China Club
In 1785, they formed a trade association called the China Club. Collusion developed at the biannual auctions of the East India Company from about 1779. This auction ring depressed the prices obtained at auction and so the trade became unprofitable. The import duty on tea was reduced from 119% to 12.5% in 1784. This increased the demand for tea and so it became the preferred cargo. In 1791, the Court of Directors ordered that, henceforth, china was only to be carried as ballast on their vessels. This reduced the import trade considerably and so, in 1795, the chinaman Miles Mason of Fenchurch Street, asked whether the company would carry private shipments of china for a carriage fee. They declined and Mason went on to develop a business in Liverpool and then Staffordshire.