Origins At the start of his reign, the
Kangxi Emperor (r.16611722) faced a number of challenges, not the least of which was to integrate his relatively new dynasty with the Chinese
Han majority. The
Manchu-led Qing dynasty had only come to power in 1644, replacing the
Ming dynasty. Support for the previous rulers remained strong, particularly in the south of the country. Kangxi twice banned all maritime trade for strategic reasons, to prevent any possible waterborne coup attempt. Several rebellions took place, including one led by Ming loyalist
Koxinga and separately the
Rebellion of the Three Feudatories, which led to the capture of
Taiwan in 1683. Once the rebellions had been quelled, in 1684 Kangxi issued an edict:
Hǎiguān (海關), Hoi Gwaan, or customs stations, were subsequently opened at
Canton,
Macau, and
Xiangshan County in Guangdong;
Fuzhou,
Nantai, and
Amoy in
Fujian;
Ningbo and
Dinghai County in
Zhejiang Province; and
Huating County, Chongque, and
Shanghai in
Jiangsu Province. One year later in 1685, foreign traders received permission to enter Chinese ports. The Qing Court under Kangxi set up a trading company in Canton in 1686 to deal with Western trade known as the
Yánghuò Háng (洋貨行, literally "Ocean Trading House"). This dealt with both imports and exports with sub-offices responsible for taxes and import/export declarations respectively. When a ship arrived or departed, the Chinese merchant involved would visit the Ocean Trading House to pay any taxes due. This set up became the basis for the later
Thirteen Factories through which all foreign trade would be conducted. Although many ports on the coasts of China were open, most Westerners chose to trade at Canton as it is closer to Southeast Asia and it was not profitable to go further north. In 1704, the
Baoshang system was established. This system licensed trade with Western merchants: licences were granted to a number of Chinese merchants as long as they helped to collect duties from the Westerners, successfully aligning trading interests with the government's revenue collection. This was the predecessor for the later Cohong system. Although he now had the foreign trade situation under control, Kangxi's liberal attitude towards religion led to a clash between Chinese and Christian spiritual authority. After
Pope Clement XI issued his 1715
papal bull Ex illa die, which officially condemned Chinese religious practices, Kangxi expelled all missionaries from China except those employed in a technical or scientific advisory capacity by the Qing Court.
Implementation of the Cohong In 1745, Kangxi's grandson the
Qianlong Emperor ordered his court to implement changes to the Ocean Trading House system. Thereafter a local Chinese merchant stood as guarantor for every foreign trading vessel entering Canton Harbour and took full responsibility for the ship and its crew along with the captain and
supercargo. Any tax payments due from a foreign trader were also to be guaranteed by the local merchant. With permission from the authorities, in 1760 Hong merchant Pan Zhencheng (潘振成) and nine others
hong specializing in the western trade joined together to become the intermediary between the Qing government and the foreign traders. The role of the new body would be to purchase goods on behalf of the foreigners and deduct any taxes and duties payable for imports and exports; at the same time, according to Guangdong customs records (粵海關志,
jyut6 hoi2 gwaan1 zi3,
Yuèhǎi guān zhì), they established a new harbour authority to deal with tribute from
Thailand and handle pay for the troops involved in trade as well as manage domestic maritime trade in the
South China Sea. Henceforth, the
Cohong possessed imperial authority to levy taxes on the foreign merchants as they saw fit.
Flint affair In 1757 the Qianlong Emperor banned all non-Russian ships from the ports of northern China. Russians were however not allowed to use Canton. All customs offices other than the one at Canton were closed. The emperor did this after receiving a petition regarding the presence of armed Western merchant ships all along the coast. The Western merchant ships were protected from pirates, and guarded against, by the Guangdong Navy, which was subsequently increased in strength. Thereafter all such commerce was to be conducted via a single port under what became known as the
Canton System (Chinese: 一口通商;
Cantonese:
jat1 hau2 tung1 soeng1;
Mandarin:
Yī kǒu tōngshāng; literally, "Single-port commerce system"). During Qianlong's reign Qing foreign trade policies had a political aspect largely based on real or imagined threats from abroad; historian Angela Schottenhammer suggests that although the single port trading policy arose in part from lobbying by officials and Chinese merchants, it was more likely triggered by the activities of Flint in what became known as The Flint Affair (
Hóng Rènhuī Shìjiàn, 洪任輝事件). Although the foreign merchants knew of the
Cohong restriction, they had to balance a breach of etiquette against the risks of seeing their substantial investments in China destroyed by bribery and corruption. Englishman
James Flint, a long-term East India Company supercargo and a fluent speaker of Chinese, became the focus of the impetus for change. Flint had been repeatedly warned to remain in Canton during the trading season and not to venture north in search of commercial opportunities. Despite this, back in 1755 Flint, together with Company director Samuel Harrison, sailed north to explore possibilities for trade in Zhejiang. In 1759, he again journeyed north to file a complaint in Ningbo over corruption amongst the officials in Canton. He had hoped that his criticisms of the current system would usher in a new era of free trade but instead, not only did his plan to open up the ports of Zhejiang fail, the Qing authorities reacted by imposing further restrictions on foreign trade. One of the fundamental tenets of traditional Chinese diplomacy prohibited contact with Beijing except in the case of tributary envoys from other states. The new rules, known as the
Vigilance Towards Foreign Barbarian Regulations ( ) or
Five Counter-Measures Against the Barbarians () contained the following provisions: :1) Trade by foreign barbarians in Canton is prohibited during the winter. :2) Foreign barbarians coming to the city must reside in the
foreign factories under the supervision and control of the
Cohong. :3) Chinese citizens are barred from borrowing capital from foreign barbarians and from employment by them. :4) Chinese citizens must not attempt to gain information on the current market situation from foreign barbarians :5) Inbound foreign barbarian vessels must anchor in the
Whampoa Roads and await inspection by the authorities. These rules did not apply to all Western merchants alike. Russians had nominally had an open trade route into northern China since the signing of the
Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, although rather than send merchant vessels, in practice they limited their activity to
caravan trade sent through Siberia and
Kyakhta, on the land border with
Outer Mongolia. The Portuguese and Spanish were still allowed to trade both in Canton and in
Xiamen, although they rarely exercised the privilege of trading directly in Xiamen. The Portuguese preferred to trade through Chinese intermediaries from Canton via their possessions in
Macao and, in fact, they did not maintain a factory in Canton. The Spanish traded chiefly through intermediaries belonging to the vast Chinese colony of
Manila, which had extensive trading networks in Canton, in Fujian and in northern China, or through factories in Canton, where they had a presence since 1788.
Evaluation The discovery of underground missionary activity in the late 1750s may have contributed to the Emperor's decision to concentrate foreigners in a single port. In his edict to establish the restriction, the Emperor specifically mentioned concerns about the strategic value of the interior regions to foreigners: Chinese government consultants were aware of Western military technological superiority and Westerners' record of having "set out to conquer every land they visited". The
Kangxi Emperor, considering the Westerners to be highly successful, intrepid, clever, and profitable, already had concerns early on about the serious omnidirectional Western threat to China, if China ever became weakened. The Canton system did not completely affect Chinese trade with the rest of the world as Chinese merchants, with their large three-masted ocean junks, were heavily involved in global trade. By sailing to and from
Siam,
Indonesia and
Philippines, they were major facilitators of the global trading system; the era was even described by Carl Trocki as a "Chinese century" of global commerce. Under the system, the Qianlong Emperor restricted trade with foreigners on Chinese soil only for licensed Chinese merchants (Cohongs), while the British government on their part issued a monopoly charter for trade only to the
British East India Company. This arrangement was not challenged until the 19th century when the idea of
free trade was popularized in the West. The concept of restricting trade to a single port was also used in Western countries such as
Spain and
Portugal. Chinese merchants could also trade freely and legally with Westerners (Spanish and Portuguese) in
Xiamen and Macao, or with any country when trade was conducted through ports outside China such as Manila and Batavia. Although shipping was regulated, the Qianlong Emperor's administration was diligent in accommodating the requisites of Western merchants. They hired a growing body of Western assistants for the Customs Office to help manage their fellow countrymen. The order to stay in Macao during the winter was lifted, tax was exempted on food, drink and basic supplies for Western merchants, and protections were granted to Westerners and their property. Chinese merchants were actually banned by Qing law from suing foreigners in Chinese courts, as the Qianlong Emperor believed that good treatment of foreigners was essential for the government. In 1806, Chinese officials compromised with the British on the murder of a Chinese man by British seamen, as Westerners refused to be punished under Chinese law, even though local citizens vigorously protested what they considered a miscarriage of justice. In 1816, the
Jiaqing Emperor dismissed a British embassy for their refusal to kowtow, but he sent them an apologetic letter with gifts (the British simply discarded them in a storeroom without reading). The Qianlong Emperor granted
Lord Macartney a golden scepter, an important symbol of peace and wealth, but this was dismissed by the British as worthless. The British, on the other hand, ignored Chinese laws and warnings not to deploy military forces in Chinese waters. The British landed troops in Macao despite a Chinese and Portuguese agreement to bar foreign forces from Macao, and then in the
War of 1812 attacked American ships deep in the inner harbour of Canton (the Americans had previously robbed British ships in Chinese waters as well). These, in combination with the British support to Nepal during
their invasion of Tibet and later the
British invasion of Nepal after it became a Chinese tributary state, led the Chinese authorities to become highly suspicious of British intentions.
The First Opium War . The French, American, British, and Dutch flags can be seen flying. A seemingly insatiable western demand for
tea from China towards the end of the 18th century caused a significant deficit in the British
balance of trade. The Chinese had little interest in Western goods and would only accept
silver in payment. This spurred the
East India Company to sell
opium grown on its plantations in India to independent traders, who shipped it on to China to sell in exchange for silver, despite the fact that opium was already illegal in China. China tried to stop the importation of this opium, but the traders persisted. Chinese attempts to regain control led to the
First Opium War, when British
gunboat diplomacy quickly forced China to sign the treaty of Nanjing that gave Hong Kong to the British along with allowing free trade to British merchants in China. Additionally China was forced to pay reparations for the destroyed opium. ==Abolition==