Eighteenth-century Canton was a key hub in the global trade network, and yet, all commercial contact was restricted to the small foreign quarters. In a place only a few kilometres long and wide, a multitude of traders from different places had to negotiate norms and learn local practices: in short, they had to make trade work. For most of the long 18th century, international trade worked quite well there: Chinese goods were exported to Europe, and silver flowed into the Qing Empire.

Smooth trade operations rely upon trust, and Canton was no exception in this regard. Foreigners and Chinese alike had to be able to rely on debts being paid, cargo being delivered and deadlines being met. In the words of the historian David Sunderland, trust can be defined as “an expectation, expressed in action and disappointed or fulfilled, that a partner will honour his implicit or explicit obligations.” Through the lens of trust, we can study the social environment of the foreign quarters of Canton, and even map some of the power hierarchies that emerged.

The aim of this chapter is to analyse how trust was established, negotiated and lost in the foreign quarters of 18th-century Canton. Firstly, attention is paid to the individuals between whom trust could be established, and secondly to the logistics of the process – the spaces, practices and strategies – used in negotiating and upholding trust. To establish trust with someone it was essential to present oneself in a specific way, while at the same time evaluating the person with whom one interacted. Establishing oneself as trustworthy was intertwined with the construction of gender, nationality, and class.