Travels in China by Sir John Barrow (top e book reader .txt) 📕

Or one hundred and seventy-three thousand pounds sterling; three Chinese ounces being equal to one pound sterling.

It is hardly possible that this enormous sum of money could have been expended on account of the Embassy, though I have no doubt of its having been issued out of the Imperial treasury for that purpose. One of the missionaries informed me, in Pekin, that the Gazette of that capital contained an article stating the liberality of the Emperor towards the English Embassador, in his having directed no less a sum than fifteen hundred ounces of silver to be applied for the daily expences of the Embassy, while stationary in the capital and at Gehol. The same gentleman made an observation, that the great officers of government, as well as those who had the good luck to be appointed to manage the concerns of a foreign embassy, considered it as one of the best wind-falls in the Emperor's gift, the difference between the allowances and the actual expenditure being equivalent to a little fortune.

Van-ta-gin, indeed, explained to us, that although the Imperial warrant was signed for those sums, yet that having a number of offices to pass through, in all of which it diminished a little, the whole of it was not actually expended on the Embassy. He gave to the Embassador an excellent illustration of the manner in which the Imperial bounty was sometimes applied. An inundation had swept away, the preceding winter, a whole village in the province of Shan-tung, so suddenly, that the inhabitants could save nothing but their lives. The Emperor having once lodged at the place immediately ordered 100,000 ounces of silver for their relief, out of which the first officer of the treasury took 20,000, the second 10,000, the third 5,000, and so on, till at last there remained only 20,000 for the poor sufferers. So that the boasted morality of China is pretty much the same, when reduced to practice, as that of other countries.

The real expence, however, of the British Embassy, could not have been a trifle, when we consider what a vast multitude of men, horses, and vessels were constantly employed on the occasion. Van-ta-gin assured me, that there were seldom fewer than one thousand men, and frequently many more, employed one way or other in its service; and I am persuaded he did not intend to exaggerate. In the first place, from the mouth of the Pei-ho to Tong-tchoo, we had forty-one yachts or barges, each on an average, including boatmen, trackers, and soldiers, having on board fifteen men; this gives six hundred and fifteen men to the boats only. Caterers running about the country to collect provisions, boatmen to bring them to the several barges, the conducting officers, and their numerous retinue, are not included in this estimate. From Tong-tchoo near three thousand men were employed to carry the presents and baggage, first to Hung-ya-yuen, beyond Pekin, and then back again to the capital, which took them three days. In our return from Tong-tchoo to Hang-tchoo-foo, we had a fleet of thirty-vessels, with ten men at least and, for the greatest part of the journey, twenty additional trackers to each vessel; this gives nine hundred people for the yachts alone.

From Hang-tchoo-foo to Eu-shan-shien and from Hang-tchoo-foo to Chu-san, there might probably be employed about forty vessels, with twelve men to each, or four hundred and eighty in the whole. And, besides the people employed by the officers of government to purchase provisions, numbers were stationed in different parts of the rivers to contract the stream, by raking together the pebbles where, otherwise, the water would have been too shallow for the boats to pass; and others to attend at all the fluices on the canals to assist the vessels in getting through the same.

From Tchang-shan-shien to Eu-shan-shien, overland, we had about forty horses, and three or four hundred men to carry the baggage.

From the Po-yang lake to Canton, we had generally about twenty-six vessels with twenty men to each, including boatmen, soldiers, and trackers, which gives five hundred and twenty men for these alone.

The Embassy consisted of near one hundred persons, but as for the several officers and their numerous retinue of guards, attendants, and runners, I have not the least idea to what their numbers might amount; all of whom, being on extraordinary service, were supported at the public expence.

The whole expence of the Embassy to this country, including the presents, did not exceed eighty thousand pounds; an inconsiderable sum for such a nation as Great Britain on such an occasion, and not more than a fourth part of what has been generally imagined.

Although the British factory was in every sense more comfortable than the most splendid palace that the country afforded, yet it was so repugnant to the principles of the government for an Embassador to take up his abode in the same dwelling with merchants, that it was thought expedient to indulge their notions in this respect, and to accept a large house in the midst of a garden, on the opposite side of the river, which was fitted up and furnished with beds in the European manner, with glazed sash windows, and with fire grates suitable for burning coals. On our arrival here we found a company of comedians hard at work, in the middle of a piece, which it seemed had begun at sun-rise; but their squalling and their shrill and harsh music were so dreadful, that they were prevailed upon, with difficulty, to break off during dinner, which was served up in a viranda directly opposite the theatre.

Next morning, however, about sun-rise, they set to work afresh, but at the particular request of the Embassador, in which he was joined by the whole suite, they were discharged, to the no small astonishment of our Chinese conductors, who concluded, from this circumstance, that the English had very little taste for elegant amusements. Players, it seems, are here hired by the day and the more incessantly they labour, the more they are applauded. They are always ready to begin any one piece out of a list of twenty or thirty, that is presented for the principal visitor to make his choice.

The nature of the trade carried on by foreign nations at the port of Canton is so well known, that it would be superfluous for me to dwell on that subject. The complaints of all nations against the extortions practised there have been loudly and frequently heard in Europe, but the steps that have hitherto been taken have proved unavailing. The common answer is, "Why do you come here? We take in exchange your articles of produce and manufacture, which we really have no occasion for, and give you in return our precious tea, which nature has denied to your country, and yet you are not satisfied. Why do you so often visit a country whose customs you dislike? We do not invite you to come among us, but when you do come, and behave well, we treat you accordingly. Respect then our hospitality, but don't pretend to regulate or reform it." Such is the language held to Europeans by all the petty officers of government with whom they have to deal.

With such sentiments one cannot be surprized that foreign merchants should be received with indifference, if not handled with rudeness, and that the fair trader should be liable to extortions. This is still more likely to happen from the complete monopoly of all foreign trade being consigned to a limited number of merchants, seldom, I believe, exceeding eight, who are sanctioned by government. The cargoes of tin, lead, cotton, opium, and large sums of Spanish dollars, sent to Canton from Europe, India, and America, all pass through the hands of these Hong merchants, who also furnish the return cargoes. As the capital employed is far beyond any thing of the kind we can conceive in Europe by so few individuals, their profits must be proportionally great, or they could not be able to bear the expence of the numerous and magnificent presents which they are expected to make to the superior officers of government at Canton, who, in their turn, find it expedient to divide these