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LELAND STANFORDJR

UNIVERSITY


LIBRARY



PRESENTED BY HERBERT CLARK HOOVER
Herbert Clark Hoover.
LELAND STANFORDJR

UNIVERSITY


LIBRARY

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PRESENTED BY HERBERT CLARK HOOVER
Herbert Clark Hoover.
h
2
HCHoover


Tientsin




March on
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR.




HANDBOOK FOR THE STUDENT OF CHI-
NESE BUDDHISM:-A Sanskrit - Chinese
Dictionary, with Vocabularies of Buddhist
Terms in Pali, Singhalese, Siamese, Burmese,
Tibetan, Mongolian and Japanese. Second
Edition . Revised and Enlarged. Hongkong ,
1888.

BUDDHISM:-Its Historical, Theoretical and
Popular Aspects, in Three Lectures. Third
Edition, Revised , with Additions. Hongkong,
1884.

FENG SHUI : -The Rudiments of Natural Science
in China. London and Hongkong, 1873.
A CHINESE DICTIONARY IN THE CAN-
TONESE DIALECT : -Four Volumes, with
Appendix. London and Hongkong, 1877 to
1883 .

MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCA-
TION IN HONGKONG : -Reprint from
the China Review. Hongkong, 1891 .
EUROPE IN CHINA
A
HCHoover


Tientsin




March or
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR .




HANDBOOK FOR THE STUDENT OF CHI-
NESE BUDDHISM:-A Sanskrit- Chinese
Dictionary, with Vocabularies of Buddhist
Terms in Pali, Singhalese, Siamese, Burmese,
Tibetan , Mongolian and Japanese. Second
Edition. Revised and Enlarged . Hongkong,
1888.

BUDDHISM :-Its Historical, Theoretical and
Popular Aspects, in Three Lectures . Third
Edition, Revised, with Additions. Hongkong,
1884.

FENG SHUI: -The Rudiments of Natural Science
in China. London and Hongkong, 1873 .
A CHINESE DICTIONARY IN THE CAN-
TONESE DIALECT: -Four Volumes, with
Appendix. London and Hongkong, 1877 to
1883.
MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF EDUCA-
TION IN HONGKONG : -Reprint from
the China Review. Hongkong, 1891 .
EUROPE IN CHINA
EUROPE IN CHINA




THE


HISTORY OF HONGKONG


FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE YEAR 1882




BY

E. J. EITEL , Ph.D. (TUBING . )
=
INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, HONGKONG




The actual well seen is the ideal.- Carlyle,




LONDON HONGKONG
LUZAC & COMPANY KELLY & WALSH, LD,

1895

M.
951.2

4772



180713
 ΤΟ

MY WIFE

WINEFRED NEE EATON

IN MEMORY OF

THIRTY YEARS OF WEDDED LIGHTS AND SHADOWS

SPENT IN CANTON AND HONGKONG

THIS BOOK

WHICH OWES EVERYTHING TO HER

IS

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
Registered in accordance with the provisions of Ordinance No. 10 of 1888,
at the office of the

Registrar General, Supreme Court House, Hongkong.
 PREFACE.




O Europeans residing in Hongkong or China ,
T° in se
I need not offer any excuse for inviting them
to take up this book. The natural desire to learn

to understand the present by a consideration of the
past, will plead with them better than I could do .

But the general reader, in England and elsewhere,
I entreat for a reconsideration of the popularly
accepted view that but little importance, beyond that
of a curio, attaches to Hongkong, its community
and position , or indeed to European relations with
China.

At first sight, indeed , the Colony of Hongkong
appears like an odd conglomeration of fluctua-

ting molecules of nationalities, whose successive
Governors seem to be but extraneous factors

adventitiously regulating or disturbing the heavings
of this incongruous mass. But in reality the Hong-

kong community is solidarily one. Though an

unbridged chasm does yawn in its midst, waiting
for a Marcus Curtius to close it and meanwhile

separating the outward social life of Europeans and
Chinese, the people of Hongkong are inwardly
ii PREFACE .


bound together by a steadily developing commu-
nion of interests and responsibilities : the destiny
of the one race is to rule and the fate of the other

to be ruled. The different periods of Hongkong's
history, though demarcated each by the admi-
nistration of a different Governor, are in reality

the successive stages of the growth of one ideal
person (the Colony) naturally expanding itself in
a continuous line of so many generations, as it were ,
of one and the same ideal family (the community) .

Looking deeper still, there is seen underlying this
mixed and fluctuating population of Hongkong a
self-perpetuating unity : the secret inchoative union
of Europe and Asia (as represented by China) .
This union is in process of practical elaboration
through the combined forces of commerce, civilisa-
tion and Christian education, and particularly through

the steady development of Great Britain's political
influence in the East, an influence which dates back
to the earliest days of the East India Company in
India and China. Indeed, the Anglo -Chinese com-

munity of Hongkong specifically represents that
coming union of Europe and Asia which China

stubbornly resists while Great Britain and Russia,
France and Japan unconsciously co-operate towards
it. As representing that union, the Hongkong

community has its root in the earlier and smaller

community of British and other European merchants
 PREFACE . iii


with their Chinese hangers-on settled at the Canton
Factories. But its earliest prototype can be discerned
in the previous settlements of the Portuguese and
Dutch and more particularly of the agents of the
East- India Company who were unconsciously working
out in China, as well as in India, the international

problem with the solution of which Hongkong is
specially concerned . When, under the impulse of

the awakening free trade spirit in England, the
East-India Company had to withdraw from the field
( 1834 ) , the British free-traders at Canton continued
to represent Europe in China, and, when driven out

thence, transplanted to Hongkong ( 1841 ) those
unifying commercial and political principles which
are to the present day the underlying elements of

progress in the historic evolution of Hongkong.
But as the history of the Hongkong community
presents thus an unbroken chain of influences con-

necting the political mission of Europe with the
present politics of Asia, so also the successive
administrations of the government of this Colony

have the same inner unity. Though each Governor
is but a transient visitor, each possessed of his own

idiosyncracies, and each controlled by an ever shifting
series of Secretaries of State for the Colonies, behind
them all is that ideal but none the less real entity,

the genius of British public opinion, which inspires
and overrules them all. That genius , feeling its
iv PREFACE .


mission in Europe and North America fulfilled , has
of late commenced to enter upon a new field of

action whereby to complete its destiny. Asia and
generally the countries and continents bordering on
the Pacific Ocean, now task the energies of Downing
Street and of the Governors sent forth from it, as

well as the energies of the India Office, with pro-
blems of such increasingly international bearings,
that both the Colonial Office and the India Office

are rapidly outstripping in importance the Foreign
Office, and the necessities of both now demand the

creation of a Ministry specially charged with the
direction of British affairs in the Far East, The

fact is the fulcrum of the World's balance of
power has shifted from the West to the East,

from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.
To the popular view the position of Hongkong
in the East appears to be that of a remote Island,
a mere dot in a little-known ocean. In reality,

however, Hongkong, which commercially ranks as
the second port of the British Empire, occupies
a geographically most fortunate place in relation to
the peculiar destinies of the Far East. For the

last two thousand years, the march of civilization
has been directed from the East to the West :

Europe has been tutored by Asia. Ennobled by
Christianity, civilization now returns to the East :

Europe's destiny is to govern Asia . Marching at the
 PREFACE . V


head of civilization, Great Britain has commenced
her individual mission in Asia by the occupation
of India and Burma, the Straits Settlements and

Hongkong . By fifty years ' handling of Hongkong's
Chinese population, Great Britain has shewn how
readily the Chinese people (apart from Mandarindom )
fall in with a firm European regime, and the rapid
conversion of a barren rock into one of the wonders

and commercial emporiums of the world , has demon-
strated what Chinese labour, industry and commerce
can achieve under British rule . Moreover, located on

the western border of the Pacific, in line with Canada

in the North - East, with Her Majesty's Indian and
African Possessions in the South - West, and with the
Australian Colonies in the South, Hongkong occupies

a specially important position , not only with regard
to the problems gathering round China and Japan
(in their mutual relations to Great Britain , Russia
and France ) , but especially also with regard to the
greater rôle which the Pacific Ocean is destined to

play in the closing scenes of the world's history.
What the Mediterranean and Atlantic were while

civilization moved from East to West, the Pacific is
bound to become now since the tide of progress
runs from West to East. Africa is even now being

brought into the sphere of modern civilization by
the combined powers of Europe . The turn of South-
America will come next. There is not a first-class
vi PREFACE .


power in the world that has not possessions on the
shores of the Pacific . Great Britain and the United

States , Russia and France , Germany and Italy,
Spain and Portugal, all vie with each other in the

control of countries bordering on , or islands situated
in, the Pacific basin. It requires no prophet's gift

to see that the politics of the near future centre in
the East and that the problems of the Far East
will be solved on the Pacific main. Contests will

be sure to arise and in these contests Hongkong
will be one of the stations most important for the

general strength of the British Empire. Here, even
more than in its bearing upon the Asiatic problem ,
lies the real importance of Hongkong. Such is

the position of this Colony in relation to the destinies
of the Far East : Hongkong will yet have a pro-

minent place in the future history of the British
Empire.
The foregoing consideratons will commend the
subject of this book to the attention of the general
reader. As to its treatment, the endeavour of the
writer has been to combine with the aims of the

historian, writing from the point of view of universal
history, the duties of the chronicler of events such
as are of special interest to European residents in

the East, so as to provide at the same time a hand-
book of reference for those who take an active

interest in the current affairs of this British Colony
 PREFACE . vii


as well as in British relations with China. This

volume brings down the story of Hongkong's rise
and progress to the year 1882. The more recent
epochs of its history are too near to our view yet
to admit of impartial historic treatment for the
present.


E. J. EITEL.



College Gardens ,
HONGKONG , August 2 , 1895 .
 CONTENTS .



Page
CHAP. I. COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH TRADE WITH
CHINA, A.D. 1625 to 1834 ………… .

II. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, A.D. 1625 to
1834, .... 12




2005
III. MONOPOLY rersus FREE TRADE , 19

IV . THE MISSION OF LORD NAPIER, 26

V. DISSENSIONS AND A QUIESCENT POLICY, A.D. 22
1834 to 1836 , 42

VI. THE SEARCH FOR A COLONY, ….. 53

VII. CHANGE OF POLICY, 62

VIII. THE OPIUM QUESTION AND THE EXODUS
FROM CANTON (1839) . 75

IX. EXODUS FROM MACAO AND EVENTS LEADING
UP TO THE CESSION OF HONGKONG , 1839
to 1841 ,...... 96

X. PRE-BRITISH HISTORY OF THE ISLAND OF
HONGKONG, 127

XI. CONFIRMATION OF THE CESSION OF HONG-
KONG, 1841 to 1843, 135

XII . THE ADMINISTRATION OF CAPTAIN ELLIOT,
January 26 to Angust 10 , 1841 , ............ 168
 CONTENTS .
Page
CHAP. XIII . THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR H. POTTINGER,
August 10, 1841 , to May 8, 1844 ,………………….. 179

XIV. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. F. DAVIS,
May 8, 1844, to March 18 , 1848, ...... 211

XV. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR S. G. BONHAM,
March 20 , 1848 , to April 12 , 1854, 253

XVI. A BRIEF SURVEY, ...... 288

XVII . THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. BOWRING,
April 13, 1854, to May 5, 1859, 298

XVIII . THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR HERCULES
ROBINSON, September 9 , 1859, to March
15 , 1865, 353

XIX. THE INTERREGNUM OF THE HOx. W. T.
MERCER, AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF
SIR R. G. MACDONNELL, March 15, 1865 ,
to April 22 , 1872 , 408

XX. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR A. KENNEDY,
April 16 , 1872 , to March 1 , 1877 , ........ 477

XXI. THE ADMINISTRATION OF SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY. April 22 , 1877 , to March
7, 1882 ,.... 522

XXII. A SHORT SUMMARY, 568

INDEX.




ED
 HISTORY OF HONGKONG.




CHAPTER I.



COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA.
A.D. 1625 to 1834.

'HE history of British Trade with China, which preceded
Great Britain's connection with India, is comprised , from its
first commencement down to the year 1884, in the history of the
Honourable East India Company. Unfortunately, however, the
story of the Company's relations with China is one of the darkest
blots in the whole history of British commerce. That great and
powerful Corporation, which governed successfully Asiatic kings
and princes, and covered itself with administrative, financial and
even military glory, particularly in India, was entirely nonplussedt
by China's dogged self-adequacy and persistent assertion of
supremacy, and had its glory, its honour, its self- respect rudely
trampled under foot by subordinate Chinese Mandarins.
The Court of Directors, having at the instance of Captain
J. Sares (since 1613 A.D. ) established a factory at Firando, in
Japan, under a treaty with the Japanese Government, was
induced also (A.D. 1625) to open tentative branch-agencies at
Tywan (on the island of Formosa ) and next in Amoy (on the
opposite mainland of China) . This move was made during the
last few years of the reign of the Chinese Ming Dynasty which
systematically welcomed foreign merchants. Encouraged by the
results, the Directors of the East India Company resolved
(A.D. 1627) to open trade also with Canton, by way of Macao .
But the Portuguese, who had already established themselves there
2 CHAPTER I.

(since 1557 A.D. ) , strenuously objected to admit such a powerful
interloper to a share in the profits of the Chinese trade, and
the.attempt failed .
Nothing daunted , however, the Court of Directors forth-
(A.D. 1634) negotiated a Treaty with the Portuguese
Governor of Goa , under whose control Macao was, and by virtue
of this Treaty the British ship London (Captain Weddell) was
admitted into the port of Macao and, after bombarding the
Bogue Forts at the entrance to the Canton River, her gallant
commander was received in friendly audience by the Viceroy,
who forthwith granted him (July 1655) full participation in
the Canton trade, to the great chagrin of the Macao traders.
Thus British trade commenced at Canton, but through petty
international jealousies on the part of the Portuguese and other
causes it languished, until at last Oliver Cromwell concluded , on
express principles of reciprocity, a Treaty (A.D. 1654) with King
John IV. of Portugal, giving free access to the ships of both
nations to any port of the East Indies.
Ten years later, the East India Company, having at last
secured a house at Macao, endeavoured to set up a regular
factory at Canton also . But by this time the native Ming
Dynasty had been supplanted by the Manchu invaders who
established (A.D. 1644 ) the present Tatsing Dynasty and
manifested from first to last a haughty contempt for all persons
engaged in trade and an irreconcilable animosity against all
foreign intruders .
In conquering Amoy ( A.D. 1681 ) , the Manchus destroyed
the Company's agency there and at Zelandia (Formosa) , but the
Portuguese at Macao, having made themselves useful to the new
Dynasty by rendering military aid to the invaders, were with
haughty contempt tolerated where they were, without any formal
concession being made to them. The Manchus , disdaining to
make any distinction between Portuguese and English, as being
equally barbarians in their eyes, allowed foreign trade at Canton
to continue, though thenceforth under galling and vexatious
restrictions.
 COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA. 3

The East India Company's Supercargoes soon found that,
so long as they indirectly and humbly acknowledged the
supremacy which the Manchu Dynasty now claimed over the
whole world, expressly including also all foreign barbarians,
the Chinese officials were perfectly ready to accept costly presents
and to encourage foreign trade provided that it would quietly
submit to their irregular exactions. Thereupon the Company
began (A.D. 1681 ) sending ships direct from England to Macao,
and later on (A.D. 1685 ) they succeeded in re-opening their
agency at Amoy and (A.D. 1702) planting a factory also on the
island of Chusan .
Up to this time, trade had been conducted in a loose and
irregular manner. On the arrival of a ship in the waters of
Canton, she was boarded by an officer of the Hoppo ( Imperial
Superintendent of Native Maritime Customs) , who was at once.
offered a present (called cumshaw) upon the value of which
depended the mode of measuring the ship, whereupon followed
(in the absence of a fixed tariff) a disgraceful bargaining and
haggling over the rates of port charges, linguist's fees and
customs duties to be levied. When all these negotiations, hurried
on frequently by a threat on the part of the Supercargo to
take the ship away or temporarily suspended by sundry practical
menaces on the part of the Hoppo's officers, had been concluded,
the ship was allowed to proceed to Whampoa (the port of
Canton) and there admitted to open trade with any officially
recognized native merchant or broker.
A serious change was introduced with the year 1702. The
East India Company having sent out (A.D. 1699) a Chief-
Supercargo (Mr. Catchpoole) who was commissioned to act as
King's Minister or Consul for the whole empire of China.
and the adjacent islands, the Chinese officials responded with
a counter move, While the Chief- Supercargo's royal commission
was studiously ignored and the term tai-pan (chief-manager)
applied to the King's Minister, a Chinese merchant, entitled
'the Emperor's Merchant ' but among the Company's Super-
cargoes thenceforth known as ' the Monster in Trade, ' was now
4 CHAPTER I.

(A.D. 1702 ) appointed by the Chinese Government to supervise
foreign trade. This Emperor's Merchant had the exclusive-
monopoly of the foreign trade and, in addition to the Hoppo's
officers who had to be plied with presents and fees as before,
this Monster in Trade had now to be satisfied in the same
way. All imports and exports had to pass through his hands ,
all commercial transactions of the foreign merchants had to be
settled through his agency. He was for some time nominally
the sole intermediary between the foreigners and native.
merchants, and likewise the exclusive channel of communications
between the foreign merchants and skippers (including the East
India Company's Agents with the King's Minister) on the one
hand and the Chinese Government on the other. Thenceforth
free trade was at an eud and the monopoly of the East India
Company was by astute Chinese policy met by an equally
powerful combination of Chinese monopolists, who periodically
had to disgorge their profits to the Provincial Authorities (the
Viceroy and the Governor of Canton) , and to the Hoppo, an
officer of the Imperial Household . The latter had to purchase
by a heavy fee a five years' tenure of the monopoly of collecting
the native and foreign customs duties of Canton, and on his
return to Peking, he was invariably squeezed like a sponge
by the Imperial Household . Thus foreign trade was thence-
forth ground down between the upper and nether mill-stones
of the Chinese Authorities and the Emperor's Merchant and
his successors .
Nevertheless, the East India Company's Supercagoes specily
managed to adapt their policy to the new arrangement. Trade
continued to flourish. The ships proceeded thereafter first of
all to Macao, then sent up agents to Canton to arrange, in
whatever way it could be done, the amount of presents,
measuring fees, port charges, duties and brokerage, and then ,
when everything was satisfactorily arranged, the ship would
proceed to the Bogue (the entrance to the Canton River,
guarded by two forts, Chuenpi on the East and Taikoktau on
the West) and, after paying fees and duties there, a chop (a
 COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA. 5

stamped permit) would be granted to each ship to proceed to
Whampoa to trade. By the year 1715, a regular routine
had been established and British ships now began to omit
the visit to Macao and to proceed, on arrival in Chinese
waters, straight to the Bogue, where, after anchoring for
some days, everything was settled by the Supercargoes as
above.
A new change was made in the conduct of the foreign trade
in the year 1720, when an ad valorem duty of 4 per cent . was
laid on all imports and exports and a Committee of Chinese
merchants, henceforth known as the Co-Hong, was substituted
in place of the one Emperor's Merchant . But this Committee
was likewise placed under the supervision of the Hoppo, and,
as before, made answerable to the Viceroy and Governor for
all dues on trade. These Co- Hong Merchants were as a body
solidarily responsible for the solvency of each member of the
Co- Hong, both as regards indebtedness towards the foreign
merchants and as regards the share of the Provincial Authorities
in their profits. Moreover they were responsible, as a body,
for the payment of all fees and duties by every foreign ship,
and even for any offences or crimes committed by the ships'
officers or crews. By an Imperial Edict (A.D. 1722 ) they
were also commissioned to levy an import duty on opium,
amounting to 3 taels per picul.
This system was nominally improved upon by the intro-
duction (A.D. 1725 ) of a fixed tariff. Upon this measurė
the Imperial Authorities at Peking had insisted to enable them
better to guage the proper amount of their own share in the
profits of this flourishing foreign trade. Nevertheless, the
publication of the tariff failed to do away with the previous
system of bribery and corruption, as both the Hoppo's officers
and the Co-Hong looked upon the tariff only as the minimum
basis of their own accounts with the Provincial and Imperial
Governments. Consequently they systematically exacted from
the foreign ships as much over and above the tariff charges
as they could possibly screw out of them.
6 CHAPTER I.

A special tax of 10 per cent . was put on all foreign imports
and exports in the year 1727 , but after making ( A.D. 1728 ) a
strong united appeal to the Throne, in the humblest form of
subject suppliants, the Company's Supercargoes were granted,
on the occasion of the accession of the Emperor Kienlung
(A.D. 1736), exemption from this tax. By this time about
four English ships, two French, one Danish and one Swedish
ship arrived every year to share in the Canton trade. Portuguese
trade was confined to Macao. However, in the year 1754, a
new method of extortion was introduced, by requiring each
ship, on her arrival, to obtain first of all, by special negotiation,
the security of two members of the Co- Hong, before the usual
arrangements concerning measuring fee, cumshaw, linguist's fee,
and customs duties could be entered upon. Up to this time,
the monopoly of the Co-Hong concerned only the disposal of
the cargo and the purchase of exports, but from the year 1755
all dealings of foreigners with small merchants and purveyors
of ships' provisions were strictly prohibited, and especially all
dealings of the ships with native junks and boats, whilst
anchoring outside and . before entering the river, were visited
with severe penalties. Owing to occasional smuggling mal-
practices on the part of natives, countenanced by foreign
skippers, an Imperial Edict prohibited (A.D. 1757) all commercial
transactions with foreign ships, whether outside the Bogue or
at Whampoa, and confined trade strictly to Canton . As this
measure not only tended to hamper trade operations in Canton
waters, but threatened the extinction of the flourishing Amoy
agency, the Committee of Supercargoes sent Mr. Harrison,
together with a very able interpreter, Mr. Flint, to Amoy
(A.D. 1759) to arrange with the local Authorities a continuation
of the Amoy trade on special terms. When these negotiations
failed , Mr. Flint, sharing the opinion of the Supercargoes that
the obnoxious Imperial Edict had been obtained by the Cantonese
Authorities through false representations, proceeded (with
the secret support of the Amoy Authorities) to Tientsin and
succeeded in getting his views, involving serious charges against
 COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA. 7

the Hoppo and the Cantonese Authorities, brought to the notice
of the Throne. An Imperial Commissioner, authorized to
remove the Hoppo from his post and to abolish all illegal
imposts, was sent to Canton with Mr. Flint to investigate the
charges against the Provincial Authorities. The inevitable result
followed. The Hoppo and the Cantonese Authorities having
made their terms with the Commissioner, Mr. Flint was ordered
to appear in the Viceroy's Yamên to answer a charge of having,
while at Amoy, set at defiance the Imperial Edict of 1757 .
Mr. Flint went, accompanied by all the Supercargoes, but as
soon as they reached the Viceroy's offices, they were set upon
by his underlings, brutally ill-treated, thrown on the ground,
forced to perform the official act of homage (kneeling and
knocking their foreheads on the ground ) called kotow and sent
back with ignominy, with the exception of Mr. Flint. He
was thrown into prison and, as the virtuous Court of Directors
refused to pay the bribe of $ 1,250 which was demanded by his
jailors, he was kept under rigorous confinement at Casa Branca
until November 1762 , when he was released and deported to
England.
The Court of Directors, who had by the action of their
servants hitherto stooped sub rosâ to every form of Chinese
bribery and corruption, and borne every indignity heaped upon
their representatives with equanimity, thought at last, on
hearing of the ill-treatment of their Supercargoes, that the
Chinese were going rather too far. So they sent a special
mission to Canton (A.D. 1760 ) , with a letter to the Viceroy,
protesting against the Co- Hong system and asking for Mr. Flint's
release . But the mission was treated with contempt by the
Manchu Government and failed to have any effect whatever.
By giving however increased secret presents, the Supercargoes
caused things to go on more smoothly, and ten years later
(A.D. 1771 ) the Company's Supercargoes succeeded in purchasing
permission to reside during the winter months (the business
season) at Canton, instead of coming and going with their
respective ships. The ships used to arrive towards the end of
8 CHAPTER I.

the south-west monsoon ( April to September) and leave again
for Europe with the north-east monsoon (October to March) .
But unless special permission to linger a little longer was
obtained, the Supercargoes, now at last established in separate
factories (allotted to the several nationalities) in Canton, were
annually, at the change of the season, furnished with passports
and warned to be off to Macao. Thence they had, at the end
of summer, to petition for passports again, to enable them to
return to Canton the next season .
At last ( February 13, 1771 ) , the dissolution of the Co-
Hong, which had become the most galling burden of the
time, was gained by the Supercargoes resident at Canton,
a triumph which previously every form of persuasion and
every art of diplomacy had in vain been employed to secure .
But the sum paid for this favour amounted to a hundred
thousand taels, which sum the Authorities accepted , because
the Co - Hong were bankrupt and in arrears with their
contributions due to their respective official superiors.
Nevertheless , this privilege was not enjoyed very long,
for ten years later ( A.D. 1782 ) the previous Co- Hong system
was, under a new name, re-established by the appointment
of twelve (subsequently increased to thirteen) Mandarins,'
who were however simply native brokers, thenceforth known
as Hong merchants. These had, like the former Co - Hong,
the monopoly of the foreign trade, subject to the supervision
of the Hoppo and of the Provincial Authorities, to whom
they were responsible for the payments due by, and for the
personal conduct of, all foreigners . These Hong merchants.
held the same position, and had the same privileges and
responsibilities as the Co-Hong. The only differences were
that they bore another title and that for their previous
solidary responsibility in financial matters was now substituted
a guarantee fund, known as the Consoo (Association or Guild )
fund. But this fund was created at the expense of the
foreign trade, on which thenceforth a special tax was levied
for the purpose. As the East India Company and the merchants
 COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA. 9

of other nationalities quietly submitted to this change in the
system, trade continued to proceed as before. Thereupon the
Chinese imposed (A.D. 1805 ) a further special tax, like the
modern Li- kin, to provide for the necessities of coast defence
and other warlike preparations against the foreign ships . This
measure was taken by the Chinese because they had observed
that the foreign ships had, owing to the steady increase of
the value of their cargoes, gradually increased their armaments.
Trade, however, continued increasing from year to year.
But soon a hand's breadth of a cloud, destined to develop
into a tempest, arose on the commercial horizon in the shape
of the exportation of bullion ' question and the altered attitude
of foreigners generally. With the gradual increase of the
opium trade, the Chinese observed with dismay that the balance
of trade, though still in favour of China, was steadily diminishing
from year to year as foreign commerce expanded . In the year
1818 a rule was therefore made to restrict the exportation of
silver by any vessel to three-tenths of the excess of imports
over exports by that vessel. The tea trade, indeed, increased
very rapidly, to the great satisfaction of the Chinese officials,
especially since teas began (A.D. 1824) to be shipped direct
from China to the Australian Colonies. But however fast the
export of tea increased. the imports of opium out-stripped
it in the race. Accordingly in the year 1831 the Chinese
Authorities, in their dread of the increasing outflow of silver
from China, imposed upon foreign merchants such severe
additional restrictions, that the Select Committee of the East
India Company's Supercargoes, headed by Mr. H. H. Lindsay,
threatened to suspend all commercial intercourse . Eventually,
however, when matters came to a crisis (May 27 , 1831 ) , the
Select Committee yielded and, in token of their submission,
handed the keys of the British Factory to the Brigadier in
charge of the Provincial Constabulary (Kwong-hip) .
Though victorious for the moment, the Chinese officials
could not help noticing on this occasion more than ever before,
that a considerable change had come over the demeanour of
10 CHAPTER I.

the foreign merchants. The East India Company's chiefs
seemed to have lost somehow their former control over the
foreign community, and the latter would not submit now, as
formerly, to all the caprices of the Chinese Authorities ; they
were talking now of international and reciprocal responsibilities ,
and murmured seditiously against trade monopolies as commercial
iniquities.
Moreover the restrictions placed on the opium ships ,
from which the Provincial Authorities were reaping their
richest harvests, were persistently evaded by the ships
anchoring at the island of Lintin or in the Kapsingmoon
channel, outside the Bogue, where, with the connivance of
the Authorities, the foreign merchants had established stationary
receiving ships, serving the purpose of floating warehouses.
for all sorts of goods. This measure encouragel a great deal
of smuggling on the part of Chinese private traders, and the
consequent infringement of the official trade monopoly curtailed
the share which the Provincial Authorities had in the
whole trade.
The Chinese officials now saw clearly that a different spirit
had crept in among the foreigners at Canton, that even the
servile attitude of the former East India Company's officers was
rapidly giving way to claims of national self-respect, a most
preposterous thing, as it appeared to the Chinese, on the
part of outer barbarians, and finally that the most intelligent
private merchants freely expressed their conviction that, owing
to the approaching dissolution of the East India Company's
Chinese monopoly, the whole foreign trade with China would
have to be placed on a distinctly international basis by the
year 1834. The Viceroy now perceived and reported to Peking
that a serious crisis was approaching. Accordingly an Imperial
Edict was issued (September 19 , 1832 ) ordering all the
maritime provinces to put their forts and ships of war in
repair in order to scour the seas and driveoff any European
vessels (of war) that might make their appearance on the coast .'
Thus prepared, the Chinese calmly awaited the year 1834,
 COMMENCEMENT OF BRITISH TRADE WITH CHINA. 11

continuing meanwhile to encourage foreign trade and to levy
on it as many charges, regular and irregular, as it would
bear. What the British Government failed to discern , the
Emperor of China foresaw clearly, viz. that a war was bound
to arise from the denial of China's supremacy ..
 CHAPTER II .



INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.
A.D. 1625 to 1834.

URING the whole period above reviewed, the relations
‫ فن‬between the Chinese Government and the East India
Company had been conducted on the express understanding,
which for nearly two centuries was tacitly acquiesced in by
the Company, that China claims the sovereignty over all
under heaven ; that trade, whether retail or wholesale, is a
low degrading occupation , fit only for the lower classes beneath
the contempt of the Chinese gentry, literati and officials ;
but that the Emperor of China, as the father of all human
beings, is merciful even to barbarians, and as their existence
seems to depend upon periodical supplies of silk, rhubarb
and tea, the Emperor permits the foreign traders at Canton
to follow their base instincts and allows them to make
money for themselves by this trade, subject to official
surveillance, restrictions and penalties. At the same time,
though permitted to reside at intervals in the suburbs of
Canton, foreigners must not suppose that they are the equals
even of the lowest of the Chinese people ; they must not
presume to enter the city gates under any pretext what-
ever, nor travel inland, nor take into their service any
natives except those belonging to the Pariah caste of the
boat population (known as Ham-shui), forbidden by law to
live on shore or to compete at literary examinations. So
long as the Company's Supercargoes, and other foreign
merchants resorting to Canton , silently accepted the degrading
 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. 13

status thus assigned to them, and tacitly acknowledged the
political supremacy and the Heaven-bestowed jurisdiction of
the Chinese Government, things went on tolerably and trade
continued in spite of all restrictions.
The Chinese were confirmed in this low estimate of
foreign character and culture by the to them singular fact
that, with very rare exceptions, none of those foreigners
seemed able to learn the Chinese language nor even to conceive
any appreciation of Chinese history, philosophy or literature,
besides shewing utter incapacity to comprehend the principles
of Chinese polity, morality and etiquette. Nor did these
barbarians exhibit any symptoms of religions life, so far as
the Chinese could observe, to whom they appeared to have
no soul whatever above dollars and sensual pleasures . The
more the Chinese saw of foreigners, the less they found
themselves able to classify them with other nations like the
Coreans, Japanese, Loochooans, Annamese or Tibetans, all
of whom readily appreciated and adopted Chinese culture and
Chinese forms of religion and etiquette. Hence they could
only characterize the barbarians from Europe or America as
foreign devils .'
The first intimation the Chinese received of a superior
moral power, inherent in the character of foreigners, was
conveyed to them by contact with officers of the British navy.
When the first British man-of-war, the Centaur, arrived in
Chinese waters (November, 1741 ) , the Hoppo's officers pretended
not to understand any difference between a ship of His Majesty,
and an East India Company's trader. They insisted upon
measuring the Centaur, and coolly demanded the usual trade
charges. However, her commander, Commodore Anson , very
quietly and good -naturedly resisted all pretensions and by sheer
force of character, combined with judicious menaces, brushed
all objections aside, and forced his ship without positive hostilities
through the Bogue and up to Whampoa. On arrival there,
he fairly took away the breath of the Chinese officials by
notifying them that he proposed to call in person on the Viceroy
14 CHAPTER II.

to pay his respects to His Excellency, which was his bounden
duty as the Officer of His Majesty King George II . of Great
Britain and Ireland, and that there must be no breach of
etiquette.' The unparalleled boldness of this typical British
tar was so novel to the Chinese Authorities that it cowed them
completely. The Viceroy admitted the importunate sailor to a
personal interview, treated him to cold tea and ice-cold etiquette,
and not until the Commodore set sail and left Chinese waters
did the Chinese Authorities recover their breath and resume
their former policy of undisguised contempt for all foreigners.
However, on the next occasion (February, 1791 ) , when His
Majesty's Ships Leopard and Thames arrived and desired to
follow the precedent set by Commodore Anson, they found
things changed. The Chinese officials now stubbornly refused
to allow the ships to enter the Bogue and the officers had to
content themselves with a flying personal visit to the port
and suburbs of Canton. Nevertheless the next visitor, Captain
Maxwell, of H. M. S. Alceste (November 12th, 1816 ) , was
determined to follow the example of Commodore Anson. On
arrival at the Bogue, a Chinese officer boarded the Alceste
and informed the Captain that, before proceeding any further,
he must obtain the security of two Hong merchants and
declare the nature of his cargo. The gallant Captain pointed
to his biggest guns as his security and declared the only cargo
carried by a British man-of-war to be powder and shot .
Thereupon the frightened officer beat a hasty retreat and
subsequently sent on board a stern refusal to allow the ship
to enter the Bogue. In reply, Captain Maxwell politely informed
the commanders of the Bogue forts of the exact hour when