Then the Astor ships would transport the heavy fur packets—sea otter, beaver, lynx, bear—across the Pacific. His captains would sell them at a tremendous markup in Canton, where a powerful demand existed from wealthy Chinese. Then, in China, Astor’s ships would load porcelain, silk, tea, and yellow nankeen cloth and sail these cargos around the other half of the globe (or return via the same route, depending on conditions) to the markets of London and New York, completing the circumnavigation and reaping another astronomical profit from fashionable and eager European and American consumers of
...more
