East India Company: Select Committee of Supercargoes, Chinese Secretary's Office:...

FO 1048

1793-1834

This series contains Chinese-language correspondence and papers of the Office of the Chinese secretary to the Select Committee of Supercargoes of the East India Company in Canton and Macao. The bulk of the correspondence in this series relates to trade and associated matters. The main commodities traded legally and openly were teas (exported from China to the West) and cottons (imported to China from India), and questions relating to these are, therefore, prominent in the correspondence. However, the illicit trade in opium, the import of which into China gradually led to a net outflow of silver from China, attracts relatively little attention in these papers.

The papers also contain numerous references to legal difficulties which arose between the Chinese and the foreigners, notably in matters of trade, such as the frequent insolvencies of hong merchants, and problems over customs dues or the issue of 'chops' (departure permits for foreign ships). The papers reflect the often uneasy relations with the hoppo, the powerful local inspector of customs, with whom the European merchants were obliged to deal indirect, through the hong merchants.

In addition, the records contain details of friction between the two communities, ranging from incidents of violence and murder, often connected with the opium trade, to matters of local law and protocol, such as prohibitions on the presence of European women in Canton, or on Europeans using sedan chairs or taking pleasure trips in sampans.

The earliest surviving item among these records is a translation of the letters of introduction from King George III of England for Lord Macartney, his ambassador to the Emperor of China, in 1793. A few scattered papers are extant from the years 1802, 1803, and 1805-1807; from 1809 until 1834 the survival rate is very much higher, although variable from year to year.

For complementary, mainly English-language records of the East India Company in China, see the India Office and Oriental Collections, now held by the British Library, series G/12 (Factory Records, China and Japan, 1596-1840) and R/10 (China: Canton and Macao Records, 1632-1841).

FO 682

Public Record(s)

Chinese and English

1160 papers

Topics

Trade and commerce

Asia

Food and drink

Crime

Sex and gender

In 1834, these records were handed over to the newly-appointed chief superintendent of British trade, and were thereafter in the custody of the Chinese Secretary's Office.

The origins of the Chinese Secretary's Office lay in the activities of the East India Company. Until the mid-nineteenth century, British relations with China were entirely a matter of trade. Prior to 1834, trade at Canton was conducted officially through monopolies on both sides. A monopoly of British trade with China was held by the East India Company. On the Chinese side, trade with foreigners was restricted to a number of family firms (hongs), which spanned many generations.

As the body responsible for the business of the East India Company in China throughout the period of monopoly, the Company's Select Committee of Supercargoes was in regular communication with a variety of Chinese officials, mainly local.

The Chinese imperial government kept the East India Company merchants, as all foreigners, at arms' length; prior to the Treaty of Nanking in 1843 European merchants were permitted to reside only in Canton and Macao. Since the Chinese language was the only medium of communication acceptable to the authorities, the Select Committee was obliged to maintain a staff of interpreters (known as linguists) and scribes, headed by the Chinese secretary.

The ending of the East India Company's monopoly of British trade with China by Act of Parliament in 1834 brought no immediate change in Anglo-Chinese relations. The chief superintendent of British trade, based at Canton, inherited the Select Committee's Chinese Secretary and most of the records in his office.