Cohong
The Cohong, sometimes spelled kehang or gonghang, a guild of Chinese merchants or hongs, operated the import–export monopoly in Canton (present-day Guangzhou) during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). 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.