Records of East India Company Factory at Canton

IOR/R/10

Records of East India Company Factory at Canton

1623-1841

The papers relate to the East India Company's commercial activities in China, and its relations with the Chinese authorities. The papers to some extent duplicate the much larger body of similar material in the China Factory Records (G/12). However, some of the early Diary and Consultation Books and Letter Books (R/10/3-7) go some way to fill the gap between 1754 and 1774 in the Factory Records. Only a close comparison of the Consultations in the Factory Records with those listed here (R/10/10-31) could reveal whether the latter contain any new material, but the 'Narrative of the Proceedings of the Select Committee on arrival of a Detachment of British Troops at Macao', Sep-Dec 1808 (R/10/32) does not appear to be in the Factory Records. Much more important is the series of Letters (or Despatches) from the Court of Directors, 1784-1833 (R/10/33-62) and its Secret Committee, 1810-1827 (R/10/63-66) which for the most part are not available elsewhere. Among the Miscellaneous papers, the journal of the voyage of the 'Lord Amherst' in 1832 (R/10/70) is not in the Factory Records, and nor are the two letter books, dated 1840-1841, relating to the first China War (R/10/71-72).The papers were at first bound (or perhaps re-bound) as 'Factory Records China II', presumably because they were originally seen as a second series of Factory Records, but after twenty-one volumes that title was dropped and the papers were kept in separate series of Secret Consultations, Letters Received from the Court of Directors, and Miscellaneous.

China Factory Records (IOR/G/12)

Public Record(s)

English

74 volumes

Unrestricted

From an early date the East India Company had made efforts to trade with China to obtain silks and porcelain. Voyages were attempted intermittently over the first half of the seventeenth century but the first foothold on mainland China was not gained until 1676, when Company merchants were given permission to trade at Amoy. A little later, ships were allowed to trade at Canton and tea began to be purchased. Trade began on a fairly regular basis at Amoy, Canton and Chusan to the north of the country. In 1757 an imperial edict confined all foreign trade to one port, Canton. The Company, its activities officially acknowledged, obtained permission to establish a factory there in 1762. The main product purchased was tea, which quickly came to dominate the Company's trade, its value by the end of the century almost equalling the value of all other commodities put together. The Company's monopoly on the China trade was finally abolished in 1833. An agent remained at Canton until 1840. Up to 1680, the trade with China was conducted by country ships freighted by the Company's factory at Bantam, but it was then decided to employ ships freighted direct from England. By 1715, ships were despatched yearly with a supercargo appointed to each ship; the supercargoes stayed in the same house at Canton and organised the country trade from there. Until 1754 the trade was managed by the supercargoes sailing and returning with the ships They sometimes formed Councils, either one for each ship, or two or more to supervise two or more ships; and sometimes these Councils were combined into one Council while at Canton. In 1755 there were three Councils at Canton, and one of them remained until 1756; similarly another Council resided 1756-57 and another 1757-58. Thereafter there was always only one Council of Resident Supercargoes (comprising the most senior of them) for all ships. In 1778 or 1779 a Select Committee of Supercargoes was established. This continued until January 1781 after which the Council of Resident Supercargoes reappears until 1786 when the Directors again appointed a Select Committee (Court's letter of 24 March 1786, R/10/33). This Committe remained in being until the end of the Company's monopoly of trade with China, though for a period in 1792 and 1793 it is termed a Secret or Superintending Committee.