The story
In September 1793 George Macartney, a British diplomat, was received by the Qianlong Emperor at his summer palace in Chengde, north of Beijing. Macartney had sailed on the warship Lion with scientific instruments, clocks and globes meant to show off British technology. He asked for a permanent ambassador in Beijing, more ports open to British ships, a small island base for storing goods and fixed tariffs. All of the requests were turned down. A dispute over ceremony shadowed the visit: Macartney offered to bow on one knee, as to his own king, rather than perform the full kowtow.
British traders were allowed to trade only at Canton, through licensed Chinese merchants, under rules set in 1757. Britain wanted tea and silk but sold little in return, so it paid in silver. In his reply to George III the emperor wrote that China possessed everything and had no need of British manufactures. The Amherst embassy of 1816 also failed. British merchants expanded sales of Indian opium to pay for tea, and the dispute over trade led to the Opium War of 1839.
Why it mattered
- It showed Britain that polite diplomacy would not open China, and so pushed its traders toward other means, including opium.
- It became a symbol, in Western telling, of a self-satisfied empire that missed its chance to modernize.
- It fixed the pattern of conflict over treaty ports and trade that led to the Opium War and the unequal treaties.
- It brought back detailed British accounts of Chinese society, which shaped European views of China.
Sources
- Macartney Embassy Britannica
- Lord Macartney, China, and the convenient lies of history The China Project
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