Hacker News Reader

Comment by c54 | Hacker News Reader

> Bonus question: what did the U.S. give to China in exchange for its china?)

Anyone know?

Suggested here are gold/silver bullion/coinage, unsurprisingly. Furs and sealskins. And probably a lot of opium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_China_Trade#Finding_medium...

It's answered in the article:

    the answer to the question I posed above about what the U.S. traded to China in the 19th century is "fur"

Silver that the Chinese would buy Opium from the UK for is a big one. Without the opium they'd have a surplus of silver/gold hence the Opium Wars.

He answers it as fur

I'd guess cotton, sugar, or molasses.

opium