Canton System
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The Canton System served as a means for Qing China to control trade with the West within its own country by focusing all trade on the southern port of Canton. The protectionist policy arose in 1757 as
Canton factories c. 1850
Scene in China (1852, p. Vignette)
Canton circa 1830 painted by Sunqua. The French, American, British, and Dutch flags can be seen flying.
Thirteen Factories
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The Thirteen Factories, also known as the Canton Factories, Thirteen Hongs, or Thirteen Hongs of Canton, was a neighbourhood along the Pearl River in southwestern Guangzhou, China from c. 1684 to 1856
Canton System
…Chinese emperors. From the late seventeenth century onwards, Chinese merchants, known as Hongs (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…
A reverse-glass export painting of the Thirteen Factories c. 1805, displaying the flags of Denmark, Spain, the United States, Sweden, Britain, and the Netherlands
c. 1785 sketch for William Daniell's 1806 The European Factories, Canton
William Daniell's c. 1805 View of the Canton Factories
The factories c. 1807