Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/186

 170 COM MERC li WITH all political jealousy. AVhatever be the foreign trade conducted by the subjects of China, the in- variable practice of the government is to place it in the hands of a few individuals, who become an- swerable that it shall be conducted under all the restrictions and conditions required by law. One or all of these security merchants, as they have been called, must be amenable for every ship that arrives at, or sails from China, both in as far as regards the regulations of trade as the conduct of the crew. These persons pay a premium to the government for the privilege they enjoy, and reimburse them- selves by laying the trade open, and exacting from the adventurers a certain per centage on the in- vestments. At the port of Amoy, or Em-ui, in the province of Fo-kien, the principal seat of this commerce, the security merchants are three in number, and exact from the adventurers a duty of six per cent, on exports, and five on imports. It is evident that the principles on which this trade are conducted are as completely different from those of our joint stock company monopolies as can well be imagined, though they have absurdly enough been compared. The Chinese security merchants do not trade on a joint stock among themselves, and they leave the trade nearly free to competition. There is no subject of legislation on which, in semi-barbarous times, so many gross errors, the re- sult of impertinent interference and over-govern-