HIST 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 32: Taiping Rebellion, Extraterritoriality, Lin Zexu
Document Summary
Canton was the first port open to europeans. Chinese economy benefitted from selling products to the europeans. Europe needed to pay for the imports from china by selling things back. Clocks, music boxes, firearms - niche markets. The main way the europeans financed the imports was massive shipments of raw silver. It was a huge trade deficit for europe. Throughout the 18th century, private trade - merchants free trade. All trading that took place by foreigners had to be wrapped into state rituals. Tribute delegation had to give gifts to the emperor and acknowledge the emperor as their sovereign. The europeans thought this was an affront to their pride because they believed their ruler was equal in status to the emperor. Emperor allowed european trade without tribute in canton. All foreign trade was directed to this port. Europeans were given a very small piece of land with 13 warehouses. They were limited with whom they could trade with.
