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Analysis Of The Document 'Negotiation With The Qianlong Emperor'

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The “ Negotiation with the Qianlong Emperor” document was chosen for this assignment. The document being examined is a letter written by Emperor Qianlong who led the Qing dynasty at that time (18th century), the letter was addressed to King George III (the British king). Trading in China in the eighteenth century was a very hard task, the Chinese had many restrictions on merchants, which infuriated the British East India Company and other European merchants. The British ambassadors and representatives vigorously tried to come to an agreement with the Emperor Qianlong but to no avail. Emperor Qianlong didn’t trust the British ambassadors' efficiency in communicating his thoughts on the matter properly, thus he personally sent a letter in …show more content…

In the primary source, Emperor Qianlong states that “although our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders. There was, therefore, no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce. But as the tea, silk, and porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces, are absolute necessities to European nations and to yourselves, we have permitted, as a signal mark of favour, that foreign hongs [merchant firms] should be established at Canton, so that your wants might be supplied and your country thus participate in our beneficence”.(page236) Here, Emperor Quinlong indicates that his empire is self-sufficient meaning that the Chinese didn’t rely on any foreign imports, and they were exporting some of their goods such as tea, silk, and porcelain to Europe as a favor since the European countries lacked these recourses. According to the material passed in lecture, the British East India company was competing with China but they couldn’t compete with it, as the Chinese products were significantly superior in quality to those traded by the British merchants, the British East India company faced many restrictions in China, which further hindered their prosper. The quotation above supports the information that was discussed in lecture and shows that China was a force to be reckoned with during the eighteenth century and that even the Europeans couldn’t compete with such

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