they lost their leading position to the Dutch. In the 18th
century, thanks to the activities of the East India Company,
Britain was able to jump to the first place in European trade
with China and the Far East. As a result of what is known
as the "Industrial Revolution," Britain was the first country
to establish the bourgeois rule. British industries, par-
ticularly the textile industry, were expanding rapidly. The
colonialists of the European countries were engaged in
"overseas expansion." But while they plundered and
fleeced the backward native populations and committed
barbarous atrocities wherever they went, they behaved
warily towards the great Chinese empire in the Far East,
which was a unified country with time-honoured cultural
traditions. They contented themselves with robbing the
people of this empire and cheating them in trade whenever
an opportunity presented itself. In the middle of the 18th
century, Britain began to act differently. The rising indus-
trial capitalists who had accumulated tremendous fortunes
and enough power to go ahead with their schemes of over-
seas expansion were anxious to convert this vast country
in the Far East into their own market in which they could
sell their surplus commodities. So the British set out vig-
orously to "open up" China.

At this period, the Manchu Government of China was
intensifying its policy of seclusion. From 1757, trade with
foreign merchants was limited to the port of Canton (pre-
viously it had, for a time, also been carried on in Amoy in
Fukien Province, and Ningpo and Tinghai in Chekiang
Province). Foreign trade in Canton was placed under the
control of the Manchu Government. Foreign merchants
had to observe official regulations as to the duration of their
stay, the choice of their living quarters and the scope of
their activities in Canton. Moreover, they could trade and
do business only with authorized Chinese merchants. They
were not allowed to trade with other merchants, or deal
directly with Chinese government organs. In 1793, the
British Government sent Lord Macartney as its special

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