Reminiscences Volume 1 PDF Download

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXIX PEKING I Intended to sail for India on a P. & 0. steamer. Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cunningham kindly invited me to make their house my home in the meantime. I found the foreign society very interesting. The experience was also interesting in other ways, and also instructive as regards hoth the natives and the foreigners and their relations to each other. The European and American merchants still controlled the foreign commerce, and the great houses made large profits. There were also great Chinese merchants with a high standard of commercial honor both among themselves and with the foreigner; the word of each was held to be as good as a bond. The foreign houses bought Chinese products by samples, and the goods had the qualities of the samples. The real business was done by a Chinese employee--the comprador. He had the whole charge of the money, and did all the buying of native goods and selling of foreign ones. It was tacitly understood that the comprador received a commission from the Chinese seller or buyer, but this was a small fixed percentage, and it was well known that he bought and sold much more advantageously than the foreigner could. The commission, though never mentioned, was a regular matter of business, and in accord with the really high standard of commercial honor, and was not a theft as it would be with us. The comprador got rich; but the foreign houses also flourished. Back of this commercial standard was the great moral check on which was based the whole politicial, social, and domestic organization of China--the reverence of ancestors. The individual was responsible for the family honor, the family was responsible to the clan and to the village. The son would face death rather than disgrace the family and the...