Opening for Business

Abstract

This chapter explains the challenges foreign merchants faced in Xiamen. It narrates the intensified trading activities of Western merchants after the Opium War and its huge impact on the commerce of China, especially in the treaty ports themselves. The chapter then details how the Opium sale to China; foreign steamers; and new items like kerosene, flour, and matchsticks became essential parts of Chinese everyday life. It also explains the reasons behind the treaty port's lackluster foreign trade. The chapter recounts Western merchants' dismay that their profits had been seriously undermined by Chinese competitors. In Xiamen especially, Western merchants had found it to be a “particularly tough” market.