Middle Men in the Middle Kingdom: American Traders, Hong Merchants, and Qing Officials in China during the First Opium War, 1839–42

As the First Opium War unfolded, American merchants motivated by self-interest nevertheless played a decisive role in formalizing Sino-U.S. relations. Despite a collective memory that has depicted them primarily as smugglers, Yankee traders such as Warren Delano, Robert Bennett Forbes, and Russell Sturgis relied upon their business reputations to form alternating alliances with Hong merchants, British officers, Qing officials, and, ultimately, the American Navy. In the early 1800s many New Englanders journeyed east to salve wounded reputations by recouping family fortunes swept away during the War of 1812. Such experiences provided common cause with Howqua, Ponqua, and other Hong merchants struggling to maintain family reputations in the wake of economic turmoil. Yet in 1839 American traders used the international press to embrace the British war aim of free trade and condemn opium smuggling. These merchants simultaneously curried favor with the Chinese public by selling vessels to the Qing navy and condemning British attacks on Ningbo and Chinkiang—all the while continuing their illicit traffic. In 1842, however, U.S. Naval Commodore Lawrence Kearny threatened to publish the names of leading opium smugglers. With their reputations hanging in the balance, American businessmen saved face by publicly supporting the Treaty of Wanghia which granted Americans the same rights as British subjects under the new treaty port system. On the strength of seldom-used primary sources, the project at hand proposes a more nuanced account of the early American merchant community in China, which in turn empowers a broader reinterpretation of the First Opium War.