What was China's attitude towards Western Traders in the late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and why was this so?2072 Words During the late Seventeenth and then the Eighteenth Cent

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David Cross        Page         Term I, Week 7

What was China’s attitude towards Western Traders in the late Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries and why was this so?

2072 Words

During the late Seventeenth and then the Eighteenth Century, the countries of Western Europe were going through an Industrial Revolution that would see their economies and societies radically transform due to industrialisation and an increase in foreign trade. China is traditionally seen as being left out of this or even isolating itself from the Western countries, limiting the trade it allowed and generally having a negative attitude. This view will be examined here in tandem with an investigation of the motives behind this negative attitude. The period in question points mainly to Dutch and British traders, in particular Lord Macartney’s mission to China in 1793. This mission provides is a good example of and helps explain China’s attitude. However, China’s actions towards some of it’s neighbours in terms of trade can also provide explanations for China’s approach to trade as a whole.

        The late Seventeenth Century was they heyday of Dutch trade with China, if such a term can be applied to the interaction of the two nations. The Dutch had settled on Taiwan in 1624 and set up a fort there, being pushed out by Ming loyalists in 1662. Whilst this fort served as a useful trading post, the Dutch were only granted limited trading rights in 1656 in the form of one tributary mission every eight years, limited in the amount it could take to China and was very much one way traffic coming from the Dutch to the Qing Court.  The Dutch East India Company was the main vehicle for this, mainly through Canton, the system of which will be looked at later. Hence we can see that China’s attitude to Dutch traders was quite subdued and the reasons for this are manifold. John Willis puts forward the view that the Chinese took exception to the Dutch for bringing violence to Chinese waters through wars with the Spanish and Portuguese. This can seem justifiable, but similar points have been expressed by others with Hsu delivering a damning conclusion, saying ‘on the whole, foreign traders in China, who were mostly profit-seeking adventurers and uncouth men of little culture, made a poor show of themselves’. When Western traders were in Chinese ports they had been at sea for many months – the sudden release of large bodies of men in a small port had it’s associated problems of crime and general disorder, something the Chinese obviously did not want. Hsu raises an important point that the actions of the either Dutch or English traders would have consequences for the other as the Chinese did not differentiate between the two, simply calling them both ‘Red-heads’. The first of these points demonstrates how perhaps the Dutch and English did not give enough respect to the Chinese, acting like hooligans according to Hsu. However, the second point demonstrates how China did not respect the Western traders to a level of even differentiating between different nations, tarnishing them all with the same brush. Hsu therefore shows how there was a lack of mutual respect.

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        This sometimes understandable lack of respect for traders or trade in general can be seen in the actual system of trade operating in four Chinese ports, but mainly in Canton. Here, merchants had to deal with a core of appointed local merchants, the Co-Hong, who were not liked and corrupt. This is in contrast to the situation in India at the time where traders were respected men. Trade, and any other form of interaction, was very difficult at Canton and as a result, much trade was unofficial, something which increased dramatically with the introduction of Opium by the British. An ...

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