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Relation Trade Name Mandarin Chinese Father Texia Yan Deshe 顏德舍 Son no. 1 Swetia Yan Ruishe 顏瑞舍 Son no. 2 Ingsia Yan Yingshe 顏瑛舍 Son no. 2 Awue Yan Awue 顏 Son no. 6 Limsia Yan Linshe 顏琳舍 Son no. ? Waysee Yan Waysee 顏 Relative Hongsia Yan Xiangshe 顏享舍 ? Lipsia Yan Lishe 顏立舍 TEXIA AND SIMON Texia and his partner Simon began trading in Canton in 1734, during the conflict between Tan Suqua and Tan Hunqua, and at about the same time that Cudgin and Beaukeequa left the trade.1 Texia’s Chinese name was Yan Deshe ( 顏德舍 ), but, according to the family genealogy, he also went by the names Yan Liangzhou ( 顏 亮洲 ), Yan Qizhan ( 顏淇瞻 ) and Yan Chuoting ( 顏綽亭 ). Simon’s name was Huang Ximan ( 黃錫滿 ). The two men traded out of the Taihe Hang ( 泰和行 ), but also ran the Taishun Hang ( 泰順行 ). In the latter business, they fitted out junks each year for voyages to Southeast Asia.2 Texia was born in 1697 so he was 37 years old when he entered the trade in 1734. He already had two wives and six sons, with the eldest, Swetia, being 14 years old. He must have had a substantial income to support such a large family. Over the next 15 years, his wives gave birth to six more sons. Plate 09.17 shows the family tree of Texia and sons. Plate 09.18 shows images of him, his two wives, Swetia, and a very elaborate gravesite in the White Cloud Mountains north of Canton.3 Texia and Simon seemed to have had significant capital from the start, because they owned several buildings in Canton. In 1734, they rented a factory to the Danish Asiatic Company (DAC), and in 1738 and 1740, the English East India Company (EIC) rented another building from them. The Danes continued C H A P T E R N I N E  YAN 顏 FAMILY 1734–1780s Paul_09_ch09.indd 149 Paul_09_ch09.indd 149 11年9月8日 下午2:21 11年9月8日 下午2:21 150 Merchants of Canton and Macao renting one of the Yan factories, off and on, until 1765 (Appendix 9J, the original building burned in 1743, see below). By 1736, the EIC supercargos favoured Texia and Simon above all other merchants, except ‘Young Khiqua’.4 When the English returned the next season, they stated that Texia (spelled Tsetsyau) was ‘more Sensiable’, ‘more Elegiable’, and ‘brings more Goods to Canton upon his own account than any other Hong in the place’. Thus, within two years, he and Simon had become top players in the trade, which could not have occurred without good credit and/or a good supply of capital.5 It is important to remember that Texia and Simon entered the trade at a time when Tan Suqua and Tan Hunqua (Chapters 5 and 6) were distracted by their long, drawn-out conflict, and just after Beaukeequa and Cudgin had retired to Quanzhou (Chapters 8 and 11). Their absences left considerable room for Texia and Simon to move in, but they were not without competition. In 1732, a Chinese document shows no less than 17 houses actively trading in Canton. These were the main houses, but there were usually forty or fifty Chinese merchants, large and small, who actively traded with foreigners each year at this time.6 Few of those houses, however, could compete with the extensive resources and connections Texia and Simon had at their disposal.7 Figures in Appendix 9I show that Texia and Simon supplied 29 to 45 percent of the cargos of Danish ships in 1734, 1738 and 1739. They probably did about the same amount in other years as well, but we have no exact figures. Plates 09.01, 09.02, 10.03 and Appendixes 9A and 9I, show the partners carrying on an extensive and constant business each year with that company. They probably supplied anywhere from 15 to as much as 55 percent of the total DAC exports.8 In 1737, Texia and Simon had some trade with the Dutch East India Company (VOC), which increased considerably in 1742 and 1743. As a sign of their growing prosperity, they invited the Danish, English and Swedish supercargos to a feast in January 1739, along with other Chinese merchants. 9 For unknown reasons, Simon disappears from the records in the early 1740s, and he had no successor. The devastating fires of December 1743 (explained in Chapter 5) consumed Texia and Simon’s factory. The two partners finished out the season, fulfilled their contracts, and then Simon disappears.10 From 1744 to 1750, Texia...

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