A Chinese Buyers' Pool, a Ring of Boosters, and a Near-Riot Over Confiscated Opium
At the Port Townsend marshal's sale, Seattle's Chinese merchants tried to buy back a confiscated lot in one block — until local bidders ran the price up for sport.
PORT TOWNSEND, March 9. — [Special.] The marshal's sale of contraband opium brought an average of $11.75 per pound. Seattle Chinese formed a pool to buy up the whole lot at a very low rate, but were frustrated by local "boosters," who ran the price up. The Chinese had one man bidding, and when the goods were not knocked down to him at the price stated several tried to escape payment of their part, which nearly resulted in a free fight. Every city on the Sound was represented among the bidders.
“Seattle Chinese formed a pool to buy up the whole lot at a very low rate, but were frustrated by local "boosters," who ran the price up.”
Customs seizures of opium were routine on Puget Sound in the 1890s, and the Chinese merchants who pooled their money to buy back confiscated goods belonged to the same community driven out of Seattle, Tacoma, and Port Townsend within two years. The "boosters" who bid up the price for sport are a small rehearsal of the expulsions to come.
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