| Cohong | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 公行 | ||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 公行 | ||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "public trade" | ||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
TheCohong, sometimes spelledkehang orgonghang, aguild ofChinese merchants orhongs, operated theimport–export monopoly in Canton (present-dayGuangzhou) during theQing dynasty (1644–1911). During the century prior to theFirst Opium War of 1839–1842, trade relations between China andEurope took place exclusively via theCohong – a system formalised by an imperial edict of theQianlong Emperor in 1738. The Chinese merchants who made up theCohong were referred to ashangshang (行商) and their foreign counterparts asyanghang (洋行，literally "foreign traders").[1]
In 1738, theBaoshang system was established. This system granted a number of Chinesemerchants license to trade with Western merchants as long as they helped to collect duties from the Westerners, successfully aligning trading interests with the government's revenue collection. This was the predecessor for the later Cohong system.[2]
According to John Phipps, author of the 19th centuryPractical Treatise on the China and Eastern Trade, the merchant Poankeequa (潘启官)[3]: 85 founded theguild in the 1790s, although Chinese historianImmanuel C.Y. Hsu cites an earlier date of 1738.[4]
| Year | Number | Year | Number | Year | Number | Year | Number | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1757 | 26 | 1791 | 5~6 | 1811 | 10~12 | 1831 | 10 | |||
| 1759 | >20 | 1792 | 12 | 1813 | 10~13 | 1832 | 10 | |||
| 1760 | 9 | 1794 | 10 | 1815 | 10 | 1833 | 10 | |||
| 1765 | 10 | 1795 | 10 | 1822 | 11 | 1834 | 10 | |||
| 1776 | 8 | 1796 | 10 | 1823 | 11 | 1835 | 10 | |||
| 1777 | 8 | 1798 | 8 | 1824 | 10 | 1836 | 11 | |||
| 1778 | 8 | 1799 | 8 | 1825 | 10 | 1837 | 13 | |||
| 1779 | 8 | 1800 | 8 | 1826 | 10 | 1838 | 11 | |||
| 1781 | 4 | 1801 | 8 | 1827 | 9 | 1839 | 10 | |||
| 1782 | 9 | 1807 | 12 | 1828 | 7 | |||||
| 1786 | 20 | 1808 | 9 | 1829 | 7 | |||||
| 1790 | 5 | 1810 | 10 | 1830 | 10 |
Over time, membership of theCohong fluctuated between five and 26 merchants[7] authorized by the Qing Imperial Government to handle trade, particularly rights to trade tea and silk, with the West.[1] They were the only group at the time authorized to do this, making them the main controllers of all foreign trade in the nation.
Within the city of Canton (Guangzhou, 广州) theCohong were granted the Qing Empire's monopoly on foreign trade, overseeing the trade between western silver from the New World and valued goods from the Qing Empire[8]Cohong merchant guilds therefore represented the primary link between the government of the Qing dynasty and the rest of the world.[8] As Guangzhou represented the only official port of trade between the Qing trade network and European trading powers, theCohong enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the trade with the west, and as such reaped the benefits of the Westerners' insatiable appetite forporcelain,silk, and most of all,tea. Under the oversight of aministry of revenue official known to the British as the "Hoppo" (a mispronunciation of the termhubu, 户部), theCohong, from their offices known ashangs, held a monopoly over trade with the Western trade warehouses and the incredibly important silver they represented for the Qing economy.[9][10]
Despite controlling the trade between European powers and the Qing Empire, theCohong often held precarious positions, with the Hoppo holding tremendous power over their appointment and their finances.[8] Additionally, because of the low social status of merchants within traditionalConfucian social hierarchy, theCohong merchants were often at the mercy of their bureaucratic masters within the Hoppo.[11] Throughout his three-year term in the office, aCohong merchant would be forced to pay numerous bribes, levies, donations, and gifts to his superiors, resulting in a steep drop in profits.
Nevertheless, as a result of the lucrative trade they controlled,Cohong guilds became very wealthy, with their personal fortunes numbering among the highest in the Qing dynasty, and even in the world. To maintain their influence they ensured that local residents and officials up to the highest level of the bureaucracy made overtures to the Qing government to maintain Canton's status as the sole site of official trade with the western world.[11] From time to time, this municipal trade monopoly came to rankle the British government, who sought out other ports of call through which to obtain the goods that their Empire craved.
TheCohong further functioned as controller of theConsoo Fund (公所,gōngsuǒ)(actually the name of the office of theCohong inThirteen Factory Street), a system established in 1781 that utilized a pool of money raised by levies (公所费,gōngsuǒfèi) on the trades of individual merchants to cover the debts of any bankrupthong at year end and to pay the various exactions demanded by the government and the Hoppo bureaucrats. Officially, the rate levied for the fund was 3% of the value of goods. This tax originally applied only to tea but by the late eighteenth century had expanded to cover 69 different products.[12][13]
Due to the heavy need for silver in the trade between European colonial powers and the Qing in Canton and complications with its silver supply due to revolts within theAmerican Colonies, the British required a substitute for the precious metal. In short order, British merchants employedopium as a valuable trade good to obtain the goods it desired. As the Qing Empire's trade with the West transitioned from silver to opium, the Cohong Guilds transitioned themselves to the trade in the addictive narcotic substance. Opium fromBritish India moved swiftly into the Chinese markets, largely overtaking silver as the most traded good between British merchants and the Qing dynasty. Despite theDaoguang Emperor's many opium prohibition edicts throughout the early nineteenth century, the Western trade upon which theCohong merchantmen built their livelihoods now centered around the drug, and as such the merchants participated heavily in the narcotic trade.[11] Within the city of Canton, in which western trade represented the center of the economic structure, the Qing Emperor's edicts held little effect over the trade hierarchy.
FromLintin Island, the small island near Guangzhou on which the European states moored their boats, the Cohong merchants facilitated the use of small smuggling vessels known as "fast crabs" or "shifting dragons" in order to transport the illicit substance from Lintin to the warehouses within Canton.[8] These boats were necessary to avoid Qing search and seizure of the opium and ensure its arrival in Canton, after which theCohong took over the process, trading their goods for the opium and preparing it to enter Qing Territory. While theCohong did not participate directly in the opium trade within China (this was accomplished through other merchants, and the distribution handled by criminals and social outcasts, such as migrants), they were the first part of the process through which the substance entered China.[14]
After the British victory in theFirst Opium War, theTreaty of Nanjing, signed in 1842, extracted several British demands from the Qing government, in particular the end of the Canton system and the dissolution of theCohong merchants' guilds. In the wake of this decision, trade moved from theConfucian merchant-to-merchant systems of the Qing Empire to the more diplomatic official-to-official trading systems of the British Empire.[10]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)