Nathan Dunn (1782–1844) as Anti-Opium China Trader and Sino-Western Cultural Intermediary

Abstract

American trader Nathan Dunn’s experience as a private China trader shows that one individual can indeed make a difference. A practicing Quaker who refused to buy or sell opium, Dunn pioneered innovative trading strategies while championing a mercantile code that was unusual for his day. At a time when few Americans regarded the opium trade as inappropriate, he showed that it was possible to succeed in the Canton Trade without dealing in opium. Dunn was also a dedicated educator of Chinese culture. He seems to have found his life’s purpose in bringing an understanding of China to English-speaking audiences. Unlike virtually all of his contemporaries except for Robert Waln Jr., his aim was not to trade and get wealthy purely for the sake of personal aggrandizement. Rather, it was to become a self-educated, self-proclaimed advocate for China in the United States and later in the United Kingdom. The wealth that he gained through trade provided funds needed to realize his higher calling. In addition, he was arguably the pioneer of Sinological museology and ethnology in both the United States and Europe. Because of the earnestness and thoroughness of his quest, he elevated both sciences beyond the level of randomly collecting ‘cabinets of curiosities’. Shortly after he established a ‘Chinese Museum’ in Philadelphia in 1838, several other similar museums appeared in America and England, although none were as focussed and all-encompassing or as positively inclined as his.