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The ''Cohong'', sometimes spelled or , a
guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometim ...
of Chinese merchants or ''hongs'', operated the import-export monopoly in Canton (present-day
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
) during the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
(16441911). During the century prior to the First Opium War of 1839-1842, trade relations between China and
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
took place exclusively via the ''Cohong'' - a system formalised by an imperial edict of the
Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 ...
in 1760. The Chinese merchants who made up the ''Cohong'' were referred to as (行商) and their foreign counterparts as (literally "foreign traders").


Foundation and structure

In 1704, the ''Baoshang'' system was established. This system granted a number of Chinese
merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...
s license to trade with Western merchants as long as they helped to collect duties from the Westerners, successfully aligning trading interests with the government's revenue collection. This was the predecessor for the later Cohong system. According to John Phipps, author of the 19th century ''Practical Treatise on the China and Eastern Trade'', the merchant Poankeequa (潘启官) founded the
guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometim ...
in the 1790s, although Chinese historian
Immanuel C.Y. Hsu Immanuel Chung-Yueh Hsü (, 1923 – October 24, 2005) was a sinologist, a scholar of modern Chinese intellectual and diplomatic history, and a professor of history at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Biography Born in Shanghai i ...
cites an earlier date of 1720. Over time, membership of the ''Cohong'' fluctuated between five and 26 merchants authorized by the Chinese Central Government to handle trade, particularly rights to trade tea and silk, with the West. They were the only group at the time authorized to do this, making them the main controllers of all foreign trade in the nation.


Trade with the West

''see: Canton System'' Within the city of Canton (''
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
'', 广州) the ''Cohong'' were granted the Qing Empire's monopoly on foreign trade, overseeing the trade between western silver from the New World and valued goods from the Qing Empire ''Cohong'' merchant guilds therefore represented the primary link between the government of the Qing Dynasty and the rest of the world. As Guangzhou represented the only official port of trade between the Qing trade network and European trading powers, the ''Cohong'' enjoyed a virtual monopoly over the trade with the west, and as such reaped the benefits of the Westerners' insatiable appetite for
porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...
,
silk Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...
, and most of all, tea. Under the oversight of a ministry of revenue official known to the British as the "Hoppo" (a mispronunciation of the term ''hubu'', 户部), the ''Cohong,'' from their offices known as ''hangs,'' held a monopoly over trade with the Western trade warehouses and the incredibly important silver they represented for the Qing economy. Despite controlling the trade between European powers and the Qing Empire, the ''Cohong'' often held precarious positions, with the Hoppo holding tremendous power over their appointment and their finances. Additionally, because of the low social status of merchants within traditional
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
social hierarchy, the ''Cohong'' merchants were often at the mercy of their bureaucratic masters within the Hoppo. Throughout his three-year term in the office, a ''Cohong'' merchant would be forced to pay numerous bribes, levies, donations, and gifts to his superiors, resulting in a steep drop in profits. Nevertheless, as a result of the lucrative trade they controlled, ''Cohong'' guilds became very wealthy, with their personal fortunes numbering among the highest in the Qing dynasty, and even in the world. To maintain their influence they ensured that local residents and officials up to the highest level of the bureaucracy made overtures to the Qing government to maintain Canton's status as the sole site of official trade with the western world. From time to time, this municipal trade monopoly came to rankle the British government, who sought out other ports of call through which to obtain the goods that their Empire craved.


''Consoo'' fund

The ''Cohong'' further functioned as controller of the ''Consoo Fund'' (公所, ''gōngsuǒ'')(actually the name of the office of the ''Cohong'' in Thirteen Factory Street), a system established in 1781 that utilized a pool of money raised by levies (公所费, ''gōngsuǒfèi'') on the trades of individual merchants to cover the debts of any bankrupt ''hong'' at year end and to pay the various exactions demanded by the government and the Hoppo bureaucrats. Officially, the rate levied for the fund was 3% of the value of goods. This tax originally applied only to tea but by the late eighteenth century had expanded to cover 69 different products.


Opium trade

Due to the heavy need for silver in the trade between European colonial powers and the Qing in Canton and complications with its silver supply due to revolts within the
American Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...
, the British required a substitute for the precious metal. In short order, British merchants employed
opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy '' Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which ...
as a valuable trade good to obtain the goods it desired. As the Qing Empire's trade with the West transitioned from silver to opium, the Cohong Guilds transitioned themselves to the trade in the addictive narcotic substance. Opium from
British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
moved swiftly into the Chinese markets, largely overtaking silver as the most traded good between British merchants and the Qing dynasty. Despite the Daoguang Emperor's many opium prohibition edicts throughout the early Nineteenth Century, the Western trade upon which the ''Cohong'' Merchantmen built their livelihoods now centered around the drug, and as such the merchants participated heavily in the narcotic trade. Within the city of Canton, in which western trade represented the center of the economic structure, the Qing Emperor's edicts held little effect over the trade hierarchy . From
Lintin Island Nei or Inner Lingding Island, formerly romanized as Lintin or is an island in the Pearl River estuary in the southeastern Chinese province of Guangdong. Although it is located closer to the eastern (Hong Kong and Shenzhen) shore of the estua ...
, the small island near Guangzhou on which the European states moored their boats, the Cohong merchants facilitated the use of small smuggling vessels known as "fast crabs" or "shifting dragons" in order to transport the illicit substance from Lintin to the warehouses within Canton. These boats were necessary to avoid Qing search and seizure of the opium and ensure its arrival in Canton, after which the ''Cohong'' took over the process, trading their goods for the opium and preparing it to enter Qing Territory. While the ''Cohong'' did not participate directly in the opium trade within China (this was accomplished through other merchants, and the distribution handled by criminals and social outcasts, such as migrants), they were the first part of the process through which the substance entered China.


End

After the British victory in the First Opium War, the Treaty of Nanjing, signed in 1842, extracted several British demands from the Qing government, in particular the end of the Canton system and the dissolution of the ''Cohong'' merchants' guilds. In the wake of this decision, trade moved from the
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...
merchant-to-merchant systems of the Qing Empire to the more diplomatic official-to-official trading systems of the British Empire.


See also

*
Germania (guild) (in Catalan; literally "brotherhoods") were guilds of artisans in the Kingdom of Valencia in Spain. Each ''germania'' () represented a single trade. The ''germanies'' are similar to the (also "brotherhoods", but in Castilian Spanish) of Casti ...
– Merchants' guilds in Valencia, Spain * Guildhall Museum * Guild of Romanists Club in 17th century Antwerp *
Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label= Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...
– Merchants' guilds in Europe, especially the Baltic region *
Howqua Wu Bingjian (; 17694 September 1843), trading as "Houqua" and better known in the West as "Howqua", was a hong merchant in the Thirteen Factories, head of the '' E-wo hong'' and leader of the Canton Cohong. He was once the richest man in the wor ...
* Jāti – guilds (of mediaeval origin) in India *
Marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a '' souk'' (from the Arabic), ' ...
*
Old China Trade The Old China Trade () refers to the early commerce between the Qing Empire and the United States under the Canton System, spanning from shortly after the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 to the Treaty of Wanghia in 1844. The Old C ...
*
Painter's Guild in New Spain While the Casta system was flourishing in New Spain (Colonial Mexico) (1519-1821), a painters' guild emerged in order to classify the different ‘races’. The painters' guild in New Spain paralleled the structure, purpose, and mobility of the Ca ...
*
Retail Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...
* Shreni – Association of merchants, traders and artisans in India * Trade Guilds of South India *
Trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
* Za (guilds) – Merchants' guilds in Japan *
Ten Great Merchant Guilds The Ten Great Merchant Guilds () were the variously influential groups of merchants and businessmen in Chinese history. They were: * Shanxi Merchants (晉商) - also known as Jin merchants * Huizhou Merchants - based in modern Huangshan, Anhu ...


References

{{Foreign trade in Imperial China , state=collapsed Economic history of China Foreign relations of the Qing dynasty Guangzhou History of foreign trade in China Guilds