Pacific Crossing: Californian Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong

1 - Becoming a Useful Settlement: Hong Kong on the Eve of the Gold Rush

11 1 Becoming a Useful Settlement Hong Kong on the Eve of the Gold Rush As news of the gold discovery in California electrified the world, Hong Kong responded with alacrity. A lively export trade emerged to supply all kinds of consumer goods demanded by the tens of thousands of emigrants pouring into California from around the world—one of the most dramatic migration movements of the nineteenth century. In 1849, for the first time, California featured in the Hong Kong government’s Blue Book as a destination of its exports; at least 85 diverse types of articles were shipped, ranging from rice and sugar to furniture and timber planks, along with a huge amount of tea.1 In the first six months of 1850, it was noted, some 10,776 tons of shipping loaded in Hong Kong for the West Coast of the United States. The surge in trade activities delighted everyone. A writer for The Economist in England commented that, “the fairest hopes of the colony are founded on the new trade which is springing up between it [Hong Kong] and California … In these circumstances there is some prospect of Hong Kong becoming a useful settlement.”2 Goods were followed by people. Individuals of different nationalities left Hong Kong for California. Most spectacular was the Chinese efflux, which started as a dribble in 1849 and grew into a flood that peaked at 30,000 in 1852.3 The increasing Chinese presence in California further stimulated trade while transforming its organization and content. The California traffic greatly magnified Hong Kong’s capacity as a space of flow—not only the flow of people and the flow of goods, but also the flow of funds, personal communications, and commercial intelligence, social values, cultural practices, and networking activities —with a long-term impact on its evolution into a leading entrepôt and emigration port. Pacific Crossing 12 The fascinating story of Hong Kong’s relationship with California will be told in later chapters. Here we will look at Hong Kong before the gold rush and try to explain the circumstances that enabled it to seize the opportunity so effectively when it came. On the Eve of the Gold Rush An Open Port Hong Kong was formally ceded to Britain in 1843 under the Treaty of Nanjing. Indeed, the treaty ended the “Canton system,” including the monopoly of the cohong—firms with permission to trade with foreigners—and opened four more ports to foreign trade besides Guangzhou. The abolition of old restrictions held out hope for a new dawn. Many looked forward to Hong Kong, a British settlement on the doorstep of China, being the strategic base for foreign merchants poised to exploit the seemingly limitless resources of China under different game rules. Hong Kong Island had in fact been occupied by the British since January 1841, when fighting was still going on in what became known as the Opium War, and when it was declared an open port. Its potential assets were many. It was blessed by its geography, both in terms of location and topography. The island lay at the mouth of the Pearl River and just 80 miles from Guangzhou, the rich and vibrant commercial center where foreign merchants had operated for many centuries.4 It was expected that, as Macao had done since the mid-sixteenth century, the new colony would serve as the social and commercial hub for foreign merchants while they made their seasonal visits to the new treaty ports.5 Its location at the meeting place of riverine and coastal, and later ocean, shipping was a great advantage.6 It stood at the mouth of the busy and prosperous Pearl River; it also occupied a strategic position along the route between North and South China, and between China and Southeast Asia, and from there to India and beyond. Later, people would discover with delight that it was the natural terminal for transpacific traffic, an asset that greatly enhanced the port’s value during the gold rush and after. Becoming a Useful Settlement 13 Besides, the port possessed a deep, spacious, and sheltered harbor with good holding ground for anchorage. Though in the days before Kowloon and the New Territories were added to the colony7 the harbor was only 5 miles in length, it was enough to provide secure anchorage to 200 vessels, properly berthed, in the face of the heaviest gales.8 The...