History | 471
rescue excavation at So Kwun Wat in 2000 yielded a Ming Dynasty cemetery and more than 30 burials were found. The burial items which include porcelain wares, bronze coins and iron implements shed light on the life of local inhabitants in the
Ming Dynasty.
T
The excavation of the Qing Dynasty fort on Tung Lung Chau has revealed fascinating details of the internal arrangements of the fortification and everyday utensils of the remote garrison during the final stages of Imperial China. Recent investigations at the Kowloon Walled City site also uncovered remnants of the old garrison wall and the two stone plaques above the original South Gate, which bore the Chinese characters 'South Gate' and 'Kowloon Garrison City', respectively.
A Place From Which to Trade
In its early days, Hong Kong was regarded as an uninviting prospect for settlement. A population of about 3 650 was scattered over 20 villages and hamlets, and 2 000 fishermen lived on board their boats in the harbour. Its mountainous terrain deficient in fertile land and water, Hong Kong possessed only one natural asset - a fine and sheltered anchorage. Largely the reason for the British presence, which began in the 1840s, Victoria Harbour was strategically located on the trade routes of the Far East, and was soon to become the hub of a burgeoning entrepôt trade with China.
Hong Kong's development into
into a commercial centre began with British settlement in 1841. At the end of the 18th century, the British dominated the foreign trade at Canton (Guangzhou) but found conditions unsatisfactory, mainly because of the conflicting viewpoints of two quite dissimilar civilisations. The Chinese regarded themselves as the only civilised people, and foreigners trading at Canton were subject to residential and other restrictions. Confined to the factory area, they were allowed to remain only for the trading season, during which they had to leave their families. at Macao. They were forbidden to enter the city or to learn the Chinese language. Shipping dues were arbitrarily varied and much bickering resulted between the British and Chinese traders. Yet, there was mutual trust and the spoken word alone was sufficient for even the largest transactions.
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Trade had been in China's favour and silver flowed in until the growth of the opium trade from 1800 onwards reversed this trend. The outflow of silver became more marked from 1834, after the East India Company lost its monopoly of the China trade, and the foreign free traders, hoping to get rich quickly, joined the lucrative opium trade which the Chinese had made illegal in 1799. This led to the appointment of Lin Zexu (Lin Tse-hsu) in March 1839 as special Commissioner in Canton with orders to stamp out the opium trade. A week later, he surrounded the foreign factories with troops, stopped food supplies and refused to let anyone leave until all stocks of opium had been surrendered, and dealers and ships' masters had signed a bond not to import opium on pain of execution. Captain Charles Elliot, RN, the British Government's representative as Superintendent of Trade, was shut up with the rest and authorised the surrender of 20 283 chests of opium after a siege of six weeks.