page_title: Puankhequa
section_title: Trading
hierarchical_section_title: Puankhequa / Trading
caption_attribution_description: English: A plan of the city of Canton and its suburbs. REFERENCES A Rocks B French Folly a small Fort C Dutch Folly a small Fort DD The situation of the Foreign Factories E Mehammedan Mosque F A Native Pagoda G A Five-storied Pagoda H The Governor's House I The Foo-yuen's House]] K Tseang-keun or Tartar General's House L The Hoppo's House M House of Heo-yuen or Literary Chancellor of Canton N House of Poo-ching sze or Treasurer of the Provincial Revenue O House of Gan-cha sze or Criminal Judge of the Province P House of Yen yun sze or Superintendant of the Salt Department Q Kung yuen a Hall for the reception of Literary candidates at the Examinations R Yuh-ying-tang, a Foundling Hospital S Teen-tsze ma taou, the Execution Ground T The splendid Canton College
context_page_description: Puankhequa, also known as Pan Wenyan or Zhencheng, was a Chinese merchant and member of a cohong family, which traded with the Europeans in Canton during the Qing dynasty. He owned a factory in the Thirteen Factories district where his firm was favored by the English, Swedes, "Imperials" and Danes.
context_section_description: Puankhequa was Chief Merchant in Canton between 1760 and 1788. He had made his name in the silk trade, but traded in a number of other goods. From the 1740s to 1760, Puankhequa traded out of the Dafeng Hang 達豐行, which he managed in partnership with his Chen family accomplices and his brother Seequa 潘瑟官. All of his trade with foreigners in Canton at this time, and his trade with Southeast Asia via the Chinese junks, was conducted out of the Dafeng Hang. In 1760, Puankhequa established a new firm called the Tongwen Hang 同文行, which in the 1810s was renamed Tongfu Hang 同孚行.  Although ruthless in business, Puankhequa remained sentimental about his family's origin and his Fukienese identity. He founded the Fukien mai-ch'iao, the Fukien merchants in temporary residence in Canton, an association for business and social events. The firm owned a factory which was situated close to the Swedish factory. The Swedes joined in the East India trade later than most of the national European trading companies. The first ship arrived in September 1732. They were seen as naïve by the rest of the European traders and Puankhequa treated them haughtily, but they nevertheless regarded him as a friend and benefactor. Mostly they bought tea from him. The tasting of different lots and negotiations about the price usually went on for weeks. He also served as a mediator when this was called for; in 1761, he was asked by the captain on one of the Swedish ships to help out in a conflict with some Dutch merchants. The Dutch had set up a punsch tent in Wampoa near the ships and the captain had trouble keeping his crew away from the place. Puankhequa managed to get the mandarins in Whampoa to forbid the selling of alcohol on land while the ships were there. In September 1768, the Swedes made an unsuccessful attempt at selling Swedish woollen cloth and camlet to the Chinese traders. The cloth was deemed too coarse and nobody wanted to buy it, except for Puankhequa who gave the Swedes a fair price.
  Some Swedish supercargos stayed in Canton for several years, one of them was Jean Abraham Grill who became friends with Puankhequa and made several profitable deals with him when buying tea. The usual order of business was that trade began as soon as the ships came to Canton. When the ships docked, the price of tea, silk and all the other coveted goods, immediately began to rise, and as soon as the ships left, prices started to fall again. Grill would buy tea privately from Puankhequa when the price was at its lowest and sell the tea to his employer, the Swedish East India Company, at a slightly higher price when the next ship came in. Thus, Puankhequa was able to do business during the off-season and Grill could net himself a profit at his employer's expense. Several contracts for this trade between Puankhequa and Grill are kept in the Gothenburg University Library.
  At first, the English were wary of Puankhequa because of his many schemes and debts, but in the 1780s they started to accept him and talked about him as "a merchant the most to be depended on". They still kept their options open, nevertheless, through dealings with other merchants. The French admired Puankhequa's ability to control officials and pay bribes in the right places at the right times, but they also saw him as seductive, devious and, according to one French merchant, in possession of "the most evil soul ever to have inhabited a human body". Few foreigners could trade in Canton without having to make deals with him at some point.
  In order to facilitate trade Puankhequa would on occasion give informal dinners for  foreign traders at his country house. These dinners lasted a couple of days, with one day being dedicated to Chinese culture and the next à la mode Anglaise [sic] (in an English style). There were also humorous plays about the two cultures and guests could choose whether they wanted to use chopsticks or cutlery.
  In 1806, Puankhequa II was in correspondence with Sir Joseph Banks who thanked him for botanical specimens he had supplied for Kew Gardens. In return Banks sent him other pl
caption: British map of Canton made in 1840, six years after the trade ceased
exif: {}