Art. IX.—Observations on the Expediency of opening a Second Port in China, addressed to the President and Select Committee of Supracargoes for the, management of the Affairs of the Honourable East India Company in China

Abstract

The following Memoir, bearing date the 2nd July, 1816, was written on the occasion of Lord Amherst's Embassy to Pekin. A few copies were printed at the Company's press at Macao, early in the year 1817, for private circulation only, and were very sparingly distributed, so that this memoir has now become scarce, and not to be found, except in a few public and private libraries. The publication of it, therefore, at the present moment, when our relations with China are exciting an intense interest, seems highly desirable. The time is now come when we are called upon to decide what new privileges we have to demand of the Chinese: and since a more unrestricted intercourse with that country is looked for, it becomes an object of the first importance to ascertain at what Ports these privileges may be best obtained; for on that decision the future interests of the trade depend. It will be found that this memoir enters upon that subject with a minuteness of detail and fulness of illustration, not even attempted in any other publication. And though the principles laid down and course of arguments employed, may seem exclusively confined to the state of the trade under the control of the East India Company, yet they will be found, in fact, equally applicable to the circumstances of the trade at the present moment, and to contain matter eminently worthy of the attention of the public. It has been deemed advisable not to alter the original text, but to add a few notes, marked thus, where any change of circumstances in the trade, or matter furnished by more recent information, seemed to render such observations necessary. For greater ease of reference, the Chinese names of places have been altered and adapted to the orthography of Arrowsmith's map.—Edit.