Guilds in China

The Cohong, sometimes spelled or , a guild of Chinese merchants or hongs, operated the import–export monopoly in Canton (present-day Guangzhou) during the Qing dynasty (16441911). During the century prior to the First Opium War of 1839–1842, trade relations between China and Europe took place exclusively via the Cohong – a system formalised by an imperial edict of the Qianlong Emperor in 1738. The Chinese merchants who made up the Cohong were referred to as (行商) and their foreign counterparts as (洋行，literally "foreign traders").