Step 6 of 8

Inside the Factories

The Hong merchants who were also the owners or landlords of the factories made considerable profit from renting the buildings out as accommodation. The factories were much deeper than they were wide, with a row of four, five, six or more blocks.Each block was a separate unit with a separate roof, yet the blocks of each factory were all connected and in some cases shared a common wall with another block. The renting of one block was normally sufficient to accommodate the officers of one large East Indiaman or those of several small ships, depending on the size of their crew. The rent was based on the number of blocks occupied, and also dependent on whether the block faced the river or was situated at the back near Thirteen Hong Street.

By the 1760s French, English, Dutch, Swedish and Danish companies tended to rent all of the blocks in their Hongs. If there were spare apartments that were not needed, they would allow private supercargoes or captains to rent those rooms. Apparently, the owners of the buildings did not take any action to stop subletting. They even preferred foreigners to provide private rooms for these individuals, so that they would not have to directly deal with them. Gradually, this subletting let foreigners take control of certain buildings where they opened inns and taverns. By the early 1800s, several of these establishments were in operation. All of this activity was unlicensed yet tolerated by Chinese officers. These foreign-run hotels helped to accommodate trade by meeting the needs of the small private traders. All of this activity started around the 1780s and 1790s with the huge inflow of private traders in Canton.cf