Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/825

Rh towards Japan, where permission to trade was obtained in 1611, and no further serious attempt was made on China until 1622. In that year a squadron of fourteen ships arrived from Batavia, and took possession of the Pescadores, whence expeditions were sent over to Amoy to try to compel the Chinese to trade. The result was that open hostilities were carried on for two years, the Chinese resorting to every device to get rid of the unwelcome strangers. They were finally so far successful that the Dutch retired to Formosa in 1624, where they built forts and established themselves. From that time intercourse, though technically forbidden, was carried on chiefly at Little Quemoy and Go-su, the merchants of the neighbourhood taking them cargoes of silk and sugar, much of which found its way to Japan and Batavia. The Dutch trade with Amoy was, of course, broken by their expulsion from Formosa by Koxinga in 1662. " The Dutch not only traded with the Chinese and Japanese in Formosa, but also sent their own ships to China and Japan to deal directly. Peter Nuits, the Dutch Governor, in his report on trade, stated that silver was sent by junks from Taiwan to the mainland city of Amoy ; some- times to be remitted to their agents who resided there, sometimes to be given to the merchants who were to provide merchandise for the markets of Japan, India, and Europe. This could only be done with the connivance of the Governor of Foochow, and was very advantageous, for goods could thus be obtained so as to allow a greater profit than those delivered at Taiwan by the Chinese compradores. Also, when the time arrived for the departure from Taiwan of the Dutch ships for Japan or Batavia, if their cargoes were not complete, they were sent across to China by stealth, where they were filled up with goods which were brought on board in great quantities and at a cheaper rate than they could be bought at Taiwan, the differ- ence in the price of silk alone being some eight or ten taels per picul. If time allowed, these vessels returned to Taiwan ; otherwise, they were sent direct to their destinations. The principal exports were raw silk and sugar to Japan, the amount of the latter being as much as 80,000 piculs in one year ; silk piece goods, porcelain, and gold to Batavia ; while paper, spices, amber, tin, lead, and cotton were imported to Formosa ; and, with the addition of Formosan products, such as rice, sugar, rattans, deer-skins, deer-horns, and drugs, were exported to China."

"The Koxinga power dates from 1626, when Cheng Chih-lung, the founder of this remarkable family invaded and took Amoy. It was held by him, his still more famous son, Cheng Ch'eng-kung, "Koxinga," and his grandsons, until 1680, when it fell finally into the hands of the Manchu Government."

It was during the period of the Koxinga domination that English vessels first appeared in Formosa and at Amoy. The ejection of the Dutch from Formosa by Koxinga gave an opportunity to the East India Company to open up trade with the "King of Tywan." On June 23, 1670, the Bantam Pink, accompanied by the sloop Pearl, which had sailed up from Bantam, anchored off Anping, in South Formosa. "We were the first foreign ship or junk that has been here since the Chinese Tywanners took it from the Dutch." An agreement was drawn up for the establishment of a factory, by which the English obtained fairly favourable terms. But the famous freebooter had not much idea of traffic beyond helping himself to such articles as took his fancy, and imposing such exactions as he thought fit. The trade in Formosa did not flourish, but in the factory at Amoy, which appears to have been established about the same time, better results were obtained. "The trade in Amoy was more successful than at Zealandia, and a small vessel was sent there in 1677, which brought back a favourable report. In 1678 the investments for these two places were $30,000 in bullion and $20,000 in goods ; the returns were chiefly in silk goods, tutenague, rhubarb, &c. ; the trade was continued for several years, apparently with considerable profit, though the Manchus continually increased the restrictions under which it laboured. In 1681 the Company ordered their factories at Amoy and Formosa to be withdrawn, and one to be established at Canton or P'uchau, but in 1685 the trade was renewed at Amoy In 1701 the investment for Amoy was £t,!, and for Canton ;f40,8oo In 1734 only one English ship came to Canton, and one was sent to Amoy, but the extortions there were greater than at the other port, whereupon the latter vessel withdrew. . . . The Hardwicke was sent to Amoy in 1744 and obliged to return without a cargo." Local records of this old trade appear to be nonexistent. The only vestige left is the tombstones on Kulangsu. which tell of the foreign sailors who were buried on the island. These graves occupied a corner on the north-east side of the island, where they lay undisturbed in some cases for two centuries. But with the growth of population in Kulangsu, in recent years, it was desirable to remove them to the foreign cemetery. A subscription was raised among the foreign residents, and the inscriptions on the stones were restored. The site of the English factory is not known, not even to tradition. " Slightly to the northward of the Amoy Dock is the wall of the old Dutch factory. Another evidence of the former connection of the Dutch with Amoy is afforded by the triumphal arches, with figures of Dutchmen sculptured on them in relief, standing a short distance beyond the site of the former British Consulate (now the Taoutai's yamen). No very clear history is attached to them, but it is presumed they were erected about 1664, when the Dutch were permitted by special edict to trade with

OLD SPANISH SILVER COINS, DUG UP IN AMOY BY H. F. RANKIN. (Showing Reverse Side.) Thirty-three in all, found in an urn in Amoy City at a depth of 30 feet below the surface. Weight equal to that of the present Mexican dollar. Stamped with Castilean Coat "of Arms at beginning of the seventeenth century. (Vide "Spanish Coins " in larger "History of Spain.")

Chang-chow-fu." In 1730 the Chinese Government centred all the foreign trade at Canton and only permitted Spanish ships to trade at Amoy. But trade, no doubt, went on intermittingly and clandestinely, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century received an impetus from the sudden growth of the opium traffic. Matters were not put on a regular basis, however, until the whole question of foreign trade in China came to a head in the so-called Opium War of 1841, in which Amoy soon figured as a scene of hostilities.

In 1840 an English man-o'-war was sent here to try to place a letter from Lord Palmerston to the Chinese Emperor, Tao Kuang, in the hands of the Fokien authorities for transmission to Peking. But the Chinese refused to receive the letter, and fired on the