The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton Before Treaty Days 1825-1844. William C. Hunter
When I last visited the site, nearly thirty-five years after I first took up my residence in them, it was literally unrecognisable. It presented a scene, the desolation of desolation; there remained not one stone upon another! For more than one hundred years they had formed the sole residence of foreigners within the limits of the vast Chinese Empire. The business transacted within their walls was incalculable, and I think I am safe in saying that from the novelty of the life, the social good feeling and unbounded hospitality always mutually existing; from the facility of all dealings with the Chinese who were assigned to transact business with us, together with their proverbial honesty, combined with a sense of perfect security to person and property, scarcely a resident of any lengthened time, in short, any 'Old Canton,' but finally left them with regret.
In no part of the world could the authorities have exercised a more vigilant care over the personal safety of strangers who of their own free will came to live in the midst of a population whose customs and prejudices were so opposed to everything foreign, and yet the Chinese Government was bound by no treaty obligations to specially provide protection for them. They dwelt at Canton purely on sufferance. Neither Consul nor any other official representative from abroad was directly acknowledged as such, and yet the solicitude of the local government never flagged. In addition to the guards always posted at the corner of the American Hong and Old China Street, others were stationed in various directions in the suburbs frequented by foreigners, in order that any Chinese who might be troublesome could be driven off, or that they could escort back to the factories those who were uncertain of their whereabouts.
During the north-east monsoon fires were quite frequent in the densely populated suburbs lying north of the factories. When they threatened the foreign quarter the Hong merchants, acting in consonance with the known wishes of the Mandarins, would send gangs of armed coolies to assist in the removal to boats provided by them of books, papers, treasure, and personal effects. All strange Chinese would be ruthlessly driven from the Square, and an unobstructed passage to the boats secured. I have witnessed this repeatedly. Should a foreigner get into a disturbance in the street, and it was generally safe to say it was through his own fault, the Chinamen went to the wall. When a mob of many thousand ruffians invaded the Factory Square, as in November 1838, shortly preceding the opium surrender, and with stones and missiles of all sorts drove the foreigners inside their gates, which they were forced to barricade, a not unnatural anxiety prevailed amongst us as to what might be the result. Yet this attack was caused by foreigners, who interfered with the Mandarins while attempting to carry out Government orders.
All foreigners who came to Canton, from the first arrivals, were considered as having no other object than that of commerce. The English and the Dutch made their appearance in the first half of the seventeenth century; successively arrived, the Danes, Swedes, and Austrians (Imperialists). The Spaniards invited the Chinese to their new settlement at Manila for a time, and afterwards they themselves came to the provincial city.
Some amongst these different nationalities, tradition said the Dutch, had red hair, which led the Chinese facetiously to apply the term 'Red-headed Devils' ever after to all foreigners alike. They themselves give to the whole of their own race the name of 'Black Hair'd.'
The authorities framed eight regulations for the especial government and control of these divers people from afar. They date from the year 1760, and are curious enough to recall. Never having been abrogated, they were assumed to be in force always. They were confirmed by an edict of the Emperor Kea-King in 1819, after a revision in 1810. Some of them came to be disregarded by the foreign community, particularly those referring to the Gardens, the Honam Temple, and pulling in their own boats on the river; but so far as regards women entering the Factories, an infringement of them in this essential particular took place in 1830, as will be seen hereafter. The chief sufferers in the event of a disregard of any important item of the regulations would of course be the Hong merchants. The 'Eight Regulations' were now and then brought to the Factories by a Linguist, as an intimation that they were not to be considered a 'dead letter.' Translated into English they read thus——
Regulation 1.—All vessels of war are prohibited from entering the Bogue. Vessels of war acting as convoy to merchantmen must anchor outside at Sea till their merchant-ships are ready to depart, and then sail away with them.
Regulation 2.—Neither women, guns, spears, nor arms of any kind can be brought to the Factories.
Regulation 3.—All river-pilots and ships' Compradores must be registered at the office of the 'Tung-Che'[11] at Macao. That officer will also furnish each one of them with a licence, or badge, which must be worn around the waist. He must produce it whenever called for. All other boatmen and people must not have communication with foreigners, unless under the immediate control of the ships' Compradores; and should smuggling take place, the Compradore[12] of the ship engaged in it will be punished.
Regulation 4.—Each Factory is restricted for its service to 8 Chinese (irrespective of the number of its occupants), say 2 porters, 4 water-carriers, 1 person to take care of goods ('go-down coolie'), and 1 mā-chen (intended for the foreign word 'merchant'), who originally performed all the duties of the 'House Compradore,' as he is styled to-day.
Regulation 5 prohibits foreigners from rowing about the river in their own boats for 'pleasure.' On the 8th, 18th, and 28th days of the moon 'they may take the air,' as fixed by the Government in the 21st year of Kea-King (1819). All ships' boats passing the Custom-houses on the river must be detained and examined, to guard against guns, swords, or firearms being furtively carried in them. On the 8th, 18th, and 28th days of the moon these foreign barbarians may visit the Flower Gardens and the Honam Joss-house,[13] but not in droves of over ten at one time. When they have 'refreshed' they must return to the Factories, not be allowed to pass the night 'out,' or collect together to carouse. Should they do so, then, when the next 'holiday' comes, they shall not be permitted to go. If the ten should presume to enter villages, public places, or bazaars, punishment will be inflicted upon the Linguist who accompanies them.
Regulation 6.—Foreigners are not allowed to present petitions. If they have anything to represent, it must be done through the Hong merchants.
Regulation 7.—Hong merchants are not to owe debts to foreigners. Smuggling goods to and from the city is prohibited.
Regulation 8.—Foreign ships arriving with merchandise must not loiter about outside the river; they must come direct to Whampoa. They must not rove about the bays at pleasure and sell to rascally natives goods subject to duty, that these may smuggle them, and thereby defraud His Celestial Majesty's revenue.
Originally there existed two English East India Companies, the oldest of which was incorporated in 1579. In the year 1600 they amalgamated, and received a charter from Queen Elizabeth. At the same time they assumed the title of the 'United East India Company,' and as a trade-mark, a heart with two transverse bars, bearing in the four divisions thus formed the letters V. E. I. C.
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