Date Awarded
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Advisor
Brianna Nofil
Abstract
On February 22, 1784, the Empress of China, as the first American ship to sail from the United States to China, departed the levee of New York Harbor and bounded up to the Chinese waters on what was projected as a long, challenging, but lucrative voyage. But in narrating so, we overlook the economic reach that held the newly nation’s political ambition. By revisiting the period of fifty years surrounding the voyage of the Empress of China (1783-1833), this study examines how this previously profit-driven China venture gradually had a political reach. In doing so, this study locates that the new federal state’s success in accessing China also represented the Early Republic’s ability to keep its political independence. Hence, the voyage both buttressed the infant republic’s political legitimacy and demonstrated that the US desired a place in the world to be taken seriously. In light of this, policymakers, private capitalists, and the public seized upon the Empress of China as a symbol to project their hopes for the new republic’s prosperity and independence./ Bearing the hopes for the new republic’s prosperity and independence, the Empress of China was mainly loaded with silver as the currency to trade with China and ginseng as the goods to export to China. Among these cargoes shipped to China, American ginseng stands out for its large quantity, early American merchants’ high hopes placed on it, and its predominantly economic return. By investigating how the early American merchants chose ginseng as the major commodity to trade with China, this research shows how they mobilized a knowledge network and took advantage of the nation’s natural ginseng resources to open the Chinese market. It also demonstrates the entangled intellectual and cultural worlds of Europeans, Asians, and Americans, the decisions made by American merchants relied on their previous experience as citizens of Great Britain as well as their relationship with indigenous suppliers of ginseng, and American merchants’ determination and effort to leverage their knowledge and resources to occupy a prominent position within a fluid global market.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-fqct-8971
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Wu, Qiong, "Fantasy And Fortune: The Empress Of China On The Eyes Of Early America / Open Sesame: How Ginseng Made The Early Americans Presence In Canton" (2024). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1727788011.
https://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-fqct-8971
