Though modern political relations between the
United States and China can sometimes appear shaky, the 2 power countries have
an undeniably strong and deep-rooted trade relationship. According to the
US-China Business Council, the United States is China’s number one trade
partner, exchanging about $385 billion worth of goods in 2010.1 Although it is a story that most Americans have never heard, a medicinal plant, wild
American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius),
played an essential role in establishing the roots of this colossal, centuries-old
trade alliance.2,3
In late 1783, the United States of America, which had just won its
independence from Great Britain, was in dire economic straits partly because
Britain had banned many trade hubs from dealing with the new country.3
In an effort to establish its own trade routes and rescue the country’s
financial system, the United States sent a ship named the Empress of China from New York Harbor to Canton, China (now called Guangzhou) on
February 22nd of 1784.2 It carried 30 tons of wild American
ginseng, mostly gathered from southern Appalachia.
While British and European settlers in North America had been trading with
other countries for several years, the Empress cargo was the first shipment
under the American flag. According to David Taylor, author of Ginseng, the Divine Root, loading the
ship with ginseng was a smart and safe strategic decision.
“We knew they wanted ginseng because there was already a history of
demand for it, rather than a range of goods we didn’t know if they would like,”
he said (oral communication, April 10, 2012).
David Wang, PhD — manager of Queens Library in Laurelton — said the early
Americans saw ginseng “as a valuable opportunity to break their economic
blockage by Britain” (e-mail, April 23, 2012). Other sources document the
Empress as an attempt to establish a new source of tea, which was becoming
dearly missed after the United States was banned from trading with the British
West Indies.4
Meanwhile, China also had a need for new ginseng
sources. Though the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) first sought to protect the
region’s ginseng populations by controlling collection, it eventually gave up
that mission. According to Taylor’s Divine
Root, “Resigned that ginseng would be overharvested no matter what, the
imperial court decided to reap the plant’s riches while it could… In the end,
China’s last dynasty ebbed and the wild root vanished from its forests.”2
Much of the Empress’s success depended on a French missionary traveling
through the New World.2 In the early 1700s, a Jesuit cleric who had
heard of this mysterious root from Asia discovered the Mohawks’ use of ginseng.
He recorded it and published a booklet on ginseng,2 which led to the
trade of wild ginseng roots throughout North America and eventually China.
“[The Empress] triumphed because it made it there
and back, and made a profit, which was never guaranteed at that point in time. Economically,
it was important in terms of making contact between the US and China,” said
Taylor, noting a Congressional resolution, passed after the Empress’s return, encouraging
more such ventures. According to Dr. Wang, American ginseng “was the most important
commercial good in the trade between China and the United States during the
late 1700s leading into the early 1800s.”
Not only was the Empress’s ginseng cargo an economic success, it also
tied the countries together on another — and perhaps equally important — level.
“Ginseng opened the door to the idea that there were natural and
cultural resources shared between North America and Asia,” said Taylor.
Instead of becoming competition for Asian ginseng, the American variety
was viewed as being complementary, said Dr. Wang. “[The Chinese]
discovered that Chinese ginseng is warm and good for people who have
recovered from a serious illness and need to regain their strength; on the
other hand, American ginseng has cooler properties and is normally used to cool
down fevers or summer heat. The Chinese considered it good for people with
deficient yin or excessive yang. Therefore, American Ginseng was
welcomed all the time.”
But both Taylor and Dr. Wang indicated that the Empress and early
ginseng trade influenced America more than it did China.
“[The Empress of China] definitely shifted [China’s] view to realize
this new country that had a complement of Asian ginseng,” said Taylor. “On the
American side, it probably had more impact because it really set the pattern
for foreign trade for more than 3 decades.”
Most Americans, he continued, were driven by a potential for trading
and making a living and ginseng was one of the first products that enabled them
to find success in these aspirations. Similarly, Dr. Wang noted that ginseng
helped “Americanize” the new country. Among famous early Americans, George
Washington, Daniel Boone, and John Jacob Astor were reportedly involved with
the ginseng trade.5
“It also,
however, seems pretty clear that lots of ginseng was collected [for trading] by
native peoples, especially the Cherokee,” said Dan Moerman, author of Native
American Ethnobotany and an anthropology professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. “I think it's likely
that ginseng became more interesting to native peoples after they realized how
valuable it was in trade. Maybe that Americanized them.”
“The search for ginseng, the most important and lucrative export to China,
became an important driving force of the westward expansion,” said Dr. Wang. “From
the Eastern coast areas all the way out west… searching for Ginseng became a
fever.”
In return for ginseng and other goods aboard the Empress and early
trading ships to China, the United States imported much tea, which Dr. Wang
said helped popularize the beverage, especially for lower classes of society
that previously were unable to afford such a luxury item.
The United States exported hundreds of thousands of pounds of ginseng
in the years after the Empress set sail, over-exploiting many of the country’s
wild populations.5 When the US Fish and Wildlife Services
implemented the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, or
CITES, in 1977, the agency began controlling wild ginseng harvest and trade.
“There is an
unquenchable interest in the plant and how it grows and how people can use it,”
said Taylor. “It also points out the boom and bust cycle of natural products
from the wild, particularly medicinal products, especially if they’re not
regulated.”
—Lindsay Stafford
References
- US-China Trade Statistics and China's World Trade Statistics.
US-China Business Council website. Available at:
www.uschina.org/statistics/tradetable.html. Accessed March 19, 2012.
- Taylor D. Ginseng, the Divine Root.
2006: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill; New York, NY.
- Wang D. Ginseng: the herb that helped the United States to enter
international commerce. World Huaren Federation website. Available at: www.huaren.org/members-contribution/ginseng--us-commerce.
Accessed April 23, 2012.
- Markoe K. Two hundred years of U.S. Trade with China (1784-1984). Asia for
Educators, Columbia University. 2009. Available at: http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_1750_us.htm.
Accessed April 23, 2012.
- Beyfuss R. Ginseng growing. New York State Department of
Environmental Conservation website. Available at: www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7472.html.
Accessed April 23, 2012.
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