Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Rock Walls

Uhau humu pōhaku, or dry stacking, is masonry without mortar or metal joinery. “Each layer is locked into place by the one below.” (Gino Bergman; Simon)

Other gravity-resistant touches include inwardly tilting facades and adjacent stones that clench together like upper and lower jaws of teeth. (Simon)

“[S]tone structures of the old Hawaiians … were of rough stone, dry laid, and consist of pyramidal and enclosed temples which will properly be considered with the Ancient Worship, and extensive walls enclosing fish preserves on the fringing coral reefs, which belong again to the Fisheries.”

“In both these stone works it was the great labor expended in collecting, transporting and placing the stones rather than any architectural skill that made them noteworthy. … Cut stones for building purposes were rare, and in all cases they were shaped from slabs of lava by patient hammering.”

“The stone walls of the heiau often tumbled down on Hawaii in the frequent earthquakes, but I do not know that they were ever made the objects of the victor’s destroying wrath in the interminable petty wars, while the walls of the fish ponds were usually broken down to let out the fish and so materially injure the conquered owners.” (Brigham)

The Great Wall, or Pā Puʻuhonua, is a massive L-shaped structure that bounds the puʻuhonua on its eastern and southern sides. The wall stands nearly 12 feet tall, 18 feet in width, and stretches 965 feet in length. Constructed over 400 years ago, the Great Wall continues to protect the puʻuhonua, the people, and ceremonial sites contained within from the outside world.

The Great Wall was built using traditional, dry masonry techniques in which unmodified cobbles and boulders were fitted together without the use of mortar. The structure was originally constructed with two outer walls faced with ‘alā (volcanic stones, often water worn and with smooth faces).

Archaeological investigations conducted in the 1919 and 1963 revealed two distinct techniques of masonry design within the interior of the structure.

The first style, known as pa’o (caverned), is an open work construction technique accomplished by laying lava slabs on top of upright columns. This architectural style is unique to the Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau park lands and, thus far, has been documented nowhere else on the Hawaiian Archipelago.

The other type of interior construction noted within the Great Wall is haka haka or vacant spaces. Commonly used throughout Hawaiʻi Island, haka haka uses broken, angular stone rubble to fill the interior cavity of the outer walls. (NPS)

However, not all of the rock walls you see were built by Hawaiians.  “Although the role of Japanese immigrants in shaping Hawaiian plantation culture is frequently acknowledged, their contributions to paniolo culture have been underemphasized.”

“The first Japanese contract laborers arrived in Hawai‘i in 1885, primarily to harvest sugarcane and pineapple. The Humu’ula Sheep Company made use of the same labor pool, particularly in the summer when most sheep shearing took place.”

“H. Hackfeld & Company also owned a number of sugar plantations and moved Japanese contract laborers seasonally depending on where they were needed.” (Peter Mills)

Maly notes that the primary tasks for the Japanese employees at the sheep station included, “construction of stone walls, fences, and carpentry; sheering and herding sheep; baling wool; trail and road work; garden work; setting of phone poles and lines; weeding thistle and gorse; and general facility maintenance.” (Kumu Pono)

By 1885, the Humu‘ula lease was held by the Humu‘ula Sheep Company, which in that year obtained the lease for the east side of Ka‘ohe, while Parker Ranch continued to lease the west side. The company hired immigrant stonemasons to build stone walls around their grazing lands in the 1890s; portions of these are still standing. (CARA)

“Through 1890 and the summer of 1892, the names of 29 Japanese laborers and 12 Chinese laborers appear in August Haneberg’s journal. They worked on various tasks, including shearing sheep, building walls, weeding, working on a cart road between stations, and constructing a telephone line between Kalai’ehā and Hopuwai.” (Peter Mills)

“Between 1893 and 1895, many miles of stone walls were built by several Japanese laborers who camped at the Humu‘ula headquarters.  The fence along the south boundary, the kīpuka [oasis within a lava bed] of ‘Āina hou near Pu‘u Huluhulu, is still intact in portions along the Saddle Road.”

“Parts of the wall were buried in the 1935 lava flow.  The north wall can still be seen meandering steeply up the Mauna Kea slope from the Humu‘ula-Mānā Road near Pu‘u‘ō‘ō.”  (Billy Bergin)

“Billy Paris was saying that [with the] 1928 or ’29 earthquake, he was thinking too, that out at Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a when the earthquake happened, they brought in a lot of Japanese stone wall masons and they went into the mountain … to go rebuild the walls that were required.” (Kepa Maly)

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by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Spring Forward

Shortly after contact, there wasn’t always agreement about what time or date it actually was … time-keeping practices varied in the 18th century, depending on circumstances.

In the 1880s, changes were being made in timekeeping practices. Several large nations still recognized prime meridians other than the one through Greenwich, and some continued to differ on the definition of a “day.”

In 1883, the US railroad industry divided the continental US into five (later four) time zones, establishing official time zones with a set standard time within each zone. (National Geographic)

The civil population nevertheless adopted ‘Railroad Time’ almost spontaneously; 85% of US towns of over ten-thousand inhabitants had done so by October 1884.

Hawaiʻi did not adopt standard time until 1896, with various notices published in the papers: “Hawaiian standard time will be ten and one-half hours slow of Greenwich.”

“The half hour is chosen for the reason that the Hawaiian group, while limited in area, is almost centrally on the line between the ten-hour and eleven-hour belt, and the inconvenience of a wide difference between standard and local time is thus avoided.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 9, 1896)

“The meridian adopted, 157 deg 30 min, is not far from central to the group. The Kauai people will be expected to set their local time ahead 8-minutes and Niihau 10-minutes; the Maui people will set back local time on an average four minutes.”

“The Hilo people, if they fall into line, will set back ten minutes, and Kona from 7 to 8 minutes.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, January 9, 1896)

It was not until 1918 that an Act of Congress set standard time all over the US, as well as daylight savings time. (Howse)

The 1918 act of Congress, ‘To save daylight and to provide standard time, for the United States’ provided for nationwide daylight saving time from March through October.

Congress also determined “That, for the purpose of establishing the standard time of the United States, the territory of continental United States shall be divided into five zones in the manner hereinafter provided. …”

“That the standard time of the first zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Eastern Time; that of the second zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Central Time …”

“…that of the third zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Mountain Time; that of the fourth zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Pacific Time; and that of the fifth zone shall be known and designated as United States Standard Alaska Time.” (Public No 106, approved by Congress March 19, 1918)

“Daylight saving plan was again agitated for these islands the early part of this year, and, in April, on official orders from Washington, the navy department here set their clocks forward an hour, but it did not last long. Cutting a foot off the end of Pat’s blanket to add to its head was found to give no greater length or warmth.” (Thrum)

The daylight saving provision was repealed in 1919, leaving intact the standard time system. (Schmitt & Cox)

Notwithstanding this official acceptance of standard time, many plantations persisted in the use of local time, or their own variations on it. The individual plantations had elected to adopt time systems that varied somewhat from the local times pertinent to the meridians at their centers.

The primary determinant of the difference between one of these plantation times and the pertinent local time was the local time of sunrise. Hence the plantation time systems were essentially daylight saving time systems.

There was no requirement that the difference between a plantation time and either the normal local time of the plantation headquarters or standard time, when that was adopted, be an even half-hour or hour, or that there be but one advance and one retardation of time in a year.

The time on a plantation was, indeed, more likely to be something like 11 minutes ahead or 14 minutes behind standard time, and changes of a few minutes might be made at intervals of only a few weeks.

Standard time was kept in Honolulu, in non-plantation towns, and at ports serving more than one plantation; and social events involving people from more than one plantation were scheduled by what was known as “Honolulu time,” “Hilo time,” etc. (Schmitt & Cox)

In 1933, the Hawaiʻi Legislature decreed daylight saving for the period between the last Sunday of each April and last Sunday of each September, but less than a month later repealed the act.

WWII brought daylight saving back to the Islands.

“(T)he standard time of each zone established pursuant to the Act entitled ‘An Act to save daylight and to provide standard time for the United States’, approved March 19, 1918, as amended, shall be advanced one hour.” (Public Law 403, approved January 20, 1942)

Year-round daylight saving time, one hour ahead of Hawaiian Standard Time, was established in the Territory during World War II by General Order No. 66 of the military governor, taking effect on February 9, 1942. The new time quickly became known as “Hawaiian War Time.” (Schmitt & Cox)

“Daylight saving has given us another hour before the nightly blackout, which begins at 7:30 pm and lasts until 7:00 am. The curfew for pedestrians has been changed from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm, but cars are still not allowed on the streets after 7:30 pm. This means no late afternoon or evening meetings of any kind.” (Journal of Nursing, 1942)

With the end of the war and the expiration of War Time on September 30, 1945, Hawai’i reverted (notwithstanding a good deal of debate) to the pre-war standard time; and it was not until 1947 that the change was made to the present system of standard time.

In 1947, the Territorial Legislature permanently returned to the pre-war standard time – however, they also advanced Hawaiian Standard Time by 30 minutes, making it 10 (instead of 10-1/2) hours slower than Greenwich Mean Time, and thus two hours (not 2½) behind Pacific Standard Time. This change became effective the second Sunday of June, 1947. (Schmitt & Cox)

The issue resurfaced in 1966, when the Uniform Time Act of that year mandated daylight saving time during the spring and summer months nationwide unless State legislative bodies specifically exempted their jurisdictions.

Reasoning that Hawai‘i already had year-round partial DST – since 1947, Hawaiian Standard Time had been 31 minutes ahead of sun time in Honolulu – the 1967 Legislature voted to exempt the Islands. (Schmitt & Cox)

In 2005, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005, effective starting in 2007, that declared daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March (‘spring forward’) and ends on the first Sunday in November (‘fall back’,) with the time changes taking place at 2 am local time.

Today, most on the continent advance their clocks and watches an hour forward, as daylight savings time kicks in.

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Dali-The Persistence of Memory-1931
Dali-The Persistence of Memory-1931

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Honoli‘i and Douglas

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) from the northeast United States, set sail on the Thaddeus for the Hawaiian Islands. Four young Hawaiians joined the Pioneer Company.

They were, Hopu (Thomas Hopu) ‘ Hopoo’; Kanui (William Kanui) ‘Tennooe’; Humehume (George Prince) ‘Tamoree’ and Honoli‘i (John Honoli‘i) ‘Honoree’.

“The Hawaiian boys who came back with the missionaries … were able to reassure the Hawaiian people as to the friendliness of the relations between America and Hawaii and to serve as guides to the missionaries upon their arrival.” (Kamakau, Ka Nupepa Ku‘oko‘a, Jan 4, 1868; Ruling Chiefs)

Honoli‘i had arrived in Boston in the fall of 1815. He came over in a ship belonging to Messrs. Ropes & Co merchants of Boston. He was taken on board the ship by the consent of his friends, and replaced a sailor, who died before the ship arrived at Hawai‘i.  He was curious and wanted to see the world.

“A place was soon found for him at the Rev. Mr. Vaill’s of Guilford, where he began to learn the first rudiments of the English language. Messrs. Ropes & Co., in whose ship he came to this country, not only cheerfully released him for the purpose of being educated, but very generously gave one hundred dollars towards the expense of his education.”

“He was ignorant of our language. And of every species of learning or religion, when he began to study. In about six months he began to read in a broken manner in the Bible. In the mean time, he also learned to write, which cost him but little time or labour. … He is industrious, faithful, and persevering, not only in his studies, but in whatever business he undertakes.” (ABCFM)

Honoli‘I enrolled in the Cornwall school in 1817.  His teachers considered him to be mild-mannered and industrious.  He was also thought to be “tactful, persevering, and faithful.”  (Morris & Benedetto)

Honoli‘i became a valuable Hawaiian language instructor because, having come at a later age (about 19), he still had good command of his native tongue. He also won praise for his considerable vigor and intellect and his discreet and stately deportment. (Kelley)

Back in the Islands, “The king Kaumualii appears exceedingly interested in what he now learns from the bible through the interpretation of Honolii.” (Sybil Bingham)

Then, David Douglas visited the Hawaiian Islands.  Douglas first visited in 1830, on his way from England to the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. On this brief visit, he climbed several peaks on O’ahu and was “splendidly” entertained by “Madame Boki”, the wife of the governor.

Douglas left the Columbia region in December of 1830 and traveled to California. He visited Hawai‘i a second time in September of 1832 enroute from Monterey in California to the Columbia River. He was in the Islands for just a few short weeks; he returned to Honolulu in December of 1833.

“I arrived here on the 23rd of December, and after spending Christmas Day with two English ladies, the wife of our Consul, Mr. Charlton, and her sister, I started on the 27th for the island of Hawaii, which I reached on the 2nd of January, 1834.”

“You know I have long had this tour in contemplation, and having spent three winter months in botanizing here, I proceed to give you a short notice of my proceedings.”  (Douglas; Greenwell)

When Douglas was exploring Hawai‘i in 1833 and 1834, he knew Honoli‘i and deemed him a friend as well as a guide. Honoli‘i accompanied Douglas on several ascents of Mauna Kea.  It is clear the Honoli‘i was still practicing his faith: on one of their trips the Douglas party stopped at Kapapala where Honoli‘i preached at the Sunday service. (Morris & Benedetto)

“Honoli‘i had probably been chosen as a guide because of his command of the English language. He had spent a number of years in America and had returned to Hawai‘i … in 1820. Douglas referred to Honoli‘i as ‘my guide, friend, and interpreter, Honori, an intelligent and well-disposed fellow’”. (Greenwell)

They first made their way up Mauna Kea; Douglas next visited Kilauea crater and ascended Mauna Loa, again traveling with Honoli’i and a large retinue of Hawaiians.

Douglas’s little terrier, Billy, accompanied him on these trips and in all his travels. The botanist once wrote in his journal: “my old terrier, a most faithful and now to judge from his long grey beard, venerable friend, who has guarded me throughout all my journies, and whom, should I live to return”. (Memoir of David Douglas-in Companion to the Botanical Magazine Vol II-1836)

Honoli‘i was not with Douglas when he died on Mauna Kea, in a bullock pit.  On July 12, 1834, while exploring the Island; “Douglas, a scientific traveller from Scotland, in the service of the London Horticultural Society, lost his life in the mountains of Hawaii, in a pitfall, being gored and trampled to death by a wild bullock captured there.  (Bingham)

“It was a native custom to trap the wild long-horned Spanish cattle by digging pits and covering them with brush. … When some natives came by later in the morning, they first saw the feet of a man sticking out of a mass of rubbish and stones.”

“A bull was already entrapped in the pit and the angry beast was standing on the chest of the young plant-hunter. … Thus ended 9 years of botanical adventure along the Pacific for David Douglas. His death at 35 is one of the tragedies of botanical history. But in his short span of life, as one scientist wrote …”

“‘No other explorer personally made more discoveries, or described more genera or species. No other collector of rare plants ever reaped such a harvest or associated his name with so many economically useful and beautiful plants as David Douglas.’” (Gould; Vassar)

Honoli‘i died in February 1838.  David Douglas was buried in the native churchyard of Kawaiaha‘o Church in Honolulu; Honoli‘i was buried in the cemetery of Ka‘ahumanu Church at Wailuku, Maui.

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

The “Japanese Problem”

Race, Ethnicity, Nationality, Culture, Heritage, Identity … some have suggested that about 100-years ago, folks used “racial” referring more specifically to nationality rather than ethnicity. In other words, the concern then was that a foreign nation was gradually supplanting parts of another.

Never-the-less, at the time, folks were concerned with the growing numbers of foreign nationals, especially Japanese; racial conflicts were developing and the military feared Japanese expansion.  Growing immigrant population, including those from Japan started to concern some in the Islands, as well as on the continent.

In response, the Commission of Relations with Japan, appointed by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America retained Professor HA Millis of the University of Kansas who authored the “Japanese Problem in the United States” (1915.)

He “believe(d) in restriction in numbers and in keeping the laborers from immigrating to this country.  But once here, the Japanese should not be discriminated against.”  (Millis; New York Times)

However, a later incident in Hawaiʻi (1920) is viewed as a catalyst to actions that resulted in The Japanese Exclusion Act to address what were real, as well as imagined conceptions, misconceptions and opinions.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves; let’s look back.

The early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully.

Since it was a crop that produced a choice food product that could be shipped to distant markets, its culture on a field and commercial scale was started as early as 1800 and it continued to grow.

The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Company, was started at Kōloa on Kaua‘i.  On July 29, 1835, Ladd obtained a 50-year lease on nearly 1,000-acres of land and established a plantation and mill site in Kōloa.

It was to change the face of Hawai‘i forever, launching an entire economy, lifestyle and practice of monocropping that lasted for over a century.  Sugar gradually replaced sandalwood and whaling in the mid-19th century and became the principal industry in the Islands.

Sugar was the dominant economic force in Hawaiʻi for over a century, other plantations soon followed Kōloa.  A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.

Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.  By 1883, more than 50-plantations were producing sugar on five islands.

A shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in size and number) sugar plantations became a challenge; the answer was imported labor.  Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants” (providing the legal basis for contract-labor system,) labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

The first to arrive were the Chinese (1852.)   Between 1852 and 1884, the population of Chinese in Hawaiʻi increased from 364 to 18,254, to become almost a quarter of the population of the Kingdom.  The US Chinese Exclusion Law of 1882 (effective in Hawaiʻi in 1902) closed further immigration of persons of Chinese ancestry to Hawai’i, except for the few individuals who could qualify for an exempt status.

In 1868, approximately 150-Japanese came to Hawaiʻi to work on sugar plantations and another 40 to Guam. This unauthorized recruitment and shipment of laborers, known as the gannenmono (“first year men”,) marked the beginning of Japanese labor migration overseas.  (JANM)

In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi; this improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The first 943-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu on February 8, 1885.  Subsequent government approval was given for a second set of 930-immigrants who arrived in Hawaii on June 17, 1885.  More followed.

In 1919, in commemoration of the coronation of Emperor Yoshihito (and a sign of good Japanese-Hawaiian relations,) Japanese in Hawaiʻi offered to construct a modified duplicate of the fountain in Hibiya Park Tokyo in Kapiʻolani Park.

The official presentation of the “Phoenix Fountain” was conducted by Consul General Moroi who announced the fountain was a “testimonial of friendship and equality of the Japanese residing in the Hawaiian Islands.”

One Japanese speaker noted, “We are assembled here to mark a spot of everlasting importance in the annals of the history of the Japanese people of Hawaiʻi.”  (It was later replaced and is now known as the Louise Dillingham Memorial Fountain.

But discord was imminent.

Growing immigrant population, including those from Japan, started to concern some, in the Islands, as well as on the continent.  Many Americans had begun to look at Japan and the Japanese with deep suspicion.

In 1920, demanding increases in pay, Japanese sugar workers on Oʻahu struck the plantations – approximately 6,000 workers, over three quarters of the labor force, walked off the job (only Oʻahu workers walked off, they relied on neighbor island for support.)

Though the strike was on Oʻahu, its impact was felt across the Islands.

At about this time, Olaʻa Sugar Company was established in Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi; Juzaburo Sakamaki was hired as the company’s only regular interpreter.

As interpreter, Sakamaki was the only pipeline between the company and the Japanese immigrants who made up the majority of the labor force at Olaʻa Plantation.  Sakamaki had sided with management during the labor dispute.

Then, a small item in the June 4, 1920 Honolulu Star Bulletin noted, “The home of a Japanese eight miles from Olaa was blown up with giant powder last night.” The newspaper did not give the name of the victim, but it reported that the man was in a back bedroom at the time and was not killed, even though the front of the house was destroyed.  (UC Press)

It turns out the attack was on Sakamaki’s home.

The Territory of Hawaiʻi charged leaders of the Federation of Japanese Labor with conspiracy to assassinate Sakamaki in order to intimidate opponents of the strike and alleged, further, that the strike was part of a concerted effort to take over the Islands by Japan.

It took the jury less than five hours to reach a verdict on the fifteen defendants.   Judge Banks then sentenced all the defendants to “be imprisoned in Oʻahu prison at hard labor for the term of not less than four years nor more than ten years.”  (UC Press)

Some suggest it was the catalyst for legislation restricting immigration into the US.

On December 5, 1923, Rep. Albert Johnson, chairman of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, had submitted to the House a new immigration quota bill. Having heard about the “Japanese conspiracy” over and over from Hawaiian representatives, Johnson finally decided to propose a new law prohibiting the immigration of all Asians.

The subsequent Johnson Reed Immigration Quota Act ((Immigration Act of 1924) limited the annual number of immigrants who could be admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that country who were already living in the United States in 1890 (down from the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921.)) It passed both houses of Congress with overwhelming majorities: in the House 308 to 58 and in the Senate 69 to 9.

I am reminded of the simple question, “Can we, can we all get along … can we, can we get along?”  (Rodney King)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Empress of China

In the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, the new and nearly bankrupt US viewed the China trade as a way to settle war debts.

February 22, 1784, “the Empress of China cleared the wharf … launching America’s trade with China.” (Dolins)

She carried the hopes of a newly independent nation. Backers “of the Empress of China were all the signatories of the Independence agreement … This was a private enterprise but a national priority.” (Libby Chan Lai-pik)

With clearance from Bellona won
She spreads her wings to meet the Sun,
Those golden regions to explore
Where George forbade to sail before.

To countries placed in burning climes
And islands of remotest times
She now her eager course explores.
And soon shall greet Chinesian shores.

From thence their fragrant teas to bring
Without the leave of Britain’s king;
And Porcelain ware, enchased in gold.
The product of that finer mould.
(A Poem about the Empress of China, Philip Freneau)

Originally fitted as a privateer (privately owned armed vessel commissioned to attack enemy ships, usually vessels of commerce) and refitted as a trading ship, the Empress of China was the first American merchant ship to sail for China; the three-masted sailing vessel sailed from New York harbor on February 22, 1784 (George Washington’s birthday).

This was less than a year after the Treaty of Paris was signed (September 3, 1783 – ending the American Revolutionary War), and several years before George Washington took office as America’s first president on April 30, 1789.

It was a private venture that had national overtures. And marked the historical beginning of ties between China and the United States, and the assertion of the United States’ power as a sovereign nation.  (Schimdt)

The Empress of China also carried 30-tons of ginseng and other trading goods. Ginseng was the most important herb of the Chinese.

In the 18th century ginseng was also popular in America.  It is estimated that American colonists discovered it in the mid-1700s in New England.

“The history of human interaction with ginseng lurks in the language of the land … on the north-facing, ‘wet’ sides of depressions”. Look at a detailed map of almost any portion around the Colonies and ginseng is registered somewhere, often in association with the deeper, moister places, named ‘Hollows’. (LOC)

After trading, the Empress of China arrived in New York, May 11, 1785.

She carried 800 chests of tea, 20,000 pairs of nankeen trousers and a huge quantity of porcelain.

Stores up and down the East Coast sold her cargo. The voyage earned a 25% return on investment – enough to spawn a new era of commerce with China.

The Americans learned how to make real money in the China trade: sale of Chinese goods to Americans.

John Jay, the US foreign minister, shared the success with Congress.

Congress responded with ‘a peculiar satisfaction in the successful issue of this first effort of the citizens of America to establish a direct trade with China.’

The Empress of China proved that trade with China could enrich backers, funnel customs duties into the national treasury and make the US a competitor on the world stage. (NY Historical Society)

Post-Revolutionary direct trade with Asian countries allowed Americans to trade for their own luxuries. Americans would ship goods such as ginseng (used for medicinal and aphrodisiac purposes), tobacco, pitch, tar, turpentine, furs, and silver to China and East India.

Export of commodities such as ginseng and tobacco was acceptable, even necessary, according to Jeffersonian political doctrine, in order to expand the agricultural basis of the new nation.

In return, traders would receive tea, cotton nankeen cloth, silk, porcelain (which was so inexpensive in China that it was often shipped as ballast), pepper, and Chinese cinnamon. (Weyler)

For the next 60 years, the China trade would make New England merchants very, very wealthy.  (NE Historical Society)

Other US merchants were quick to see the value of the China trade. At first, however, they flooded the Chinese market with ginseng. Chinese demand for the root dropped, and so did its price.

But the Chinese did want sea-otter pelts, which Yankees traded from Indians in the American Northwest. Sandalwood, found in the Sandwich Islands (Hawai‘i), also brought a high price from Chinese merchants. (Monroe Columbia University)

Click the following links to a general summary about the Empress of China:

Click to access Empress-of-China.pdf

Click to access Empress-of-China-SAR-RT.pdf

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