The Canton System
Ming China s contacts with the outside world 1368-1644 Three Zones Sinitic zone (Korea, Vietnam, Ryukyu, and Japan) Inner Asia zone (ethnically and culturally non- Chinese) Outer zone (waiyi) Southeast Asia, south Asia, and Europe
Qing Territorial Expansion 1644-1911 Kangxi (r. 1662-1722) Yongzheng Qianlong (r. 1736-95) Patronized the Chinese literati and won over the Chinese gentry Racial purity: ban on intermarriage 17 th century: expeditions and expansion Tibet Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan, Taiwan today s territory
Manchu Foreign Policy Tribute System: Theoretical basis, culturalsim the exchange of wealth one to another, a form of loyalty and allegiance, to control foreign relations, to provide trading rights Chinese developed a superiority belief Tribute as ritual: different cultural understanding of Kotow? What is the performance of Kowtow? China (hua) vs. barbarians ; center vs. periphery Until the early nineteenth century, the attention of foreign policy was paid only on the inner frontier regions.
Maritime Trade Portuguese and the trade at south Chinese ports in the 16 th century (Settlement 1557); Dutch in the 17 th century, and the English in the 18 th century (British East India Company), and others. H. B. Morse (The Chronicles), 1634 Britain s first attempt, 1699 London, 1760-1834 Regulated the Canton System. The Canton Trade (the only city in which Europeans were allowed to trade between 1760-1840) Co-hong, the Chinese official merchant guild in Guangzhou after 1759 Hongs, licensed Chinese monopolists Lucrative trading: the demand for tea in 18 th -century Britain (5 chests in 1684 400,000 pounds by 1720 23 million pounds in 1800) the flow of silver into China: rose from 3 million ounces of sliver per year in the 1760s to 16 million in the 1780s.
Canton tea warehouse. Watercolor on paper.c.1790. Artist unknown.
Canton Trade
Canton Trade The conditions : not allowed to enter the city, to recede to Macao during off-season, not to hire Chinese servants, communications through Chinese hong merchants (no direct lawsuit), women not allowed to stay in Canton Co-hong, the Chinese official merchant guild in Guangzhou after 1720 Hongs, security merchants and licensed Chinese monopolists (after 1760s) Trading and travel accounts: Forbes, Hunter, etc. Trading route (Macao, Whampoa Island) From Macao to Canton, river patrols, pilots, linguists (interpreters) Seasonal trade (monsoon, off-season)
Macartney Mission to China British wanted to create a market for their goods in China, and also wanted China to abandon the tributary system (commercial treaties and published tariffs, multi-ports) Macartney Mission to China: in 1793, Lord George Macartney was sent as an envoy to Qianlong Emperor. 84 people, 600 cases (scientific instruments, carpets, woollens, knives, plate glass and other gifts to attract Chinese interest in British manufactured goods); refused to perform kowtow Diplomatic failure, yet obtain information (no interest in material growth, ill-prepared for war, soldiers used bows and arrows) Qianlong saw no real trade. We possess all things, in a letter to the king of English, I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country s manufactures.
Understanding the Canton System Fairbank, pp. 46-51, discussion: What s the background of Canton System? 1) Western Commerce in China in four periods, particularly, [3] and [4]. 2) Evolution of Canton System : How many different parties joining in this system? Who were they? 3) What was the role of Chinese merchants? Who were they? How did they usually perform in the trading system? 4) What does Cohong mean? How did the trading system instituted based on this organization? 5) How did foreigners live in Canton? How did they participate the trading activities?
Discussion: Understanding Tribute System 1) Tributary trade / Tributary vs. trade -- Tribute was a cloak for trade? Why trade and tribute were cognate aspects of a single system of foreign relations in the Confucian view? 1) In what aspects can we see the Manchus make themselves Sinified? 1) What about the Attitude of the Ch ing toward Westerners? 1) In Fairbank s account, why China s response to the Western impact is slow?
梁嘉彬 广东十三行考