Harvard University - Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School / Heard family. Heard family business records, Volume FP-4, Folder GQ-2-2, and Volume JP-2.
Mss:766 1754-1898. Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School.
33
shOTt. ont or
t-.o.
'
fhe
bo"¥. in
1
t.
eOJ"pOTate capacity TaS called th,
Co.
Hong.
'
lben were othBr men, called 'outdde lllen,fl .00 dealt in mattine
and the thouaand ."..11 artlel" called 'chow-eho"." but
it
1
Ial IlIICUaary
that
all their tranuctlonl ,hould be
paned
through 11 Hong and 'be COT–
e:red
by
it.
Of
ellur... the podUon of a Hone merchant
_.
very valual:lle,
and large .will ...ere paid to acquire
it.
Uter
the
commencement of the
English
1
I'al',
the po.Uian cealed to be 80
much
in dO!:Wld. for the Chinese
gOTlrnIIl8nt Tail.d mo.t of itt
tun
by
.
qua.~lll&.
and the larger portion
of
thh
cace
upOD
the
Bolli
IIl6rcbanh.
~
in
ws,y,
1 841,
the
in&lhh
torc•• wder Sir Hu€h Qough were prepared to attack the 01t7. and were
bO'll/£ht
oft
by
the
p~ent
of Blr lIL111iont
o! dollar••
Of
this,
two
mil–
lion8 were pa id by the
Hong
merchant., and
ot
thil, $260,000 were paid
b7 PwaIlkelqu.a. $1,110,000 b;y
Houqua
and
the
other $640,000 b;,. the
othe:r (vide Panke1) ,
The
Hong
merchant. O'Imed
t.he
fordiD
·
faetorieu· or relidenees,
and rsnted then to foreigners. EYery foreigner .as obliged to have a
Ho:n,g merch"nt who stood ll8CUrity for
him;
ev.ry ship mllGt abe have her
security before whieh she was Dot eonaiderell. -entered' and eould do no
bUsinea.. Thus
t~
eame to be ealled
'
see~ity
merehant •• ' Then, as
there were n.o
bank,
or paper lIlOlIey in China, each house
had
a perlon
eallld a COIIIpradore .. ttached to it. It would be =h aborter to tell
what
the eOlDpraJ.or. did W
do
tb...
what he did. ETery money tranl8ction,
large or sca.ll, p.....d throQ&h hit handl, and on each
he
levied a
_11
p.reentage, which alway_ eame out of the Chine Ie at the otlulr end of
the .trine;. 10 that you never felt
the
pa,yment. He .-uppl1ed the table
of the hauee, kept all the pri'Yate aceeunts,in. short, dill. everyth1:n,g
there
~al
to be done.
Our
campradore eame to us without a cent in 1840.
He died in 1846 leaving
.70,0001
And yet
it
was all dene 80 del1cate'l1'
that
I do not tb1!1k
azl¥
one in the houae 'lfal eonecious of 1011:n,g a
ort
e
w
bs
cl
lh c ol'8.
ac1t;;, w ll
e
R
!'
h "
e
·
\
t ...ho
ttill&
e.
."
ieles
.
b 'll'-c
waB nec••
!
a U
a 1'10118
cov
r
COUl'''
b
tiOD
R ~
1
Ia. T ,-
e
e
Aft
r n
lish.ar,
OB1tlo aM
BO
IIl'U ll
.
ecan
e
e~nt
raile l
.
ax.1 a ue.sing.
C8l;i ","on
b
mer h
Th>.u;
un
g G
1',
'
We
oug
six 1II 1 e f
s.
-
11011
elD
f
.
,...
rlll
y nIlke ,
0 "
b
T
b
lllla
c 1 e
1
a
a
u
~e
R n.&:
.
ae.cu
1
e a IIIU.II
lso
a e rity"
c
l G c l
red
c
l'
a
c
c
aecuri
c ants.'
s s
..,
mon
a
c e
a
sh
C l
e
"
sa
ma a .ed lJ
s
a
e c
,
lI¥. c
a
he
et
Ul
;
e U
o "
iT co nt.,in b
id T iD41:
l
OlDpra
c~
1 111.
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o ao
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cate~
lTl & c
OUJl
a c s iOUI
BiXl&
