A special tax of 10 per cent. was put on all foreign imports and exports in the year 1727, but after making (A.D. 1728) a strong united appeal to the Throne, in the humblest form of subject suppliants, the Company's Supercargoes were granted, on the occasion of the accession of the Emperor Kienlung (A.D. 1786), exemption from this tax. By this time about four English ships, two French, one Danish and one Swedish ship arrived every year to share in the Canton trade. Portuguese trade was confined to Macao. However, in the year 1754, a new method of extortion was introduced, by requiring each ship, on her arrival, to obtain first of all, by special negotiation, the security of two members of the Co-Hong, before the usual arrangements concerning measuring fee, cumshaw, linguist's fee, and customs duties could be entered upon. Up to this time, the monopoly of the Co-Hong concerned only the disposal of the cargo and the purchase of exports, but from the year 1755 all dealings of foreigners with small merchants and purveyors of ships' provisions were strictly prohibited, and especially all dealings of the ships with native junks and boats, whilst anchoring outside and before entering the river, were visited with severe penalties. Owing to occasional smuggling malpractices on the part of natives, countenanced by foreign skippers, an Imperial Edict prohibited (A.D. 1757) all commercial transactions with foreign ships, whether outside the Bogue or at Whampoa, and confined trade strictly to Canton. As this measure not only tended to hamper trade operations in Canton waters, but threatened the extinction of the flourishing Amoy agency, the Committee of Supercargoes sent Mr. Harrison, together with a very able interpreter, Mr. Flint, to Amoy (A.D. 1759) to arrange with the local Authorities a continuation of the Amoy trade on special terms. When these negotiations failed, Mr. Flint, sharing the opinion of the Supercargoes that the obnoxious Imperial Edict had been obtained by the Cantonese Authorities through false representations, proceeded (with the secret support of the Amoy Authorities) to Tientsin and succeeded in getting his views, involving serious charges against
