Abstract: Comprador system was a bridge for trade and cultural communications between China and the Western countries in China’s modern history.It had been gradually developing after the First Opium War and begun to decline in the 1920s.Taking the Tianjin A&M Karagheusian, the biggest carpet producer and seller in China’s modern history, as an example and by studying the commercial correspondence of Dr. Shabas, an America-born Persian and the general manager of the firm, this paper attempts to illustrate the decline of the modern comprador system in modern history.Though seemingly caused by the foreign firms’ dissatisfaction over the high commission rate which led to the subsequent replacement of the compradors with high-level staffs of the foreign firms, the decline of the comprador system was in fact determined by the influx of foreign capitals into China to establish firms and Western efforts to reduce cost and to gain direct control over the raw materials.

Key Words: comprador, the comprador system, the A&M Karagheusian