Excerpt from China: The Country and Its People Western trade early chafed under the restrictions imposed by the Imperial Govern ment. Their removal or, at least, their modification was persistently sought by the commercial powers. In the eighteenth century six nations were engaged in trade with China through the single port of Canton, Portugal, England, Holland, Spain, France, and the United States. The first appearance of America as a competitor in Oriental commerce occurred when the thirteen American colonies, revolting from British sovereignty, were clumsily working together under the makeshift of the Confederation. None of the European governments, thus apprised of its latest rival, was gifted with the prescience to see in this pioneer the leader of a fleet which would carry a com merce more valuable than that of any of them save one, Great Britain, and which by leaps and bounds, a century later, was to make great strides in overtaking the lead which that one had acquired. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.