needed was someone to screenout those who meant evil. Between 1811 and 183 , the company has beenthought to be the primary force in Chinese-Americanrelations. When Shaw's ship first landed in Canton (across theharbor from what is now Hong Kong) China was extremelysuspicious of all westerners for a simple reason. Shaw was so successful dealing with these Hongmerchants, men who also had great numbers of killers intheir employ, that he managed to negotiate severalinteresting deals for his boss, Derby, back in Salem. Not only didtaxes and duties collected from this trade help fund thegovernment of the United States, the profits from theseventures helped created numerous American fortunes. By 1179 , when Salem was the ninth largestcity in the United States, Derby was the richest man. In the Peabody museumtoday (legacy of one the great shipping fortunes foundedin Salem) one can still see many of Bowditch's measuringdevices. he notion of longitude is slightly more artificial than latitude; it is not defined in relation to a point that can be located as easily as a single star (Chapelle, 1935, 1 9) . In fact, many Britishsympathizers lived in Salem and these men saw no problem indealing with the British when there was money to be made(Bruce & Cogar, 1998). He made corrections toMoore's tables and published two updated editions with hischanges. The reasons for the Salem-China nexis are not as clearcut. Sonow Derby was in a position of filtering all trade goinginto and out of China. As a matter of fact, HermanMelville originally called his master novel "Bowditch"instead of Moby Dick (Laing, 1974). Sailors measured the observed angle of Polaris, the celestial body that appears closest to true north. There was a confluence of events thatmade Salem a natural seaport. The trade wasso mutually profitable that there were great efforts madeboth in China and Salem to make shipping more efficient,and risk free. The world famous Peabody-Essex Museum isjust a part of Peabody's legacy. Not only were the shops of Salem filled tooverflowing with the goods, there were enough goods leftover to export to Great Britain. Bowditch was born into a poorfamily, and was apprenticed to a shipbuilder. Matthews, Frederick C. Even more than in Boston, a rocky soil andharsh climate forced he settlers to turn towards the seafor their survival an prosperity. A miscalculation could send a ship miles off course,risking men's lives a d the cargo. Much of theirfortune is still generated in the Salem-Boston area (theyhave substantial land holdings) although they have alsodeveloped expertise a money lending. Introduction Salem, Massachusetts is best known, historically, forits witch trials. He managed to build, usingChinese, English, French and American money (mostly fromRobert Morris, Derby and Samuel Cabot), a compound offactories and warehouses and apartment buildings outsidethe walls of Canton, and managed by Snow and his group. Between 175 and 1814, thousands of voyages began andended in Salem, and the city was the center of lucrativetrading routes not only with China, but Japan, Polynesiaand throughout the pacific Basin. One of his ideas was to create what was known as "TheAmerican Factory." pointed out to the Hong that theywould be barraged by governments wanting to develop traderelationships. The axis relationship between Howqua, who was the richestof the Hong merchants and the Perkins continued for morethan 1 years, giving the Perkins a long lasting and closerelationship with several powerful Chinese families. Thomas Handasyd Perkins saw the potential of Chinatrade and in 1792 he started a new venture, again with hisolder brother James, in a firm that was known as J & T.H.Perkins of Boston. Shaw, with his skillful handling of the Opiumsituation became the first American consul in Canton.Parenthetically, Great Britain had concessions from theTurks to sell Opium, and was looking for a large enoughmarket to make it practical. The Perkins fortuneremained solid and substantial, and the entire family, evento this day, is extremely low profile. This paper will examine some of those reasons. He went into Canton andimmediately made contact with the great merchant families.His argument was that he would set up a company that wouldcontrol the flow of Opium into China {through thesemerchants) and in payment would take goods such as spices,gold, silks, porcelains and china . Because the terrain waseven worse the Boston, Conant realized thatthe safe harbor of Salem could lead to favorable fishingand perhaps even trade. One historian writes To secure an advantage over other merchants, the Perkinses established a branch in Canton as early as 18 3 and helped the Hong merchants establish banking and trading on the Islands of Macau and then develop the island of Hong Kong. NewYork: McGraw-Hill, 1978. Early Ships In 1782, a group of Salem, Boston and New Yorkinvestors created a ship designed for long sailing, called"The Empress of China' and it set sail for China's port ofHong, which then had the one name. The next year, a Salem merchant, Elias Hasket Derbyusing his own money, built and christened a four-mastercalled "The Turk" and set sail for China. What is less known about the village, andwhat is of far more importance, is the impact that the seahad upon the village. All factories were located on landhe owned on the North bank of the Canton River, justoutside the city walls, close to the city. References www.salemweb.com Albion, Robert G. Shaw hit upon the idea of using the Opium as currencyinstead of as a hammer of threat. He taught himself these languages, and at the age of17 wrote to a professor at Harvard claiming to have found amistake in Newton's Principles of Physics. (1935), The History of AmericanSailing Ships. His book w s published, and continues to bepublished in Salem. To The Stars More important than the fortunes amassed thanks to theChina-Salem connection has been what has been called theBowditch connection has been attributed by some people tothe relationship between China and Salem. (193 ), American MerchantShips, 185 -19 . Infact, the firm of J & T. However, the passage of the Navigation Acts of 166 and 1663 by the British government gave the colonistsfairly unlimited access for trade with the West Indies(Albion, 1978). First, and most important wasfair and natural leeward harbor. Imported spices,textiles, ceramics and thousands of other items flowed intoSalem, and from there into the colonies.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
Click here to request an essay written just for you.
|
|
|
