The signing of this charter is one of the prescribed actions of Shanghai's port opening, aiming at providing a safe place for British businessmen and other foreigners who landed in Shanghai as a trading port.
I believe that China people who grew up in the 20th century will be puzzled. It's a good thing that people come to you for business. Exchanging needed goods with each other is a win-win situation. Why not do it? Why don't you close the door when you are dead?
I really can't understand why the then China government chose to close its doors as its basic national policy. A letter written by King George III of England to the Qing court at the end of 18 has been kept in the special collection of the First Historical Archives of China. The First Historical Archives named the letter "The King of Great Britain asked Emperor China to give positive consideration to the request made by his special envoy". Lord magal, the special envoy of the British King and the British Governor in Bengal, set out to take him to China in the 57th year of Qianlong (1792). The requirements put forward in the letter are as follows: 1. Allow British merchant ships to land in Zhoushan, Ningbo, Tianjin and other places in China for business; Allow British businessmen to set up trading sheds (foreign firms) in Beijing to buy and sell goods; Allow the British to preach freely in China.
2. Designate a place (or island) near Zhoushan Islands and Guangzhou as the residence of British businessmen, who can freely come and go, park merchant ships and store goods.
3. Duty-free or tax-reduced goods shipped from Macao to Hong Kong by British businessmen.
Fourth, send permanent envoys to Beijing.
Mazany set out from Portsmouth, England on September 26th, 1792, and didn't arrive at Dagu Lake in Tianjin until July 25th, 1793 (June 18th, 58th year of Qianlong). On the surface, Magalny's visit is to pay tribute to the 83-year-old emperor of China on his birthday. His birthday gifts, such as astronomical and geographical instruments, musical instruments, clocks, carpets, vehicles, weapons, ship models, etc., are worth more than10.3 million pounds, which really looks like a heavy birthday gift, but in essence, the secret mission entrusted to him by the king of England is:
Obtain commercial interests and diplomatic rights that countries could not obtain through strategy or force in the past.
As for the specific meaning of this interest and right, the King of England explained that China, a "huge empire, would become our local manufacturing industry and Indian market".
This is not necessarily a noble goal, but it is not a despicable goal. What's there to keep secret? However, the political thinking and interest pattern 200 years ago are beyond our understanding today.
What makes it even more difficult for us to understand is the calm response of Gan Long, who is over 80 years old.
When Macartney made China, it coincided with the prosperous time of Kanggan, and the so-called "China is omnipresent" Qianlong emperor expanded infinitely, thinking that "China has the widest territory" and "China governs all countries", and everything in the Qing Dynasty is superior to "barbarians" in Europe. When he learned that the British people had other intentions besides coming to celebrate their birthdays, his cheerful face suddenly drooped and flatly rejected the request of the British king: "All the land and feet in China belong to the version, and the border is the forest, that is, the island sandbar. The painting world must be divided into Xinjiang with its own characteristics." At the same time, in the imperial edict, that is, the special document issued, the British demands were refuted one by one. Finally, "the country where I studied in Grade Two was remote and remote, and the distance was very heavy, and I was far from having a good understanding of China's system, so I ordered the ministers and other envoys to enlighten me in detail and send him back to China", and I drove my family back very rudely. This is the first official contact between China and Britain in history, and its ending is equivalent to setting an example for future generations. How do the princes and grandchildren break through?
18 16, that is, 24 years after Macartney's visit to China, the former armadillo prince has now become the emperor of Laozi, with the title changed to Jiaqing, and Britain sent amherst to China. Emperor Jiaqing was not so generous to Lao Zi, so he forced people to kowtow again and again, making Amish people "suddenly seriously ill and unable to act". He didn't talk about his grades and was sent back by Jiaqing on the same day.
Jiaqing also has an "imperial edict" for Amish people to bring to the king of England. This "imperial edict" is as good as Laozi's admonition to his son: "There is no need to send envoys from afar in the future, and it is very troublesome to trudge. But you don't have to come to Korea at the age of ... "
Listen to this: as long as your boy is devoted to filial piety, you don't have to send envoys from all over the country every year-is there anything better and more narcissistic than our emperor's old son?
Later, if "Little Boy" and "Lao Zi" had not turned against each other and forcibly taken away what they could not get through peaceful negotiations, Lao Zi would not have stopped feeling good about himself.
The concept of "Great Protection against Summer" began with Kong Old Master Q, the ancestor of Central Plains civilization. In his old man's house, even if the righteous emperor around the Central Plains has a monarch, it is not as good as all the monarchs in the Central Plains are dead. Barbarians are uncivilized, lack education, lack knowledge and manners, and do not conform to the rules. Confucius used this word because he was full of Han chauvinism and looked down on all non-Central Plains (summer) areas. Manchu was actually among the "barbarians" he derogated from. In fact, during the Xinhai period, some radical thinkers started from the concept of "preventing foreign summer" and extended the narrow slogan of "Man and Han are not allowed". Even Sun Yat-sen introduced "expelling Tatars and restoring China" into the Constitution and advocated revolution and peace. Unexpectedly, two thousand years after Confucius and one hundred years before Xinhai, Qianlong and Jiaqing, who had been sinicized, even converted to Confucianism, took over the mantle of the most holy ancestor and sneered at the "foreign brothers" from the West.
Since then, the iron curtain of China's confinement has collapsed.
This is equivalent to telling the rising capitalism that trying to conduct (peaceful) capitalist exchanges between two countries that are at different social stages and do not understand each other is equivalent to bridging two piers with a big gap, and the probability of success is almost zero.
The Englishman who was shut out concluded: "Great Britain should attack the coastal areas of China, occupy the capital, and drive the emperor out of the palace ... China should be taught to pay attention to the Englishman. British people are higher than China people and should be the masters of China people ... "(See the British Daily Telegraph quoted from Marx's New War against China).
From 65438 to 1960s, Britain took the lead in starting the industrial revolution or industrial revolution of capitalist factory system in which machines replaced handicraft workshops/workshops, and made a breakthrough in the textile industry first. In the 1980s, the invention and adoption of the steam engine made its chemical, mining, metallurgy, machinery manufacturing and other industries develop rapidly, the productivity level was greatly improved, and the primitive accumulation of capitalism entered a period of rapid expansion. The essence of capital is expansion. In order to seek a wider source of raw materials, investment places and "the need to continuously expand product sales and drive the bourgeoisie to run around the world, it must settle down everywhere, start businesses everywhere and establish contacts everywhere" (see Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume I). Export and expansion have become the established national policy of the empire, and the backward East is drooling over it.
Another historical explanation is that at the beginning of19th century, the British were eager to open China's trade door in order to export opium to China and offset the trade deficit with China.
At that time, Britain's exports to China were mainly woolen goods, with a value of only about10.5 million pounds, while China's exports of silk and tea to Britain reached 5 million pounds in the same period, with a deficit of 3.5 million pounds.
Opium opium is a product of British India, and its annual export to China is 9 million pounds, which is not only enough to offset the shortage of British exports to China, but also can make a lot of money. The China government's ban on smoking in a big way is tantamount to cutting off its financial resources. The solution is definitely not to rely on a war of words alone, but to use each other. Therefore, the Sino-British War of 1840 was named "The First Opium War". After the war, Lord Pa Max Don (translated as Bamazun), then British Foreign Secretary and twice British Prime Minister, instructed the British negotiators in 1843: "Try to mediate with the Qing government and let opium enter China as a legal foreign trade commodity." And suggested that Sir Petinger: "Take every possible opportunity to give the plenipotentiary of the Qing Dynasty a strong impression that the legalization of opium trade is for the benefit of the Qing government."
The British envoy faithfully carried out Pa Max Don's instructions.
1844 In February, a British merchant ship carrying opium was detained in Wusongkou, Shanghai, and the water guard reported the situation to Gong Mujiu, which made Daotai adults in a dilemma. Treatment cannot be ignored. Despite the defeat of the Opium War, the Qing government never officially relaxed the ban on opium, at best, it just ignored it, but the red tape of banning opium was still being done. In desperation, Gong Mujiu had a plan: Why not throw this hot potato to Baffo? So Gong Mujiu wrote a letter in the name of his own government yamen and sent it directly to Baffo. He solemnly demanded: Please deal with your merchant ships transporting drugs according to your laws.
After receiving this hot rotten potato, Baffour was really puzzled. According to English law, drug trafficking is certainly an unforgivable crime, but he can't really deal with it according to English law, can he? But he can't refuse to deal with it just because it is opium destined for China, which would be totally unfair. It is a paradox to define it with the concept of philosophy. No matter how to deal with it, Baffour will fall into the dilemma of slapping his mouth.
Find a leader if you have difficulty. Baffo thinks so, too.
Britain's plenipotentiary in China, Pu Dingcha's answer, is indeed a politician's boldness of vision, and he has not gone out of shape at all in carrying out Pa Max Don's instructions. He asked Baffour to tell the people of China clearly: Never interfere with any opium (transport) ships! Our opium trade with Shanghai is completely legal, for the benefit of the Qing government.
In the face of such shame, even if Shoutou (Shanghai dialect, meaning fool) is like Jiaqing and Daoguang, I am afraid it is also an "unscrupulous business."