Bodies and Structures 2.0: Deep-Mapping Modern East Asian History

A Deal is Struck at Lintin, Shi Shubao becomes a Translator

Original: 道光十五年六月間施猴因挑運煙土不便,起意勾引夷船泊放閩洋販賣,與施漱寶商允。又各出資本洋銀一千六百元,同赴廣東澳門零丁外洋向夷人大李、小李議定煙土價銀每箱四百八十元,汁土四十塊。施猴等將番銀三千二百元買得煙土多箱,並囑其多帶煙土一併運往設法代為銷售。該夷人大李等即來夾板船裝載煙土,並邀通事陳阿跳、陽明同往正欲開行。王麻執聞知其事亦買得煙土,租駕紅頭裝載,令陳阿跳在船驗受,與大李等夷船一同駕至。

In the sixth month of the fifteenth year of Daoguang (June of 1835), Shi Hou decided that transporting the opium himself was too inconvenient, and contrived the idea of enticing the foreign boats to come anchor off the Fujian coast and sell opium. He shared the idea with Shi Shubao, and each invested 1,600 in silver taels.

They brought the money to Lintin near Macao and gave it to the foreigners Big and Little Li, who had set a price of 480 taels of silver per chest (each containing 40 bricks of opium). Shi Hou and the others handed over their 3,200 in silver, and began trying to figure out how to transport and sell the opium.

Big and Little Li had just then purchased a lorcha, and they invited on two other Chinese middlemen (Chen A'tiao and Yang Ming) who were just then thinking of starting a business. When Wang Mazhi heard about this, he too bought a large amount of opium and hired Chen A'tiao to rent a "Redhead Boat" [a boat from Chaozhou, in Guangdong Province] and travel along with the others up the coast.


施漱寶因時與夷船交易漸曉夷語,與澳門生辰之紅毛夷人大李、小李熟知。

Shi Shubao, due to prolonged interaction with foreigners, gradually learned to speak and comprehend the foreign language. He became intimately acquainted with the Macao-born red-hair foreigners Big and Little Li.

Source: Junji chu Hanwen lufu zouzhe (Grand Council Chinese-Language Palace Memorial Copies, often cited as LFZZ), Beijing: First Historical Archives, 03–4007–048, DG 18.10.29.

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