Chapter 28 Hong Kong in "The Chronicle of the East India Company's Trade with China"

Hong Kong in "The Chronicle of the East India Company's Trade with China" Morse's "The Chronicles of the East India Company's Trade with China" (HB Morse: "The Chronicles of the East India Company Trad-ing to China"), Oxford University Publishing Published in five volumes.The first four volumes were published in 1926, followed by another in 1929 Supplement to Volume V.The Chronicle covers the years from A.D. 1635 to 1834, That is, from the eighth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty to the fourteenth year of Daoguang in Qing Dynasty. According to Elliott, the British commercial supervisor in China, he and Qishan, the imperial envoy of the Qing Dynasty, had arranged for him without authorization.

The "Crushing the Nose Grass Treaty" was concluded, and the time when troops were sent to occupy Hong Kong Island was 1841 AD (that is, Qingdao light twenty-one years).The Moss Chronicle ends in 1834, a distance in time from the colony. There are still six or seven years left before the formation of the Mindi. Generally speaking, Hong Kong will not be mentioned in the annals.But, In fact, before the business of the East India Company was terminated, that is, the company's patent rights were not abolished (183 abolished three years ago), their merchant ships used to be in Kap Shui Mun, Castle Peak Bay, and

The Tsim Sha Tsui sea between Hong Kong and Kowloon is often moored, and has already had a relationship with Hong Kong. According to the old archives of the East India Company, Morse found the earliest record of the company about Hong Kong Island, It was 1816, the 21st year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, Britain sent an ambassador, Amherst, to the east, wanting to Received Beijing to have an audience with the great emperor of the Qing Dynasty, establish formal diplomatic relations, and open the door for trade.envoy One of the deputy envoys appointed by the regiment was Dangdong, the chief executive of the Guangzhou branch of the East India Company at that time.

Before Amertud departed from England, he sent a letter to inform Si Dangdong and others that in the future their big After the fleet arrives in the sea of ​​Guangdong, where will they berth to meet and rendezvous.Amis De proposed that there are two places where they can meet each other, one of which is the western end of Hong Kong Island (today's Aberdeen) and the sea between Lamma Island. Moss mentions this in the seventy-third chapter of the Annals, writing thus: "The 'Leila' met Sidangdong and others on July 8, and they met with the envoy on July 10. The regiment reunited. "

"We're here to see the first official reference to Hong Kong Island in the company's files. The "Thomas Griffel" of the United States was ordered to sail east, towards Sir Staunton, before returning to the voyage. contacted.He is to be met at one of the following two scheduled meeting places... 1: In Hong Kong In the strait at the northern end of Hong Kong and Lamma Island, in Waterfall Bay opposite the Hong Kong Waterfall. Two: About two or three miles north of the old Wanshan Islands. " This is the first mention of Hong Kong in the records of the East India Company, in 1816.rear

Come on, the "Griffel" really found Si Dangdong and others at the scheduled first rendezvous point. The ship "Discovery". Except this time, Moss also quotes the East Indian Duke in the seventh chapter of the first volume of the chronicle. According to the voyage record of a merchant ship sent to Guangdong by the company in 1689, it is believed that there is a sentence in it that may refers to Hong Kong. The merchant ship "Defense" with a load of 731 tons was dispatched to Canton to load sugar and other Commodities are re-exported to Persia for trading.It reached the sea of ​​Guangdong on September 1 of this year.moss in the chronicle

shri said: "On September 1, she dropped anchor fifteen miles east of Macau. This location probably Into the harbor of Hong Kong Island, or in its vicinity, perhaps at Kap Shui Mun.These locations were The monsoons and possible hurricanes are good shelter from the wind...". 1689 was the twenty-eighth year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty.If the ships of the British East India Company are at this time Having already been to Hong Kong is of course a very important record, but unfortunately this is just Moss's personal speculation. According to records kept by the East India Company, earlier than 1689, another company ship

The "Carolingo" once came to Lantou Island from Macau in 1683, where it moored for two For many months, until September 17th of this year, sailed from the archipelago to Langbaijiao. Lantau Island is Lantau Island. Since the "Caroline La" has been anchored on Lantau Island for more than two months, it can be It can be said that it has already entered the territory of Hong Kong. However, these records do not directly mention the name of Hong Kong Island.The records of the East India Company directly mention It was in 1829 that their ships came into contact with Hong Kong Island.At this time, it was Qing Dao Guangjiu

years, Moss says in the eighty-seventh chapter of the Chronicle, that the company's ships were designed to survive the southwest monsoon There is a safer berth inside, I searched everywhere, and finally chose the harbor near Hong Kong Island.he Say: "Special attention has been given to the mooring at Castle Peak Bay in Kap Shui Mun. Also the mooring at the northwest corner of Hong Kong Island From there to the east, you can sail out of Lei Yue Mun, which is what was later called the Inner Harbor of Hong Kong.At this In the winter of 2010, at least three company ships were moored in the waters.At this time, suddenly in the above two places

In addition to this point, find other places where you can anchor, not just for shelter from the wind, but because the East India Company stationed The person in charge of the Guangzhou branch believed that at this time the officials of the Qing Dynasty in Guangzhou were asking questions about the import of foreign cargo ships and tax collection. problems, intentionally leave difficulties, and therefore find a place of anchorage outside their authority, so that in the event of difficulties There is a way out for now.Hong Kong was so favored. After the personnel of the East India Company's Guangzhou branch discovered the goodness of Hong Kong Harbor, they decided to

Plus use.Moss goes on to say this in this chapter of the Chronicle: "Most of the committee members ordered six merchant ships to berth in the harbor of Hong Kong Island in early December, and Made Mr. Lindsay to be the ship's cargo manager, ordered two ships to berth at Kap Shui Gate, and appointed Mr. Clark Born to be the ship's cargo manager.And ordered them to have the right to purchase everything needed on board, ready to import Goods can also be sold or shipped locally, and if any tea is brought upriver it can be accepted. " From this record, it can be understood that the merchant ships of the East India Company came to anchor in Hong Kong at this time. with major ambitions.They authorized the person in charge of the cargo ship to purchase daily necessities directly from the villagers on land products, they can sell their own goods, and they can even purchase the Chinese goods they need. Such a move, at the time, not only violated the foreign trade rules stipulated by the Qing Dynasty, but also Moreover, it is a clear tax evasion and smuggling behavior, and more troubles will naturally inevitably occur as a result.East India Company Some members of the state branch strongly opposed this move and did not advocate expanding the scope of trade to Huangpu and Guangzhou. outside the state, but was not accepted by other authorities, because these people advocated the establishment of a It has regressed, and may even be a base that is not under the control of Qing officials.Later, the birth of the Hong Kong colony can be said It was born from this concept. This happened in 1829.In the next year, due to the Qing Dynasty’s taxation of barbarians’ goods, there was another changed.The East India Company disagreed and adopted the same strategy again.Moss said: "On June 20, after consultations, the company decided that early ships would After that, we must temporarily stay outside Humen, stop at the north of Hong Kong, that is, Kowloon, that is, stop at Hong Kong In port.It is not allowed to enter Huangpu before the end of September. " From then on, until Elliot was pressured by Lin Zexu's ban on smoking, he led the British merchants from Guangzhou. He retreated from Macau and Hong Kong Island as the temporary refuge he chose.It can be seen that the fate of this small island lies in The era of the East India Company has already been decided.But this is already a digression, so I won't say more here.