Cohong (Gonghang)

Assembled from 22 blocks · 2 evidence · 25 related

1. Story
2. The Cohong was the guild of Chinese merchant houses licensed by the Qing state to be the sole legal counterparties for Western traders at Canton. Every chest of tea bought by a European company was bought through a Hong merchant, who was also made personally liable for the foreigners' debts and conduct — a mechanism of control as much as of commerce. The system gave the Qing a single chokepoint for taxation and supervision, and gave European buyers no direct access to producers, prices or processing knowledge upcountry. The Treaty of Nanking abolished the guild's monopoly in 1842.
3. Knowledge
4. Canton (historical) — modern Guangzhou
5. Cohong (Gonghang)
6. Connections
7. Canton (historical) — modern Guangzhou
8. Qing trade confined to Canton
9. Treaty of Nanking
10. Tea
11. Cohong (Gonghang)
12. Silver
13. Opium
14. Shanghai
15. Qing trade confined to Canton
16. East India Company's China monopoly ends; Tea Committee founded
17. Lin Zexu destroys confiscated opium at Humen
18. The Opium Wars
19. Treaty of Nanking
20. Evidence
21. Between 1757 and 1842 all Western maritime trade with China was confined to Canton and conducted through the Cohong, with tea the dominant export and silver the dominant means of payment.
22. The treaty opened five ports, ceded Hong Kong, abolished the Cohong monopoly, fixed tariffs and imposed a silver indemnity — and made no mention of opium.