Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen's Lausla Montgomery here with you again. This is the China history podcast and I thank you all for listening

Today we're gonna focus on the life of whooping ch, someone much better known in the west is

Haukwa and like more Mark Adafi has a whole bunch of different ways to spell that

name. But no matter how you spell it we all recall Haukwa from past CHP episodes that mention the Canton system

and the trade carried out at the Port of Guangzhou during the 18th and 19th centuries.

So hated was this Canton system

had ultimately led to the Opium War

in many of the events of the Treaty Port era that so many today look back on with anger. This is all

been mentioned in previous CHP episodes concerning the Ching Dynasty but today I

thought I might dive a little deeper than usual and focus mostly on this one individual.

Co-starring along with Haukwa are the British East India Company, the American Russell and Company,

and the American partners of Haukwa, who all played oversized roles in the purchase,

transport, and distribution of Chinese products in their home markets.

When anyone speaks of China trade in the late 18th century through to the Opium Wars, well, we're mainly only talking about one single commodity.

Yeah, China's other manufacturers, porcelain and silk, were also exported, but overwhelmingly, all the action was in tea.

And not until the aftermath of Robert Fortune's work in secreting China's long-held intellectual

property and producing tea out of the country?

Every other commodity was a distant second place as far as where the greatest volume of trade

occurred with the European and American trading firms.

Nobody in China never sold more tea than Haukwa. I don't think anyone even came close.

And Haukwa's ancestors hailed from the land of tea, Food-Gien province.

Haukwa himself was born in Guangzhou and lived there his entire life.

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