Olof Lindahl and the 1770S and 1780S

Olof Lindahl and the 1770s and 1780s

On 24 July 1786, the supercargo Olof Lindahl arrived in Gothenburg from Canton. With him came a young Chinese man: Afock. Lindahl wrote happily about coming home, and mentioned bringing Afock, but then warned his friends to ‘not get mixed up with the import of such indulgences, because first the board did not like it very much, and second such a person is damn bothersome’. He and Afock (a typical trade name) toured Sweden for months, visiting manors and homes ‘like one day at the home of Governor General Baron Sparre, who regaled a fair number of Countesses with the ogling of Afock’. In several places they left entries in guest books of the homes they visited. One such entry is signed Ya-fu Cai, giving us Afock’s real name. Afock visited several members of the royal family, and was even received by King Gustavus iii. Lindahl wrote: ‘here you see the steady Afock and the East Indiaman metamorphosed to courtiers’; suddenly, he did not find Afock so tiresome. Lindahl said that they passed their days in Stockholm in this way, seeing every place, entering all prestigious institutions and places imagin- able. According to Lindahl, Afock received lavish gifts that he could account for by himself, ‘because he is now so at home with Swedish that he speaks it fairly well and comprehends almost everything; he can even give a toast to King Gustaf’. In January the next year, he left the country: ‘all men, high and low, not only loved Afock but took emotional farewells’.1

With Olof Lindahl (1748–1798) the story continues with Canton in the 1770s and 1780s.2 Lindahl was born into a merchant family in Norrköping. Rather than having a background in other foreign companies or in the navy, Lindahl made his whole career within the Swedish East India Company. He went on five different expeditions between 1766 and 1776, before he was made first supercargo in 1778. From 1779 to 1785 he was stationed permanently in Canton. There were still some Scottish connections in the company, but the majority of its officers were born in Sweden. Lindahl obtained his appointments in the company through contacts, just as Colin Campbell and Michael Grubb before him. After returning from China, Lindahl then helped friends, or friends of

1 ‘Letter to Erik Stockenström from Olof Lindahl 1/1 1787’, Is 46, Bref och handlingar rörande Erik von Stockenström, HS, KB; Holger Frykenstedt, Jean Jacques och Aurora Taube de Geer af Finspång och deras värld (Nyhamnsläge: Svenska humanistiska förbundet, 1987), 364–365. Note the reversed name order: the signature reads Cai Ya-fu (蔡亞福). 2 The sources for Lindahl include correspondence in the Godegård archive, as well as Lindahl, ‘Ett superkargkrig i Kanton 1784’.

176 Olof Lindahl and the 1770s and 1780s friends, to enter the company.3 Having the right ties facilitated the whole route from securing an appointment on a company ship, to trading in China, to mak- ing the most of your trip upon coming home. The importance of having the right sociability to work this global trade environment is clearly visible in Lindahl’s activities in Canton. He cooperated with other European private and company traders, as well as with the Chinese merchants. Like Grubb, he established closer connections with the Chinese merchants than Campbell did. When he left Canton, Lindahl wrote directly to certain Chinese merchants, to foreign traders, and to men and women in Macao. In one letter, he said: ‘Greet all friends from me, among the Chinese the old man Poankeequa and Tanqua especially, and among the Europeans Mr. Charles Pigou and Mr. Cox […]. Also greet Mr. Kintzuis, brother Vogelhang and father Beck; not forgetting when you arrive in Macao to give my compliments to Mrs Dozy’.4 This was to be expected as during this time, the officials increas- ingly dissociated themselves from the trade and the merchants responded by becoming more closely connected to, and developing a dependency on, Euro- peans such as Lindahl.5 In short, Lindahl was involved in long-term relationships before, during and after the journey. This new longevity of the relationships, and of the business deals, can be gleaned from the time Lindahl spent taking care of the business of earlier supercargoes. For example, he acted as a debt-collector for the supercargo Jean Abraham Grill for many years.6 The social ties between the traders translated into tendrils to the Canton trade, even when a trader had left China behind him many years before. One reason for the intense correspondence with Sweden was the bank- ruptcies of the 1770s and 1780s, when several Chinese merchant houses went under.7 During Grubb’s time, the merchant houses had still been relatively sta- ble. To lend money to them was illegal, but very profitable. When Lindahl was in Canton, the lending business had become much more volatile, and many debts were never paid in full – something that did not help Grubb’s precarious financial situation back in Sweden. Nevertheless, while some people suffered from the tumultuous times, the Swedish company in general prospered. Dur- ing the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783, the Swedish company

3 ‘Letter to Olof Lidén from Olof Lindahl 1791’, G 151:P, HS, uub. 4 ‘Letter to Erik Stockenström from Olof Lindahl 27/1 1786’. 5 Cheong, Hong Merchants of Canton, 232. 6 ‘Letter to Jean Abraham Grill from Olof Lindahl 5/7 1775’, IS, GA, nma; ‘Letter to Jean Abra- ham Grill from Olof Lindahl 8/1 1784’, IS, GA, nma; ‘Letter to Jean Abraham Grill from Olof Lindahl 1/12 1785’, IS, GA, nma. 7 Grant Jr., ‘Hong Merchant Litigation in the American Courts’.