page_title: Canton System
hierarchical_section_title: Canton System
caption_attribution_description: English: Scene in China (1852, p.Vignette, IX)
context_page_description: The Canton System served as a means for China to control trade with the West within its own country by focusing all trade on the southern port of Canton. Known in Chinese as the Yīkǒu tōngshāng the policy arose in 1757 as a response to a perceived political and commercial threat from abroad on the part of successive Chinese emperors.
  From the late seventeenth century onwards, Chinese merchants, known as Hongs, managed all trade in the port. Operating from the Thirteen Factories located on the banks of the Pearl River outside Canton, in 1760, by order of the Qing Qianlong Emperor, they became officially sanctioned as a monopoly known as the Cohong. Thereafter Chinese merchants dealing with foreign trade
context_section_description: The Canton System (1757–1842) served as a means for China to control trade with the West within its own country by focusing all trade on the southern port of Canton (now Guangzhou). Known in Chinese as the Yīkǒu tōngshāng (一口通商, "Single [port] trading relations") the policy arose in 1757 as a response to a perceived political and commercial threat from abroad on the part of successive Chinese emperors.
  From the late seventeenth century onwards, Chinese merchants, known as Hongs (háng, 行 ), managed all trade in the port. Operating from the Thirteen Factories located on the banks of the Pearl River outside Canton, in 1760, by order of the Qing Qianlong Emperor, they became officially sanctioned as a monopoly known as the Cohong. Thereafter Chinese merchants dealing with foreign trade (known as yángháng (洋行, literally "ocean traders", i.e. "overseas traders" or "foreign traders") acted through the Cohong under the supervision of the Guangdong Customs Supervisor (Yuèhǎi guānbù jiàn dù, 粵海關部監督), informally known as the "Hoppo", and the Governor-general of Guangzhou and Guangxi.
caption: Scene in China (1852, p.Vignette)[1]
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