Trade connections between merchants in Australia and the outside world were continuously evolving throughout the nineteenth century. Australia had been, during the nineteenth century, intrinsically linked to Great Britain and Europe through trade and immigration. Yet, emerging, or possibly lingering, was a developing connection with the nearer geographical neighbour, Asia. Certainly, the colonies of Australia maintained strong trade links with India from the time of the earliest settlements in Port Jackson and Hobart Town. These connections became stronger in 1813 after the British East India Company’s (BEIC) restrictions on trade for India were lifted. The connections with Canton and China were less strong. Even with the end of the BEIC’s control over British trade to China in 1834, there was a delay before extensive trade existed between colonial Australia and the ports of China. By the 1860s everything changed, in both China and Australia.
China had, commercially, altered significantly by 1860. That alteration was created through two conflicts between China and Great Britain. Prior to these, the Ch’ing government enforced a closed door policy with regard to foreigners and their trade. Canton was the only port open to Westerners for trade. Defeat in the two “Opium Wars” (1840-42, 1856-60) by China led to a concession by the Ch’ing government to open a number of ports to trade for Westerners. Five, including Canton, were contained within the 1842 Treaty of Nanking and another eleven through the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin,
ratified by the Convention of Peking in 1860.1 These ports were labelled as the “Treaty Ports.” The combination of the treaties and the opening of the ports to trade directly contributed to the shifting of the centre of commerce, for many foreign merchants, from Canton to Shanghai.2 That alteration was eventually found to be to the advantage of colonial Australian merchants. More so, from 1860, these facilitated improvements in the trade of tea, coal, sandalwood and other commodities between China and Australia.
Colonial Australia, or specifically the colonies of New South Wales and Victoria, changed significantly in the 1850s. The discoveries of gold fields in the two colonies created not only an increase in population through the speculators who ventured to the fields, but also, by 1860, improvements in the financial positions of the two colonies.3 In a “rush that never ended,” gold, amongst numerous other metals, was important to the development of each and every colony in Australia.4 By the end of the nineteenth century, new considerable gold fields had been found throughout Queensland, in the Northern Territory of South Australia and in Western Australia. Gold created for Australians, by the 1860s, a new level of wealth to pay for its goods. Over the next three decades, as economist Noel Butlin stated, “Australian economic growth as a whole was sustained, stable and rapid.”5 It was an economic boom.6 Thus, gold created for
1 For a lengthy discussion on the Treaty Ports of China and Japan, see: Wm. Fred Mayers, Treaties
between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers, Together with Regulations for the Conduct of Foreign Trade. Shanghai: J. Broadhurst Tootal, 1877.
2 Yü-t'ang Sun, "The Historical Development and Aggressive Nature of American Imperialist Investment
in China (1784-1914)." Chinese Studies in History 8, no. 3 (1975): 6. American merchants and others
were afforded special rights including “fixed tariffs, extraterritorial rights and most-favored nation treatment.”
3 Allen C. Kelley, "Demographic Change and Economic Growth: Australia 1861-1911." Explorations in
Entrepreneurial History 5, no. 3 (1968): 208-09. Kelley termed this a demographic shock. However,
there were residual effects on the next generations with mild depressions and unemployment in the late 1860s and late 1870s. Jenny Lee, and Charles Fahey, "A Boom for Whom? Some Developments in the Australian Labour Market, 1870-1891." Labour History 50 (1986): 22.
4 Geoffrey Blainey, The Rush That Never Ended: A History of Australian Mining. Melbourne: Melbourne
University Press, 1969: 2.
5 Noel Butlin, "The Shape of the Australian Economy, 1861-1900." The Economic Record 34, no. 67
Australia the ability to become a player within the multi-lateral trade arrangements that existed between England, India and China. Gold presented England with a new method of paying for its own imports. The new fortunes also allowed, at that time, Australian merchants to invest in new ventures, ventures that included trade with China.
The trade relationship between the Australian colonies and the Treaty Ports of China was centred around a number of mercantile firms. These firms, as with the trade relationship, were evolving in the methods they employed to perform trade. The current chapter sets out to understand who were the primary merchants involved in the China – Australia trade relationship of the 1860s and 1870s. The Ettrick example in the Introduction of this study delivers a brief understanding of some of the merchants and their trade. The relationship between various firms, in the Ettrick example, is intimated. This chapter extends the knowledge to a broader understanding of the mercantile relationships that existed between those in the Treaty Ports and those in colonial Australia. The analysis is augmented with the links that were also in place with firms in the UK and other countries. Thus, the broader question of this chapter is to ask who or what was involved in trade relationships between China and Australia in the 1860s and 1870s and how did those people and institutions work to enhance the relationships?
Early trade relationships with China
Australia’s first connection with China took place prior to European settlement. Hunters from Makassar travelled to northern Australia in search of trepang, also known as
6 For a discussion on the “Long Boom” see: Roger McGhee, "The Long Boom, 1860-1890." Chap. 5 In
Essays in Economic History of Australia, edited by James Griffin. 135-85. Hong Kong: Jacaranda Press, 1976.
bêche-de-mer.7 On occasion, Chinese joined the natives on their journey to Australia.8 From Makassar, Chinese merchants collected the trepang and exported it to China, thus creating the first comprehensive trade of Australian products to China.9 The Chinese also largely financed the trepang trade.10 These were Hokkien traders who had developed organised networks from south Fukien to the East Indies and ports including Makassar prior to the eighteenth century and before.11 Chinese junks were also said to have arrived in the Torres Strait in search of trepang.12 However, beyond that, extensive
trade for Australia with the outside world was non-existent.
Australia became a European colony in 1788 with the arrival of the British settler colonists to its east coast at Port Jackson.13 The new colony, called New South Wales, relied on arriving vessels, generally from England and occasionally from India, for supplies.14 In Sydney, the capital of the new colony, the soldiers and a few wealthy
7 Regina Ganter, "China and the Beginning of Australian History." The Great Circle 25, no. 1 (2003): 10.
See, also Knapp, G. J., and Heather Sutherland. Monsoon Traders : Ships, Skippers and Commodities in Eighteenth-Century Makassar. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2004.
8 Heather Sutherland, "Trepang and Wangkang: The China Trade of Eighteenth-Century Makassar C.
1720s-1840s." Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, Authority and enterprise among the
peoples of South Sulawesi 156, no. 3 (2000): 454.
9 Charles C. Macknight, The Voyage to Marege' : Macassan Trepangers in Northern Australia. Carlton:
Melbourne University Press, 1976: 12; Sandy Blair and Nicholas Hall, "Macassan Sea Roads: The Heritage of Intecultural Maritime Routes Connecting Australia to Southeast Asia." Historic Environment 25, no. 3 (2013): 46. Initially, the ships originated from Amoy, but after 1781, those from Canton took prominence in the trade. Leonard Blussé, "Chinese Shipping to the Nanyang in the Second Half of the
Eighteenth Century." In Chinese Circulations: Capital, Commodities, and Networks in Southeast Asia,
edited by Eric Tagliacosso and Wen-Chin Chang. 221-58. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011: 230.
10 Blussé, “Chinese Shipping to the Nanyang.”: 236n31.
11 James K. Chin, "Junk Trade, Business Networks, and Sojourning Communities: Hokkien Merchants in
Early Maritime Asia." Journal of Chinese Overseas 6 (2010): 193.
12 Guy Ramsey, "The Chinese Diaspora in Torres Strait: Cross-Cultural Connections and Contentions on
Thursday Island." In Navigating Boundaries: The Asian Diaspora in Torres Strait, edited by Anna
Shnukal, Guy Ramsay and Yuriko Nagata. 53-79. Canberra: Pandanus Books, 2004: 54.
13 Three of the vessels that, in 1788, arrived with the new settlers and convicts (Lady Penrhyn, Charlotte
and Scarborough) were directed to Canton to collect tea for the homebound journey. A. K. Cavanagh, "The Return of the First Fleet Ships." The Great Circle 11, no. 2 (1989): 1. The connection to Canton for tea was done under the instruction of the BEIC. Alan Frost, "The East India Company and the Choice of Botany Bay." Australian Historical Studies 16, no. 65 (1975): 607-08.
14 Margaret Steven, Merchant Campbell, 1769-1846: A Study of Colonial Trade. Melbourne: Oxford
partisans were the merchants.15 At the commencement of the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs became prevalent in Sydney. Robert Campbell16 and Simeon Lord17 were
the two most prominent. Through these two and other merchants, trade was established with a variety of Asian ports, including those in India, Penang18 and Canton.19 Although there was a trade embargo on British trade with China employed through the regulations of the BEIC,20 these merchants engaged in various methods to overcome the BEIC regulations. One was to create a triangle of trade involving both Canton and Calcutta. 21
Another method, very common during the first decade of the nineteenth century, was to trade with vessels of American ownership. American vessels commonly landed in Sydney to trade, some of which continued their journey to Canton.22 The BEIC restrictions were lifted in 1834.23 Between 1834 and 1860, trade from Australia to China was minimal. Shipments of tea, though, continued to arrive in the various ports of the Australian colonies. Regular traffic was thus maintained between China and Australia. By the 1860s, that traffic was to increase considerably.
15 Charles E. T. Newman, The Spirit of Wharf House: Campbell Enterprise from Calcutta to Canberra.
Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1961: 13.
16 David R. Hainsworth, "Trade within the Colony." In Economic Growth of Australia, 1788-1821, edited
by G. J. Abbott and N. B. Nairn. 267-84. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969: 274; Steven, Merchant Campbell: 1; Newman, The Spirit of Wharf House: 6, 19.
17 David R. Hainsworth, Builders and Adventurers; the Traders and the Emergence of the Colony 1788-
1821. Melbourne: Cassell Australia, 1968: 3; E. C. Rowland, "Simeon Lord, a Merchant Prince of Botany Bay." Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 30 (1944): 159-63, 166-67; Hainsworth, “Trade within the Colony.”: 274. Lord tried unsuccessfully in 1806 to convince the Governor to allow him to bypass the regulations of the BEIC. That success was finally attained in 1818.
18 The General Wellesley arrived from Penang in Sydney on 13 February 1807 with a large cargo
including tea. The Dundee arrived from Penang in Sydney on 18 July 1808. “Ship News.” SGNSWA 15 February 1807: 2; “Ship News.” SGNSWA 24 July 1808: 2.
19 The Perseverance sailed from Sydney on 9 February 1807 for Canton. She returned from Canton on 5
May 1808. “Ship News.” SGNSWA 15 February 1807: 2; “Ship News.” SGNSWA 22 May 1808: 1.
20 Brian Pinkstone, and David Meredith. Global Connections: A History of Exports and the Australian
Economy. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1992: 17; Noel Butlin, Forming a
Colonial Economy, Australia 1810-1850. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994: 164.
21 Hainsworth, “Trade within the Colony.”: 176. Merchant John Macarthur, proposed to deliver
sandalwood to Canton. From the earnings in Canton, Macarthur’s partner in India would then procure goods for the Sydney market. The venture failed owing to a lack of start up funds.
22 Based on the shipping records attained from the “Ship News” in the SGNSWA up to five vessels per
year arrived from American ports, normally those in New England, including Nantucket. Many were in Sydney to resupply for their seal and whale hunting efforts. Others travelled to Canton, some returning.
These marine industries were important to the early NSW economy. Max Colwell. Whaling around
Australia. Adelaide: Rigby Limited, 1969: 3, 18-19.
One impetus to the growth of trade in the 1860s was the major discontinuity, or shock, in colonial Australia’s economic development that was created by the gold discoveries of the early 1850s in Victoria and New South Wales.24 From an agrarian economy reliant on the wheat and wool industries, the focus of colonial Australia and its exports immediately turned to the mining sector, gold joining an existing South Australian copper industry.25 The extraction of gold created prosperity for the country and hence initiated a new stage of economic expansion in Australia.26 Yet, more so than the
corresponding finds in California, Australian gold helped underpin a stable international multilateral monetary system.27
The major effect of the creation of the gold industry was the ability of colonial Australia to create a new staple. The highest percentage of gold exported was to Great Britain, not only improving the bilateral relationship between Great Britain and the Australian colonies but also assisting with the rapidly expanding international trade after 1850.28 The excessive imports of gold by Great Britain helped solidify the strength of their financial sector as well as providing Great Britain with the funds for further foreign investments. For Australia, gold became and remained the dominant export commodity for a period of two decades following its discovery. In 1861, for example, gold amounted to half the value of all exports.29
The post-mid-century period attracted merchants to be part of a complex global economy. Australia’s input was through its new found gold reserves. The movement of
24 W. A. Sinclair, The Process of Economic Development in Australia. Melbourne: Cheshire, 1976: 79.
25 Sinclair, Economic Development in Australia: 76.
26 Ian W. McLean, Why Australia Prospered: The Shifting Sources of Economic Growth. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2013: 65; Pinkstone and Meredith, Global Connections: 33.
27 Pinkstone and Meredith, Global Connections: 33.
28 McLean, Why Australia Prospered: 76.
29 McLean, Why Australia Prospered: 71; Pinkstone and Meredith, Global Connections: 36; Geoffrey
bullion and drafts throughout Asia in the nineteenth century was quite common. This movement generated a number of complex multilateral trade relationships that involved China, India and England together with other relevant countries. Takeshi Hamashita, in his translated collection of works China, East Asia and the Global Economy: Regional and Historical Perspectives, emphasizes the importance of multi-lateral trade relationships. Hamashita relates that, for example, in the late 1840s, the trade of opium, cotton and tea created imbalances and trade deficits that required bullion as a medium to cover.30 Together with bullion, many drafts co-existed within a multilateral trade regime. Hamashita’s work precedes the period of the gold finds in NSW and Victoria and thus he dismisses Australia as trifling as “it can be hardly said that there is any course of exchange in these places.”31 The fact that by the late 1850s and the following decades Australia was a global lead exporter of gold, cleared a path for the ports of Sydney and Melbourne to establish recognition within the overall multilateral trade discourse involving Great Britain, India and China.
The discovery of gold had a secondary effect. It created the heavy migration of Chinese to Australia. The Chinese had alternate cultural habits and culinary needs to the Westerners. They required different imports to those who were serviced by Western merchants in the ports of Melbourne and Sydney. Out of this requirement emerged the Chinese mercantile community. In the Introduction, I have noted the vast number of Chinese merchants that were in Cooktown in the late 1870s. Similarly, there would have been significant networks of Chinese merchants in both Melbourne and Sydney from the 1850s. In one document from 1859, the size of the Chinese mercantile
30 Takeshi Hamashita, Linda Grove, and Mark Selden, eds. China, East Asia and the Global Economy:
Regional and Historical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2008: 118.
community was said to be over 200 in Melbourne alone.32 The fact that there was a Chinese mercantile community in those ports and that they were involved in importing produce from China means that there are two paths, whether distinct or intersecting, that require understanding. The trade relationship between China and Australia involved the Westerners and the Chinese.
At the commencement of the 1860s, Australia was considered attractive for investment and trade. Mercantile firms in the Treaty Ports of China viewed, with interest, the expanding and prosperous economies of the various Australian colonies. The expansion of the population of the colonies, the removal of certain institutional restrictions together with the development and trade of local resources created opportunities for merchant firms in Australia, China and elsewhere. By the 1860s, trade between China and Australia was more extensive than it had been in the past which, in turn, galvanized numerous trade relationships between the firms taking part.
The Treaty Port System
The Treaty Port system was created following the first Opium War. Through the Treaty of Nanking (1842), the four ports of Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were opened to foreigners. The rights to Canton were extended and the island of Hong Kong was annexed by the British. The Treaty stated that, within the Treaty Ports, British subjects “shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits.”33 That is, China was ostensibly forced to participate in international free
32 “Chinese Residence Tax.” Argus 31 May 1859: 7. In his deposition, Mr. King, merchant in Melbourne,
stated that there were “some 200 merchants and persons in their employment” when describing the Chinese mercantile community.
trade.34 Additional ports were opened following the second Opium War. The Treaty of Tientsin (1858), ratified by the Peking Convention (1860), required the opening of the ports of Newchwang, Chefoo, Formosa, Swatow and Hainan.35 Also, the port of Chinkiang and up to three ports, as far as Hankow, inland on the Yangtze River, were included.36 By the 1860s, British merchants, followed by merchants from other Western nations, commenced cohabitation, and thus competition, with the existing Chinese mercantile community at the various Treaty Ports located along the Chinese coast and the Yangtze River. Australian merchants were trading with the Western merchant firms in these ports.
The creation of the Treaty Ports were viewed by many Chinese as an imposition on China.37 Yet, the Treaty Ports also controlled the Westerners from further incursion into
China. Historian Rhoads Murphey considered the ports as beachheads of imperial incursion.38 As beachheads, the ports were only semi-colonies of the foreign powers.39 Western powers were unable to attain dominance over the whole country, but were limited in access to those ports opened following the implementation of the various treaties. Murphey also advanced that the Chinese Treaty Ports were “enclave economies and enclave worlds ideologically and institutionally.”40 There was a border, both