Given the economic damage caused by needless trade wars, it is worthwhile to recall the Empress of China, the ship that opened trade with China, the United States’ first trading partner.

The new nation had won its independence from Great Britain but had lost much of its foreign trade. The economy slumped. The American banker Robert Morris decided to venture into new markets. If the British wouldn’t sell Americans tea from India, then Americans would buy tea from China. He hired a newly built three-masted privateer of 360 tons, renamed the ship the Empress of China, and outfitted her for commerce. 

On February 22, 1784, Washington’s birthday and just over a month after Congress ratified the peace treaty, the Empress of China sailed from New York harbor bound for Canton. The Empress carried cargoes worth $120,000 including lead, 2,600 animal skins, fine camel cloth, cotton, Spanish silver coins, and a few barrels of pepper. The ship also carried 30 tons of ginseng, a root that grew wild in North America and was considered by the Chinese to have healing properties.

The Empress returned to New York on May 11, 1785, after a round voyage of 14 months and 24 days.  She carried a return cargo of 800 chests of tea, 20,000 pairs of nankeen trousers and a huge quantity of porcelain. Newspapers announced her return, and stores up and down the East Coast sold her cargo. The return to her investors was 25%, less than had been hoped but enough to encourage others to invest in further trading with China. 

Within 20 years of the Empress of China’s voyage, American ships would outnumber those of all other nations trading with China.  The China trade helped to build the new nation and would contribute to making the United States a major maritime power in the 19th century.