California wasn't a prize to be won in the civil war for trade with china

ebg12

Corporal
Joined
Feb 28, 2019
3 of the 40th richest men ever to live in the United States made there fortune by trade with China
before the civil war:

Girad (1750-1831)-Massachusetts
Derby (1739-1799)-Philadelphia
Astor(1763-1848)-New York

Trade with China was difficult but lucrative. Few ships made the voyage.

Trade strategy with China was based on importing tea, Napkeen (a cloth), chinaware &
exporting opium, furs, silver.

Tea made up 80% percent of the imports.

American had a difficult time competing with British in the early 1800's
because the monopoly Britian had over the opium trade.

By the mid 1800 the demand for fur pelts in china decline.

By 1842 Britain won the opium war with china securing the port of Shanghai for themselfs.

In 1844 President John Taylor signed the Treat of Wanghsia securing the same rights for America
almost equal to what the British trade rights were.

The treaty regulated trade and eliminated reckless voyages by American merchants to China.

By the time the civil war began the opium wars between Britain and China were over.

Trade with China by Britain and America was well established before the civil war began.

Trade before the civil war was already controlled by Northern family owned merchants in New York and Philadelphia.

Acquiring California as a trading post with China for American Northern Merchants would have been
of little value because the eastern ports were closer to the populated areas and their trading interstructure in eastern ports
were already established.

The South had little to gain too from acquiring California as a trading post with China. What did the South had but raw cotton...which China markets did not want. California to the South was just another place to plant cotton to be picked by slaves.
 
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