Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 2.djvu/262

ALTHOUGH the commercial intercourse between China and the outer world during the early part of the nineteenth century suffered frequent interruptions of a temporary nature, and although no treaty or convention limited the charges imposable by the Chinese on the export and import of commodities, the business grew steadily in volume and prosperity, until, at the close of the East India Company's monopoly in 1834, "the China trade " was regarded in England as one of the most important of her oversea enterprises. That fact deserves a prominent place in the record. The Chinese might have put an end to the trade at any moment. They might have crushed it under a load of duties or they might have adopted more direct means of destroying it. But they did neither the one thing nor the other, and it is therefore impossible to endorse the charge frequently preferred against them that at heart they desired to terminate a commerce