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HISTORY

A Place from Which to Trade Hong Kong's development into a commercial centre began with its founding as a British colony in 1841. At the end of the 18th century the British dominated the foreign trade at Guangzhou (Canton) but found conditions unsatisfactory, mainly because of the con- flicting viewpoints of two quite dissimilar civilisations.

The Chinese regarded themselves as the only civilised people and foreigners trading at Guangzhou (Canton) were subject to personal restrictions. Confined to the factory area, they were allowed to reside only for the trading season, during which they had to leave their families at Macau. They were forbidden to enter the city and to learn the Chinese language. Shipping dues were arbitrarily varied and generally much bickering resulted between British and Chinese. 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 after 1834, when 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 Ze-xu (Lin Tse-hsu) in March, 1839, as special Commissioner in Guangzhou (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 allow anyone to 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.

But Elliot would not allow normal trade to resume until he had reported fully to the British Government and received instructions. The British community retired to Macau and, when warned by the Portuguese Governor that he could not be responsible for their safety, took refuge on board ship in Hong Kong harbour in the summer of 1839.

Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, decided that the time had come for a settlement of Sino-British commercial relations. Arguing that in surrendering the opium the British in Guangzhou (Canton) had been forced to ransom their lives. though, in fact, their lives had never been in danger he demanded either a commercial treaty that would put trade relations on a satisfactory footing, or the cession of a small island where the British could live free from threats under their own flag.

An expeditionary force arrived in June, 1840, to back these demands and thus began the so-called First Opium War (1840-2). Hostilities alternated with negotiations until agreement was reached between Elliot and Qishan (Keshen), the Manchu Commissioner. Lin had been replaced by Qishan after his exile in disgrace over the preliminaries of a treaty.

Under the Convention of Chuanbi (Chuenpi), January 20, 1841, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain. A naval landing party hoisted the flag at Possession Point on January 26, 1841, and Elliot proclaimed Hong Kong a British colony. In June, he sold plots of land and settlement began.

Neither side accepted the Chuanbi (Chuenpi) terms. The cession of a part of China aroused shame and anger among the Chinese, and the unfortunate Qishan (Keshen) was ordered to Peking in chains. Palmerston was equally dissatisfied with Hong Kong, which

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