Maine and the Orient: America Enters the Oriental Trade

Tea box

The first American ship to reach Canton in 1784 was the Empress of China, a refitted privateer launched from New York harbor. The main sponsor of the voyage was Robert Morris of Philadelphia, who had been one of the major financial backers of the American Revolution.  The voyage took six months, and covered 13,000 miles. The Empress of China was loaded with money, or specie, and with 30 tons of ginseng from the forests of New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The first three millionaires in America made their fortunes in the China Trade: T.H. Perkins of Boston, Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, and John Jacob Astor of New York. By 1841 the American China Trade was predominantly trade in tea.

In the early part of the nineteenth century only a few Mainers owned ships in the China Trade: Portland shipbuilders and owners Preble and Jewett, and Theodore Lyman of York.

View of Old China Street, Canton

Port of Canton