British Requests To The Chinese Government example essay topic

Explain why the British were unhappy with the Guangzhou (Canton) trading system. At the time of the first opium war, the British had to deal with large tariffs, bribes, and taxes, being restricted to a single port with many living restrictions, and an alien system of law. For a majority of the time preceding 1760 all ports were technically open to British trade, however they faced the same restrictions as Guangzhou. Starting in 1757 the Chinese government imposed large duties at Ningpo and other northern ports making them heavier than Guangzhou in order to restrict trade.

In 1759 James Flint, a British merchant, defied custom by writing a memorial directly to Emperor Ch " ien-lung defying custom. In response the emperor restricted all British Trade hence forth to Guangzhou. At Guangzhou the British had a series of difficulties. Guangzhou was an old port full of corruption. The East India Company's first ship to the port in 1689 had to pay a "gratuity" of 300 taels to the local customs officer. An incoming British ship had to pay measurement fees, the tariff on goods, and gratuities.

After 1727 the measurement fees and gratuities were fixed and the tariffs remained reasonably low between 2 and 4 percent, though customs officials frequently charged twice as much. The British were unhappy with largely fluctuating customs dues in what they considered to be a time of free trade and as a result they strove to change the system. Because the Chinese Government believed that trade was a privilege and not a right of foreigners, the British were forced to submit to a series of certain rules. Governor-general Li Ssu-yao first put a set of Five Regulations into practise in 1759.

Many additions were made to these and by the early 19th century trade was very controlled. British Traders were firstly only allowed to be in Guangzhou during the trading season (October to January). The rest of the time they had to return to Macao or go home. When traders were in Guangzhou they were forced to reside in the 13 foreign factories. They were only allowed to leave these factories on the 8th, the 18th, and the 28th, of the month to visit the flower gardens. The British traders were not allowed to bring any women into Guangzhou.

In 1830 three foreign women sneaked into an English factory and Chinese authorities threatened to stop trade until the women left. Because of this most traders usually left their families in Macao. Foreign traders were also only allowed to sell their goods through the Co-Hong, a group of Chinese merchants. When a British ship came into Guangzhou it had to sell its goods to the assigned Co-Hong merchant and was not allowed to go anywhere else.

Frederic Wake men, Jr. argues that another source of unhappiness among the British was that they were always referred to as inferiors. All British requests to the Chinese government had to be passed through the Co-Hong merchants. Generally the answers were deprecating and the traders were referred to as "barbarian headman". There was no state-to-state diplomacy between China and Britain and this made it extremely difficult to address any problems the British were having. The British were also very uneasy about the Chinese Law. Britons only came under Chinese jurisdiction if they killed a Chinese person, accidentally or otherwise.

British and Chinese methods of punishment greatly differed. Chinese law allowed for the family or others considered responsible of an alleged criminal to be punished for the crime. Chinese law also did not involve a trial by jury and often the accused was tortured. According to Chinese legal concepts there was no distinction between accidental homicide and premeditated murder. The Chinese court system was also unjust.

Chinese testimonies carried more weight than that of foreigners and the courts were often very corrupt. Money could sometimes be more important than evidence. What efforts did the British government make to alter the Guangzhou trading system? As a result of being unable to change the Guangzhou trading system by petitioning through the Co-Hong the British Government sent a series of missions to Beijing to see the emperor and try and alter the Guangzhou trading system. All three missions ended in failure with only the Macartney mission actually getting to see the emperor. The first mission was dispatched to China in 1793 head by Lord Macartney.

Lord Macartney was a gifted diplomat and at the time he was the best qualified and the most eligible man in England for the China Mission. The mission was sent under the pretext of presenting felicitations from the English king to the Emperor Ch " ien-lung on his eighty third birthday. It set out from London with many presents including a planetarium, globes, mathematical instruments, a chronometer, a telescope, and many other things. All in all these presents cost lb 15,610. The Macartney mission was tasked with opening the whole East to British trade and of opening state-to-state diplomacy in China.

This involved acquiring one or two places in China were British traders could reside under English jurisdiction, extending trade throughout China, relieving the causes for unhappiness in Guangzhou, creating a desire in China for British products and to arrange diplomatic representation at Beijing. Lord Macartney was also instructed to collect valuable firsthand information about China. Lord Macartney was advised to participate in all of the ceremonies of the Chinese court that did not jeopardise the honour of the English king or himself. In China at the time it was standard to perform a kowtow before the emperor to demonstrate submission.

Macartney would not do this so in the end a modified ritual where Lord Macartney fell on one knee, as he would normally do for the English king, was arranged. Once Macartney had overcome the difficulty of kowtowing he was faced with greater problems. As far as the Ch " ing court was concerned, the mission was a tribute mission congratulating the emperor on his birthday and diplomatic negotiations were completely out of order. Lord Macartney gave the emperor a letter from King George the third detailing England's wishes, which were all rejected and then returned to Britain. The mission was a almost a complete failure.

The only thing Britain was successful at achieving was collecting valuable information about China. Macartney discovered the low state of China's scientific knowledge and the backwardness of its army and the widespread corruption in government. Lord Macartney described China as. ".. an old, crazy, first-rate Man of War, which a succession of able and vigilant officers have contrived to keep afloat for these hundred and fifty years past, and to overawe their neighbours merely by her bulk and appearance". Lord Amherst, the ex-governor of India, lead the next mission to Beijing in 1816. He was instructed to achieve similar goals as Lord Macartney but also to apologize to china about recent British military actions that involved China (British invasion of Nepal and the capture of an American ship in Guangzhou). By the time of the Amherst mission, Emperor Ch " ien-lung had been succeeded by his son Emperor Chia-ch " ing who was much more hesitant to receive foreign envoys.

Emperor Chia-ch " ing ordered that the reception of this mission not be at all extravagant and that the mission could only proceed to Beijing if Lord Amherst was submissive and agreed to kowtow. Amherst refused and was not permitted to meet with the emperor. Hs"u argues that Amherst's refusal to comply with the Chinese ceremonies was the sole cause for this. In 1834 the English East India Company, the group of merchants that had a monopoly in China as well as elsewhere, was disbanded and free trade became the new phenomenon in British trade. This was a major change as it meant that the British government had replaced the EIC (East India Company) in dealings with China, and official relations were now substituted with private relations.

Lord William John Napier was appointed chief superintendent of the British trade in China. Lord Napier was ordered to place Britain on an equal footing with China, while at the same time not offending Chinese sensibilities or using military force unless completely necessary. This was an almost impossible task. Lord Napier was unaware of Chinese customs and when he arrived in Guangzhou he sent a letter to the governor-general informing him of his arrival. This violated Chinese convention in several ways. Firstly Lord Napier was supposed to wait in Macau until he received permission to come to Guangzhou and also to move into a factory.

Secondly he did not address the governor-general by sending the letter through the Co-Hong merchants. The governor-general of Guangzhou was greatly offended and order Napier to leave the city. Napier refused and stopped trade and threatened to use force. However a group of British traders refused to support him and requested the Chinese customs official to reopen trade. Napier then left feeling betrayed and retreated to Macau where he died shortly after. Immanuel Hs"u suggests that the reason why Napier mission was such a failure was caused as much by Napier's personal pretensions as by the difficulty of his task.

Lord Napier did not understand that the he was only a superintendent of trade, which is what the Chinese believed he was, and not a royal emissary. Why did the Chinese refuse to change the Guangzhou trading system? What effect did this have on the attitude of the British? The Europeans and the west had greatly different outlooks on foreign affairs. Pao Chao Hsieh proposes that for the first three quarters of the Qing Dynasty, prior to 1840, the role of China was to conquer, impose conditions, exact tribute, civilize, then neglect, reconquer, re-civilize and finally re-exact the same tributes again and again from its neighbouring countries. China believed that all other countries were inferior to it, while Europeans believed that all countries should be treated as equals.

This caused great conflict including the Chinese refusal to change the Guangzhou trading system and the British's response. From the years up to the opium wars the Manchus had never met a military adversary better than themselves. The Manchus had dominated all the territories that adjoined it including Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, Turkestan, and Annam. China was geographically isolated from the rest of the world on her eastern border by the sea, on her northern border by the desert, and on her southwestern border by the mountainous region of Tibet. Christopher Condon argues that because of China's geographic isolation and its dominance of all neighbouring states the rulers of China had an unrealistic view of China's relationship with the world, that China was superior to all other civilisations. The Qing government transferred this view to the British and believed that they were the superior nation even though circumstances may have indicated otherwise.

The basic Chinese religious concept of the world said that China was superior to all other nations. As seen in a document taken from J. Chesneaux's book China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution and in an illustration taken from the book Imperial Illustrated Edition Of Historical Classics China believed that the "circular shadow" of heaven projected directly onto the Chinese empire itself. The Chinese believed that the further away from the empire of China the less of the "celestial emanations" the country received. Hence the Chinese believed that the countries that were far away from China could not be equals with the Chinese emperor, "the Son of Heaven" and that all people living outside China were barbarians.

Thus the Qing government believed that the British could not be equals with the Chinese diplomatically and that they were quite barbaric as they lived so far away from china. The Chinese government and society were all based on the ideas of Confucius. Confucianism stressed the obligations of a person or state to greater authority or superior. As the Chinese believed they were greatly superior to the British they believed that the British would have to comply to any of the wishes and that the British should not ask for anything they did not deserve.

This is seen in Emperor Ch " ien-lungs reply to King George after the Macartney mission. The Emperor described the mission as a "tribute mission". He thought the Macartney mission was such because it was unfeasible for a foreign nation to visit China and ask for equality. All the other missions Emperor Ch " ien-lung received from different countries were in fact tribute missions showing submissive loyalty.

The Emperor also wrote "If other nations, following your bad example, wrongfully importune my ear with further impossible requests, how will it be possible for me to treat them with easy indulgence". This shows the emperor's total ignorance that at the time Britain was the world's largest naval power and more powerful then China. China treated Britain just like any other nation. In summary China refused to change the Guangzhou trading system because it believed no other nation including Britain was superior to it and that all these nations had to be submissive to China. After sending three missions to China to try and convince them otherwise Britain was really only left with three options; abandoning the China trade, submitting to the Chinese treatment, or by changing the situation by military means.

The English were unwilling to abandon trade in China as it was so profitable. In the 1830's over 34,000,000 silver dollars were shipped out of China to countries such as Britain in order to pay for Opium. Britain also made lots of money by buying tea from the Chinese and selling it Britain. By 1800 the EIC was investing lb 4,000,000 a year in teas and then shipping them to Britain. The British government also largely profited as they had a 100 percent excise duty on tea. Many English traders were content with submitting to the Guangzhou trade system.

William C. Hunter, an American who stayed in Guangzhou in 1825 described the co-Hong merchants as "honourable and reliable in all their dealings, faithful to their contracts, and large-minded" A large percentage of English merchants did not want to change the trading system for fear of losing trade altogether as shown by the Napier Mission. When after May 24, 1839 when the Chinese had seized all the opium and held the British under siege there the British immediately began formulating plans for war. On October 1839 Britain departed on the road to war taking full advantage of the excuse that the opium siege had provided them. War finally began in January 1840.

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Morales, A. C, East Meets West Vol. I, Macmillan, Hong Kong, 1986. Smith, Joanna F. Handling. "Qing Dynasty" Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2003. web Microsoft Corporation, 1997-2003. Towns on, Duncan.

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