The final loading of a ship consisted of all sorts of odds and ends reserved for the last moment, and shipped off by what was called the 'chow-chow chop.' More valuable cargo, not ready in time for the regular cargo boats, could also be sent to Whampoa by this conveyance. It was a great convenience, while all other shipping off was conducted on the strictness of the laws of the Medes and Persians, with documents without flaw. When the market had been cleared of teas, the vessels despatched and the business of the season over, contracts were made with the Hong merchants for the next season. These contracts were often of great pecuniary value. They consisted of teas of certain qualities and kinds, in packages of chests and half-chests, sometimes at fixed prices, at others at the opening prices after they should have arrived, and deliverable at the customary time. No other record of these contracts was ever made than by each party booking them. No written agreements were drawn up and signed, nothing was sealed or attested. A wilful breach of contract never took place, and as regards quantity and quality, the Hong merchants fulfilled their part with scrupulous honesty and care. I am speaking of the first twenty years of my own personal experience. Entire cargoes of teas were purchased and shipped from a few small canister musters, and were weighed by taking the average of a few chests from each 'chop.' A 'chop' of tea was always an uncertain quantity, blacks numbering 400 to 600 chests, sometimes more or less, and greens from 120 to 200 chests. The chest contained originally 100 catties, or 133-1/3 pounds, the halves and quarters in the same proportion, while boxes were locally packed with canisters of various sizes. The inconvenience of these larger packages, both in size and weight, caused a reduction to be made in them gradually until the chest averaged about eighty catties. Some of the packages shipped at this time have completely disappeared, and we hear no longer of five and ten-catty boxes, nor of one, two, or three-pound canisters. Valuable invoices of silk piece goods were bought and shipped from an examination of only a piece or two taken at random from any box we might choose to have opened. They consisted of satins, crapes, sinshews, levantines, black handkerchiefs, sarsnetts, lutstrings, and pongees, besides great quantities of yellow nankins, almost all of which articles have now ceased to be exported. As a natural consequence of the integrity of the Chinese merchants, we had neither receipt nor check-book. Payments were made by the Compradore of large amounts on simple scraps of paper signed with the initials of a firm. No promissory notes existed, and consequently there was no 'bill book.' There was no post office, there were no postages, and no copying machines.