The Empress of China

"Since the year 1784, the trade here has been constantly tending to the disadvantage of the Europeans. The imports, collectively taken, hardly defray the first cost; and the exports have increased in a ratio beyond all possible conjecture. On an average, at the most moderate computation, the price of every sort of tea, Bohea only accepted, has advanced more than forty per cent, nor is it yet at the highest point. Such is the demand for this article, that the Chinese hardly know how much to ask for it..." 

-Samuel Shaw, The Journals of Major Samuel Shaw: The First American Consul at Canton, 1847, Wm Crosby & H.B. Nichols, Boston.

For some, thinking about the Old China Trade often conjures up romantic images of an exotic East; silks, porcelain, bohea tea and extrinsic paintings. Additionally, and more importantly, we should remember the number of common Americans who were determined, at all costs, to attain the wealth and status they so desired. Yet the economic relationship between the United States and China during the 18th and 19th centuries was much more than that. We often overlook the steadfast vessels that carried the silk, porcelain and tea from Canton, back to the eastern seaboard - their journeys often began and ended in the ports of Salem, Boston, New York and Philadelphia.
The most well-known of all the merchant ships of the Old China Trade is the Empress of China, a fantastic three-masted commercial vessel. The "Chinese Queen" was the first American merchant ship to enter Chinese-controlled waters.
Built in 1783 in Boston, the Empress of China was originally intended as a privateer vessel. Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, she was modulated into a commercial ship and entered Canton (now Guangzhou) in 1784. She returned stateside with a cargo of tea, nankeen, porcelain and spices. Upon completion of her first voyage, the Empress of China returned a 25% profit. She is credited with opening trade relations between the United States and China, as well as China's Marine Silk Road, but more importantly for giving a fledgling nation the economic boost it desperately needed following the Revolution.

Sources:
"Embassy of the United States." The Empress of China. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2013.
Smith, Philip Chadwick Foster. The Empress of China. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Maritime Museum, 1984.