Abstract
In 1784, the “Commutation Act” of the British Parliament reduced greatly the tea duties which efficiently precluded the tea smuggling. After that, the Anglo-Chinese trade increased rapidly, and the Britian had the largest share of the China’s foreign trade. In order to accommodate this new situation, the English East India Company (hereafter EIC) decided to reorganize its Canton Factory’s management methods, a “Select Committee” was set up regularly and the personnel of the Factory resided in China all the year till 1834. Among the almost fifty years between 1786-1834, the period around 1815 was a turning point of the EIC’s China trade. The war and pirates which disturbed the trade come to an end from 1816, thereupon the EIC obtained the advantage of lowering the freight and insurance. But on that same time, the EIC faced the severe chanllenges from other merchant groups which want to grab the China commercial market’s profits. This thesis explores the institional organization of the Canton Factory around 1815 on the one hand, including the division of labours, the methods of vocation, the time spent on promotion, the salary and welfare of the Factory’s members. It also explains the various interactions between the Factory and the internal parts of the EIC such as the Court of Directors, Indian Presidencies and the EIC’s ship, comprising the cargo, fianance, communication and shipping. As a result of these researches, we can understand more the related operations of the Canton Factory’s trade management than before. On the other hand, this dissertation discusses the advantage and disadvantage of the EIC among various merchant groups in China, and also the challenges of the EIC faced around 1815. This study contends that some new changes then increased and provided the cooperative opportunities bewteen Country merchants and English, America, Portuguese merchants, such as free trade with India from 1813, the growing demand of the Chinese for opium and the expanding cooperate strategy between the American merchants and the British non-EIC’s merchants. These developments let the trade volume of the Country merchants surpass gradually the Canton Factory and the China trade became more competitive. These changes eorded violently the EIC’s trade monopoly with China and were very disadvantage for the EIC’s further developments. The EIC struggled to gain more advantageous commercial conditions, but due to the opium prohibition of the Q’ing dynasty, the tea transportation by land as usual, the failure of the Lord Amherst embassy etc., the EIC could’t obtain more trade advantages than other merchant groups in China.