The Chinese merchants have a well-earned reputation as shrewd dealers: they have little confidence in each other; every contract of importance must be “fixed,” and made sure by the payment of a stipulated sum: but they place the most unlimited confidence in the integrity of their foreign customers. Among the _outside_ merchants the trade is very limited, and their number being unlimited, there is often much competition between them. The whole of the East India company’s business, a large portion of the English private trade, and that of other foreigners, are confined to the hong-merchants and those who transact business in connexion with them. The establishments of the principal hong-merchants are extensive; they have numerous and convenient ware-houses in which they store goods, and from whence export-cargoes are conveyed, in lighters, to the shipping at Whampoa. The names of the hong-merchants are Howqua, Mowqua, Puankhequa, Goqua, Fatqua, Kingqua, Sunshing, Mingqua, Saoqua, and Punhoqua. The Rev. Robert Morrison, D. D., is Chinese translator to the British East India company, and Mr. G. R. Morrison, his son, to those termed the _outside British merchants_. The four linguists are named, Atom, Achow, Atung, and Akang. [Sidenote: FOREIGN FACTORIES.] The _foreign factories_, the situation of which has already been noticed, are neat and commodious buildings: the plot of ground on which they stand is circumscribed by narrow limits, extending about sixty rods from east to west, and forty rods from north to south: it is owned, in common with most of the factories, by the hong-merchants.