China and the Founding of the United States by Dave Xueliang Wang

Author:Dave Xueliang Wang [Wang, Dave Xueliang]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781793644350
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2021-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

He then suggested to John Jay that it “be for the interest of America to prevent the exportation of it in any but American bottoms directly to this Country, may be objects not unworthy of national attention.”55

Ginseng helped greatly in the development of international trade between China and America. The entire country was connected by trade with China. Not only merchants in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, but also isolated farmers in deep mountains had learned that they could earn money selling this valuable plant grown on the northern slope of the mountains. About the same time when the Empress of China unloaded the ginseng at China, Washington met some people who were doing ginseng business in Virginia. He recorded in his diary, “I met numbers of Persons & Pack horses going in with Ginseng: & for salt & other articles at the Market Below.”56 One month before the Empress of China reached Canton, China, in July 1874, Neil Jamieson reported to Thomas Jefferson that “the Article of Ginsang may become one of considerable value to the State of Virginia there has been exported previous to the late war to the value of 30,000 ℔.57

The Empress of China left New York on February 22, 1784, and returned triumphantly to New York on May 11, 1785. Her successful voyage brought a measure of prosperity and was seen as an American economic salvation. The voyage had been a remarkable financial success. It was a win-win two-way trade. The ship profited on her investment about 30 percent.58 The success of the voyage stimulated American merchants. Other traders were quick to see the value of economic exchange with China. The great success enjoyed by the Empress of China aroused so much enthusiasm that the report about her sail was read in Congress. Three years after the sail, George Washington happily stated, “The Maritime Genius of this Country is now steering our Vessels in every ocean, to the East Indies.”59

The U.S. government encouraged China trade by maintaining favorable tariff policies.60 Under the support of the political leaders, American trade with China grew rapidly. By the first half of the nineteenth century, the Chinese port of Canton saw about forty American ships a year loading and unloading. America’s purpose to win a place in international commerce was realized successfully.61 Naturally, the voyage of the Empress of China has been claimed as “the brightest chapter in the maritime history of the United States.”62

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