This trade opened the Pacific world to a US presence, and it brought American ships to what was to become the US West Coast. isolated fortress shielded by its waterways from a hostile countryside.Trade relations had been disrupted in an age when commerce depended on personal relat ions and rrusr. In th e face of these formidable obstacles, eleven weeks after the British left, New York's Empress ofChina sa iled from rhe rund own Manhattan waterfront to make the first voyage under the American flag ro C hin a. T he voyage was finan ced by leading citizens from other cities-an ea rly example of New York's magnetic abi li ty to draw in ta lent and funding from outside sources. The fin ancial backing and government letter of au thoriza ti o n was mustered by that remarkab le Philade lphian Robert Morris, financier of the War of American Independence just ended. He had thought ar first ro send a ship ro rhe Pacific Northwest, bur ultimately serried on the excitin g prospect of direct trade w ith China, in what he called his "ve ntureso me pursuit of commerce." Boston Mayor Samuel Shaw worked w ith Morris on rhe trad ing strategy, and another Bosto nian , John G reen, commanded rhe ship. Ginseng, an herb makin g a to nic po pular as a stimul ant in C hina, was rhe leading item in rh e outbound ca rgo, supplem ented by pig lead, pep per from Arab ia, woo len clothing and furs, with cons iderabl e cash to make up th e difference in value of their cargo and th e value of the costly teas they plann ed to bring home. A ll worked accordin g to plan , and rhe ship realized a profit of over $3 0 ,000 on an in vestment of $ 120,000 in her 15-monrh voyage. This remarkable 25% profit did nor pass unnoticed. Tea was rhe driving force rhar made this pro fir. In rhe hundredodd yea rs that rea had been brought into Britain from the Fa r East, every cargo for Am eri ca h ad had to go through London. Thar restriction was now ended. And six mon rhs after rhe Empress came home, th e 85.5-ron Hudso n River sloop Experiment set sa il o n rhe long voyage to Ca nton under her reso lute skipper Srewan Dean, w ho had sa il ed privateers aga inst the British in th e Revo lu tion. People were stirred by th e littl e sloo p, 60 feet long, m ak in g this voyage halfway aro und th e wo rld. The d irect passage ro C hina was by way of rhe Cape of Good H ope rather than the fearfu l Cape Horn road, bur the Experiment found high seas and rough go ing enough ro undin g Good Hope on her return journey against th e prevailin g wes terli es of the Roaring Forties. The great profits of the Empress ofChina's voyage were apparently nor rea lized in rhis voyage, due to grow ing co mpetiti o n in the Ca nton trad e. She brou ght hom e her cargo safely, however, and her crew of ten, includin g two ship's boys. One of rhe two boys, called Blackboy Prin ce, was African A meri can. H e was nor a slave, and was paid rhe sa me amou nt-ÂŁ34, l s, 4p for the voyage-as the other boy. New York's African Ame ri ca n population was roughly one-fifth free in this era, a rati o that steadil y increased as slaves earned the ir fr eedom, or as their owners simply freed them on principle. Complete freedom was on ly secured for New York slaves in 1827. Accounts differ as to rhe profitabili ty of the Experiment's C hina voyage. Bur it was hail ed in the press as rhe embodim ent of "a spirit of enterpri se," and Captain D ea n's passe nge r business aboard the Experiment flouri shed as peo pl e trave ling on the Hudso n Ri ve r-including, notably, Crevecoeur-crowded aboard rhe sloo p th at h ad bee n to C hin a. This by- product of the voyage certa inl y was profitab le-so much so that Captain Dean soo n built a bi gge r sloop Experiment which continued to do a land-
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office business, h er cabin fined our in C hin ese carvin gs and gewgaws, her affabl e and wealthy cap rain always ready with a ya rn or two about the "Fl owery Kingdom " of C hin a.
A Growing Pacific Involvement Ir was as well that the good Captain Dean got this advantage from his gallant voyage-a ve ry New York-style ad va n rage, it might be noted , founded on promotion-fo r Bosto n cam e to dominate the first few decad es of the C hina trade. This success was du e to the fact that Boston m erchants chose to pursue the Pacific Northwest fur trade which Bosto n's Columbia had pioneered in her roundrhe-world voyage of 1787-90-as recounted in our last. Precious sea-o tter furs m ade m ore money than ginse ng. And th ere was a double profit involved , first in buying the furs very ch ea ply from the Northwestern Indians, and selling them at an immense profit in C hina, and then selling C hinese tea, silks and porcelains at a healthy profit in New York. This two-t ier trade in rhe Pacific was a good thin g for the fl edgli ng America n Republi c. Ir opened rhe Pacific wo rld to a US prese nce, and it brought America n ships to wh at was to beco me the US West Coast. The ships had to go by way of rhe rough Cape Horn road aro und the rip of South America, rather than rhe easier passage round So uth Africa's Cape of Good H ope, to pick up chea p furs in the American Northwes t befo re proceeding on to C hin a. The other great cause of Ame ri can ships raking rhe Ca pe Horn road into the Pacifie was the hunt of the whale, a h un r pursued in to the broad reaches of the wo rlJ 's largest ocean, as the custo mary whalin g gro unds of rhe Atlantic, from Iceland in rhe no rth to the Falkland Islands in the so uth, we re progressively fished our. The pursuit of whales ca rried American ships to Hawa ii , w here an American whaling captain marri ed in to the Hawaii an royal family. T he islands soo n becam e a ce nter for mail and a va lued stopove r for American wives who had acco mpanied rhei r sh ipm as ter husbands in to the Pacifi c, aga in usu all y arriving by the Cap e Horn road. H awa ii , discove red by Captain Coo k in th e late 1700s, thus came naturally into th e A meri ca n orbit, beco ming a US State in rhe mid- 1900s. In the Pacific Northwes t, as noted, Boston led in the fur trade. And America ns as we ll as nat ive peop les lea rn ed much from these Pacifi c enco unters. This is vividly illust rated by rhe career of rhe remarkabl e Captain W illi am Stu rgis. Sturgis came from Barnstab le on Cape Cod, a town whi ch contributed many shipm as rers to Bosto n 's overseas trade. On the death of his father, Sturgis was sent to work at age 14 at a kinsman's counti nghouse in Boston. Two years later he signed o n to go to sea in rhe 136-ro n Eliza, carrying a crew of 136 m en. Sturgis late r noted: "For defence aga inst th e Indians a much larger number of officers and men were taken than wo uld have bee n requisite for a common voyage ... . " Sturgis, sa iling befo re rh e mas t as a co mmon seam an , soo n became ass ista nt to rhe Eliza's cap rain , a plain man "without edu cation ," as Stu rgis tells us. Sturgis had stud ied navigation and his business experi ence was helpful in man ag in g th e so m etim es co mpl ex dealin gs of the fur trade, in w hi ch the Indians were becoming adept at pitting ship against ship-or, som etimes, in ve nting non existin g ship arrivals ro urge fur prices higher. Young Sturgis proved a rough, cons istent, fa ir-dea lin g trader. H e had a ge nuine admiration for th e Indians he dealt with and
SEA HISTORY 87, WINTER 1998-99