Benjamin Bowen Carter was a learned man, trained in liberal arts and language, but raised amid mercantile culture. He thrived while traveling, actively exploring the new worlds he saw wherever he had the chance to visit. He came of age at the dawn of America’s enterprising history, and his involvement in it necessarily traced a transnational arc. Ironically it was an ancient language, Latin, which provided the bridge to learning a language which promised the most significant practical benefit. Carter’s journey leaves many unanswered questions, not least why a promising start at becoming learned in Chinese never seemed to materialize into work that stuck in history. Carter’s experience in Canton, experience that brought financial independence as well as intellectual engagement, convinced him that China and Chinese language would play importantly in the future.

Carter's success as a China trader bring to mind the successive generations of Americans who have imagined China as the good earth for great prosperity. This dream persists. His inability to convince his peers of the importance of language in navigating encounters in foreign territory also is unfortunately matched by repeated American inattention to the value of language study.[43]

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