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the Old China Trade (roughly 1780s–1840s) left deep footprints in a few U.S. port cities where merchants made fortunes trading tea, porcelain, and silk (often tied to opium on the China side). Unlike the broad colonial history, the China Trade is very specific and tied to merchant families, architecture, museums, and preserved mansions.
Here are the best towns/cities in America where you can still find traces of the Old China Trade:
New England – Strongest Connections
1. Salem, Massachusetts
Salem became America’s leading China Trade port after the Revolution.
Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) – holds one of the world’s best collections of Chinese export art and goods.
Homes of Salem’s merchant princes (e.g., Derby House, East India Marine Hall) still stand.
2. Boston, Massachusetts
Boston’s Old State House once housed merchants who helped finance early trade voyages.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – superb collection of Chinese export porcelain brought back by Boston merchants.
Beacon Hill mansions of China traders (like Perkins, Forbes, Cushing families).
Boston Athenaeum has merchant records tied to the China Trade.
3. Newport, Rhode Island
Smaller scale, but wealthy Newport families invested in China voyages.
Newport Historical Society has documents on merchant shipping.
Some China Trade wealth flowed into Newport’s later 19th-century development.
4. Providence, Rhode Island
Merchants like John Brown and Obadiah Brown financed early voyages to Canton.
John Brown House Museum – Brown was one of the first Americans to send a ship to China (1790).
Wealth from this trade built much of Providence’s mercantile district.
Mid-Atlantic Ports
5. New York City
Grew into a dominant China Trade hub by the 1820s–40s.
China Trade records preserved at the New-York Historical Society.
Merchants like the Astors, Gracies, and Howlands tied fortunes to Canton trade.
Some merchant homes (e.g., Gracie Mansion) trace wealth back to the trade.
6. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Empress of China (1784), first U.S. ship to sail to Canton, was financed by Philadelphia merchants.
Independence Seaport Museum preserves maritime history.
Merchant families like the Willings and Binghams had China ties.
West Coast Connections (later, after 1840s)
7. San Francisco, California
Though later (post–Opium War era), San Francisco became the Pacific hub for trade with China.
Early merchant houses like Russ & Co. had Canton connections.
Chinatown’s foundations are linked to the 19th-century trade.
Best bets for visible, walkable history today:
Salem, MA (most intact Old China Trade story + PEM museum).
Providence, RI (John Brown House).
Philadelphia, PA (Empress of China connection).
Boston, MA (merchant houses + MFA + Athenaeum collections).
