The Supercargo in the China Trade about the Year 1700
TWO hundred years ago the supercargo was an important person on a ship trading to the Indies. The ship went exploring to new countries; there were no banks of exchange, and her owners had no correspondents in foreign ports; they loaded on the ship what was required, in goods or in money, to buy a cargo of the products of the foreign country; and, as they could not go in person, they must have a representative on board who was qualified to sell his 'stock', to exchange his money for the currency of the country, and to buy his 'investment' of such quality and at such prices that the commodities could be sold at a profit on the ship's return to its home port. Besides this mercantile qualification, he must be capable of dealing with persons of rank and dignity. In one port the principal trader might be the king of the country (such a trader was the king of Tongking[1]); in another he might be the admiral commanding the naval defences, as at Mindanao in 1686,[2] or the general commanding the garrison, as at Amoy in 1684;[3] in another the merchants with whom he must trade were only the commercial representatives of the highest officials, as at Canton in 1699,[4] or one merchant might have the imperial commission to monopolize the trade with foreign ships, as at Chusan, Amoy, and Canton in 1702–4.[5] The supercargo needed diplomatic ability to deal with all such extraordinary situations; not simply the courage to resist extortionate demands, but the skill to conduct a trade notwithstanding that such demands were made.
The first requirement for a supercargo, on English ships trading to China was a knowledge of Portuguese. For over a century from 1517, the only European ships to visit China were Portuguese, and their language became, to some extent, the lingua franca of the coast. The Hollanders settled in Taiwan
- ↑ Diary of Supercargo of the Zant, 1672 (India Office Records, China). In the subsequent notes I shall refer to supercargoes' diaries in the same series by the name of the ship and date.
- ↑ Loyal Adventure, 1685–6.
- ↑ Delight, 1684.
- ↑ Macclesfield, frigate, 1699.
- ↑ Canterbury, 1702 (at Amoy); Kent, 1704 (at Canton); Diary of the Council for China, 1702, India Office Records, China (Chusan).
