Ofício do magistrado do distrito de Xiangshan, Yang, ao procurador de Macau, sobre a exportação de algodão para Cantão, por parte de navios estrangeiros
This abstract describes a Qing dynasty administrative document, specifically an official notice (*pái*), issued in 1777 by Yáng, Magistrate of Xiangshan County (modern Zhongshan City, Guangdong), acting *ex officio* as Chief Magistrate (*Zhèngtáng*) with five merit grades and eight commendations. Da...
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| Format: | Manuscripts |
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| Published: |
1777-08-26
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| Subjects: |
British East India Company
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Canton System
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Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi
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Guangdong Province cotton trade
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Provincial Financial Commissioner
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Qianlong Reign Imperial Edict
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Qing Dynasty administrative notice
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Xiangshan County magistrate
;
acting Zhengtang
;
foreign supercargoes
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imperial-local administrative cascade
;
local official compliance
;
maritime customs enforcement
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Manuscripts
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| Online Access: | https://macau-legacy.usj.edu.mo/docs/D65CH37N/viewer_D65CH37N.html |
| Summary: | This abstract describes a Qing dynasty administrative document, specifically an official notice (*pái*), issued in 1777 by Yáng, Magistrate of Xiangshan County (modern Zhongshan City, Guangdong), acting *ex officio* as Chief Magistrate (*Zhèngtáng*) with five merit grades and eight commendations. Dated the 4th day of the 7th lunar month in the 42nd year of the Qianlong reign (1777), the notice transmits a cascade of imperial and provincial directives: it originates from an Imperial Edict rescinding the prior ban on cotton imports into Guangdong Province, as relayed through instructions from Lǐ Xiàn, Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Yáo Xiàn, Provincial Financial Commissioner (*Bùzhèng Shǐ Sī*), both dated 22nd–23rd June 1777. The document formally instructs foreign supercargoes—including Gāmǎduō (a contemporary Chinese transliteration likely denoting a British East India Company officer at Canton) and others—to resume the commercial loading and unloading of cotton by foreign vessels under the Canton System, explicitly prohibiting obstruction, delay, extortion, or non-compliance by local officials or personnel. It was transmitted to the Military-Police Subprefecture (*Róng Tīng*) for enforcement and bears multiple official seals and marginal annotations indicating receipt, implementation precedent, and westward transmission. As a primary source, it illuminates Qing bureaucratic procedure, imperial policy revision, and the regulation of foreign trade in late eighteenth-century Guangdong. |
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