Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/25

Rh esteem and price at home." What was the outcome of this suggestion does not appear, but it may be assumed from an entry in the Court minutes which we find a little later that the early enthusiasm for the silk trade was somewhat damped by the discovery that there were tricks of the trade in China. "On account of the deceit that is used by the Chinese in their silks," the minutes recorded, "it is proposed in Court to advise Bantam that no more be brought except only raw silks, and such other as be ascertained to be very good; also to forbear the buying of sundry drugs, which prove rotten and naught, especially China roots and rhubarb." The instructions actually given to the factor at Bantam, who was proceeding eastward from thence to trade, were: "Buy no blacks of any kind of damasks or taffaties [sic] but only coloured: the colours to be grass green,, blue, crimson, and carnation. Take also white, especially satins. As to raw silk it is not good to bring the Canton cross-reeled sort. But if you could obtain any ready thrown according to the sample, so as to afford it to be sold in England at a mark or 14s. per lb. some good may be done. Give orders that it be first spun single and then twisted two threads together. Let such as be made up in skains [sic] be but one thread together."

At about this period a development of the Company's enterprise in the Far East resulted in the forging of the first link which connected Great Britain with Japan. The association was brought about in a somewhat romantic fashion. William Adams, a Kent man, who in early life was apprenticed to a Limehouse pilot, inflamed by stories of the wealth of the Indies, in 1598 took service in a Dutch vessel, one of a fleet bound for the Far East. Arrived off the coast of Japan after an adventurous voyage the ship in which Adams was employed was boarded by Japanese, and he and the other members of the crew were virtually made prisoners. They were, however, kindly treated, and Adams subsequently found great favour with the Emperor, who took him into his service and bestowed a manor upon him for his maintenance. In 1611 Adams heard accidentally from the Dutch, who had by this time established a good trade with Japan, that the English had formed an establishment at Bantam. Overjoyed at the discovery of the comparative proximity of his countrymen, Adams addressed a long letter to the Company's agent in the Straits strongly urging him to send ships to open up a commercial connection with Japan. In his communication he furnished valuable details as to the character of the Japanese and the prospects of trade with their country. He added: "Could our English merchants, after settling in Japan, procure trade with the Chinese, then shall our country make great profit here, and the Company will not need to have to send money out of England; for in Japan there are gold and silver in abundance, and therefore by the traffic here they will take in exchange money enough for their investments in the Indies." The hint conveyed in this historic epistle did not fall on deaf ears. The Company, eager to extend their field of enterprise in so promising a direction, in 1613 sent out Captain Saris with the title of "Company's General" to open up a trade with Japan. Captain Saris was met on his arrival at Firando on June 12th in that year by Adams. Almost immediately the two repaired to the capital where they delivered to the Emperor a letter from James I. which Captain Saris had brought with him. The monarch, influenced by his regard for Adams, lent a favourable ear to the proposals made by the Company's agent, and formal permission was accorded to the establishment of English factories at Firando and other places, Adams in his letter to Bantam expressed a decided opinion against Firando and a preference for some port on the east coast nearer the capital. But for some reason or other, probably because objections were raised to an establishment in this locality, the English headquarters were fixed at Firando. For several years a trade was prosecuted from this point by the Company's factors with Adams as a valuable supernumerary. But the enterprise never realised the high expectations entertained of it. Commercially the times were somewhat out of joint; the Dutch opposition and rivalry also were very formidable. Moreover, as was explained in a letter of the year 1615, profits were "eaten up by great presents and charges which the country of Japan requires, although there are no customs to be paid." Adams' death, which occurred on May 16, 1620, put the final seal on the Company's failure. The factory lingered on until 1623 and the establishment was then withdrawn. Nor, in spite of persistent and repeated efforts was a direct connection again formed until the lapse of more than two centuries.

While the Company was prosecuting the operations in Japan an opportunity offered and was availed of to attempt to open a trade with China. The intermediaries in the business were three influential Chinese merchants with whom business had been done at Nagasaki. In a letter from Robert Cock, the factor at Firando, to the Company written on November 25, 1614, we have an outline of the proposals. Referring to the negotiators he writes: "The spot which they point out as desirable for the seat of a factory is an island near to the City of Languin; to which place we sale [sic] from Firando, if the wind be fair, in three or four days. Our demand is for three or four ships to come and go and to leave only factors sufficient to do the business. If we can procure this I doubt not but in a short time we may get into the mainland itself; for as the Chinese tell me their Emperor is come to the knowledge how the Emperor of Japan has received us and what huge privileges he has granted us. But the Hollanders are ill spoken of on each part by means of their continual robbing and pilfering the junks of China: the odium of which they at first put upon Englishmen, but now it is known to the contrary." In another letter of a somewhat later date to the Company's agent at Bantam some additional details are given with an injunction to "use all Chynas [sic] kindly," and to ask other Englishmen to do the like, "for," says the sanguine factor, "my hope is great since the Chynas doe complain much of the Hollanders for robinge [sic] or pilferinge [sic] of their junckes [sic]." In subsequent correspondence we catch vivid glimpses of the progress of the negotiations. Now we find an entry recording a payment for two girdles of silk as a present to the "China Captain's daughter." Next is a letter from Andreas Dittis, "the China Captain," reporting that he had great hopes of a successful issue to his mission "for that the greate [sic] men had taken 3,000 pezes [sic] (pieces of eight dollars) presented to them to make way" and warning his English friends not to let it be known that they came from Japan "because the Chinese were more averse to the Japanese than any other nation." Again, we have this quaint extract from Robert Cock's diary throwing some interesting side lights on the business; "I gave my peare [sic] (pair of) knives to the China Captain to send to his brother (or rather kinsman) in China upon hope (of) trade. As also he had 4 Looking Glasses for same purpose bought of Dutch, and 4 pss. (pieces) Chowders of 20 Rs. p. corg with Knyves [sic]; and is thought fit to geve [sic] 50 Rs. 8 to the man which carrieth the letter to pay his charge per way, and to sende [sic] a greate [sic] gould [sic] ring of myne [sic] with a whyte [sic] amatist [sic] in it, cost me 5 lb. str. in France; this ring to be sent to one of these two men named Titcham Shofno, an euenecke [sic]. God grant all may com [sic] to good effect! Amen, Amen."

The piously expressed wishes of the good factor were not destined to be realised. Civil disturbances in China, forerunners of the downfall of the Ming dynasty, delayed the business. The high-handed action of the Dutch in stopping and robbing Chinese junks also, and probably to a larger extent, interposed obstacles, for the authorities were naturally irate at the outrages, and owing to the lying stories put about by the Dutch were disposed to associate the English with them. The Company's agents in the matter, however, continued to push the request for facilities for trade vigorously. In 1616–17 the factor at Firando reported home that the affair was pursued so hotly that "the Emperor of China has sent spies into all ports where the Spaniards, Portuguese, Hollanders, and we have trade, to observe how the Europeans behave one toward the other, and also how we (the English) behave towards strangers, especially towards the Chinese." "Some of these investigators," he added, "have been in this place (Firando) and were brought by our Chinese friends to the English House, where I used them in the best manner I could, as I have recommended to Bantam, Patania, and Syam [sic] to do the like to all Chinese." The factor was very anxious that suitable presents should be sent to the Emperor of China, and particularly indicated a coral tree as a gift which would be acceptable, a similar souvenir presented many years before by the Portuguese being esteemed by the Emperor "one of his most precious jewels." Before this the Company had thoughtfully sent out for use in the negotiation two letters from James I. to the Emperor. One was amicable in tone, but the other was somewhat "stricter" in terms, and