to do with them, and his authority and correspondence, so far as relates to foreigners, are confined to the three ports of Canton, Kiungchau, and Swatau, lying in his jurisdiction. The old monopoly of the co-hong, or privileged official merchants licensed by the Chinese authorities to trade with foreigners at Canton, which was brought to an end in 1842, has now almost passed out of mind among the merchants in China. Ample details of their institution and history up to recent days are contained in Auber, Staunton, and other writers. The hong-merchants could not in any case have survived long after their great support, the monopoly of the English East India Company, had ceased in 1834, without general bankruptcy; and when they one after another wound up their affairs, and their business passed into younger and more enterprising hands, there was no regret felt by any beyond their immediate retainers. The other secondary department of the same close system, that of the linguists, or tung-s2', was not so restricted, and survived in its vigor until the customs passed into the direct management of foreigners. The linguists were so called because they were employed in all intercourse between the custom-house officers and foreign merchants; in former times they wrote petitions to, and announced edicts from government on behalf of foreigners. None of them were ever able to read or write a line of idiomatic English, or any language besides their own, and only a few of them could speak anything better than the jargon known as Canton-English. In the common routine of trade, where the matter was a simple detail of business, or in cases where their own interest was not likely to be involved in any way, there was no objection to trusting to their accuracy; but owing to their ignorance, and the poverty of the wretched oral jargon used, even with good intentions, they were liable to misunderstand and misrepresent the subjects they were to write upon. Still their position as custom-house clerks made them an indispensable adjunct of the trade, and their services were proportionably rewarded. Like the hong-merchants, they were obliged to pay for their licenses, and were liable to heavy exactions from the custom-house officers; the annual expenses of one of their establishments were reckoned at 10,000 taels. There were four or six of these establishments, each of which contained a full complement of clerks, who could attend to the custom-house business of a large number of ships. These have all been broken up by the changes recently introduced, and their members have mostly found employment in other branches of the general trade, with which their intimate acquaintance rendered them useful aids. One other feature of the old system still remains to be noticed, if it can be said to have properly belonged to it, which is that of compradors, mái-pán, so called from the Portuguese word used at Macao. Like the hong-merchants and linguists, a comprador could not formerly be employed by the foreign merchant unless he had a license from the government, and securities for his solvency. He acts as the steward and purser of the households of the merchants at Canton, or of his ships at Whampoa; to which used to be added that of general spy over all that was done by the inmates of the house, for whose good conduct he was held responsible. The post was a troublesome one, and at times somewhat dangerous, as when an angry governor-general like Yeh wreaked that wrath upon the innocent comprador, which he had not the power to make fall directly on his employer. The compradors are usually connected with native mercantile and banking firms, which facilitates the management of large transactions. A mái-pán receives and pays out money, keeps an account of the daily expenses of the household, and hires all the servants, for whose general good behavior he is held responsible. This feature of responsibility which works pretty well on a small scale as in this case, and was the bond of union in the co-hong, runs through every part of the Chinese political and social systems, and strengthens the curious network of influences and checks, which have done much to mold and perpetuate the national character. The comprador has in his employ a shroff, who examines all the specie received and paid out, and who, like the teller in a bank, is made responsible for the bad money he receives. In order to recognize coin once paid out, every shroff has a steel stamp, with which he strikes his name upon the face of the piece, nor will he receive a dollar back upon which he cannot find his own stamp, or chop as it is called; this precaution amounts to nothing, however, because he always refuses to acknowledge the stamp on a bad piece. The natives of Canton and Macao, and the interjacent places, are usually employed as house-servants, and for the most part perform their duties well, considering the imperfect jargon in which intercourse is carried on, and the consequent liability of the parties to misunderstand each other. Before they consider themselves qualified to act as servants, they receive what in their opinion is a tolerable English education, which consists in committing to memory a number of words and phrases from Chinese and English vocabularies written in the Chinese character, and with the English phrase constructed according to the Chinese idiom. There are always a few men to be found in Canton who get their living by thus teaching English to lads in the shops about the foreign houses and ships. Business, whatever be its amount or nature, is of necessity usually oral; for as the parties cannot understand each other's writing, they must depend on their own notes of the terms of contract, and this involves that carefulness of detail, without which no business can be well conducted. portant contracts, leases, &c., are sometimes put in writing by the Chinese to be kept by the other party. The jargon which is spoken at Canton and many other places in China, goes by the droll name of pidgun English, i. e. "business English;" it sounds strangely to a newly arrived foreigner, but its inverted construction is soon acquired, and it serves the purpose of carrying on the common details of business and household affairs. The only remedy for those who dislike it is to learn to speak Chinese better than the native speaks English, and this is now done to a far greater degree than in former years. Im Foreign trade is conducted at Canton with great ease and regularity. The system of inland traffic through the eighteen provinces has acquired a high degree of uniformity in its details, and security is all that it requires to render it efficient. Goods brought down to the seacoasts should, according to this system, pay the same charges when leaving the country that they did when leaving their native province, for the transit duties are considered as merely defraying the charges of protection along the road. In former days, the port of Canton, engrossing all the European trade, attracted the attention of observers abroad by the ease al security with which enormous cargoes were landed and shipped off, in comparison with any other Asiatic port. Much of this apparent facility was owing to the practical habits and method of the Chinese people, and partly to the exclusion of foreigners from the custom-house, where the linguists performed the necessary details of compounding or settling the duties as they could arrange. All the labor of landing and loading cargo, engaging coolies, packing and sorting goods, and other details connected with commerce, is performed by natives; the actual services of foreigners are chiefly confined to examining and exhibiting samples of goods, or seeing that they are honestly and properly packed. CUSTOM-HOUSE REGULATIONS. I. Masters must deposit their ship's papers and manifest with their consul, (if they have no consul, with the Customs,) within 48 hours after entering the port. II. The import manifest must contain a true account of the nature of the cargo on board, and must be handed to the Customs, before any application to break bulk can be attended to. III. The import manifest having been received, and ship's papers duly lodged with the consul or the Customs, permits to land goods will be granted, on the receipt of applications specifying the number of packages, with their marks, weight, quantity, and such like particulars. IV. Before shipment of goods, permits to ship must in like manner be obtained. V. Cargo for which a permit has been issued, but which cannot be received on board, must be brought to the custom-house jetty for examination, before being relanded. VI. When a vessel has received on board the whole of her outward cargo, the Customs must be furnished with an export manifest. VII. After examination of goods, consignees or shippers will be supplied with a memorandum, for which early application should be made, of the duties payable. They may then pay in the amount to the Hai-kwan bank, or receiving office, when they will be furnished with a duty receipt in Chinese, which they must bring to the Customs. Import duties are due upon the landing of the goods, and export duties on their shipment. Amendment in respect of weights or values must be made within 24 hours after the landing or shipment of the goods. VIII. On application being made for the Customs' clearance, if the Customs are satisfied that the import and export manifests are correct, and that all dues and duties have been paid, the clearance will be issued. IX. In all cases of transhipment, application must be made for a tranship-permit; goods transhipped before receipt of such permit, are liable to confiscation. X. Cargo boats conveying goods from Canton to Whampoa for shipment there, must be taken for examination to the Customs' jetty, before the goods can be put on board the ship. On arrival at Whampoa, their permits must be exhibited at the floating customhouse, for countersignature; in like manner, the permits of cargo boats conveying goods to Canton from ships at Whampoa, must be countersigned at the Whampoa floating customhouse, and on arrival at Canton, they must repair to the Customs' jetty, for examination. On the arrival of a ship at Whampoa, the captain proceeds to Canton, and deposits her register with the consul of his nation, who gives him, or sends to the consignee a report for the hoppo. On receipt of the manifest, a Customs' permit is issued for the cargo as described in it, which gives the captain authority to open his hatches, and place the goods in cargo or chop-boats. These lighters, called sai-kwa-pien, are strongly built, roomy boats, carrying one large mat sail, with one or two partitions, and a caboose astern for the accommodation of the crew, who live aboard. Goods are generally speaking carried safely in them, as they can be entirely screened from the weather, and placed under lock and key. It is advisable, however, to see that goods are well secured when they leave the ship, especially packages like bales of raw cotton, bundles of rattan or scrap iron, or bags of pepper, from which it is easy to pilfer. The long practice of the boat-people in landing cargo has made them expert in levying a percentage of this kind of black mail on bulk, which needs to be looked after. The boats usually carry about 300 piculs, but custom has sanctioned some differences among the common articles of trade, as shown in the following list : Shippers, on obtaining their orders for delivery of their goods countersigned by the consignee, make out from them the list of packages to be landed in one chop-boat. On receiving the orders on the ship and making out the list of goods to be landed, the importer applies at the custom-house for cargo-boat notes for as many chop-boats as he wants; these are hired by him, but are under the inspection of the Customs; and one or two of their clerks go in them to Whampoa. On the second day after the permit or boat-note was received, the lighter is alongside of the ship to receive her cargo; when loaded, it is taken to the floating custom-house office, and its hatches sealed up previous to returning to Canton. After all the formalities of delivery at Whampoa are attended to, and the chop-boat reaches Canton, the importer gives in a memorandum of her lading to the office, and applies for an order from the Customs to the Bank directing its clerks to receive the amount of duties stated therein, and to issue a receipt for the same. The cargo in the chop-boat is then examined, and a certificate is granted of the amount of duty to be paid on it, and stating in Chinese the particulars of the cargo. The form of these blanks is here given; |