Canton System
The protectionist policy arose in 1757 as a response to a perceived political and commercial threat from abroad on the part of successive Chinese emperors.
Operating from the Thirteen Factories located on the banks of the Pearl River outside Canton, in 1760, by order of the Qing Qianlong Emperor, they became officially sanctioned as a monopoly known as the Cohong.
At the start of his reign, the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722) faced a number of challenges, not the least of which was to integrate his relatively new dynasty with the Chinese Han majority.
Once the rebellions had been quelled, in 1684 Kangxi issued an edict:Now the whole country is unified, everywhere there is peace and quiet, Manchu-Han relations are fully integrated so I command you to go abroad and trade to show the populous and affluent nature of our rule.
When a ship arrived or departed, the Chinese merchant involved would visit the Ocean Trading House to pay any taxes due.
[9] 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.
[11] 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,[12] Kangxi expelled all missionaries from China except those employed in a technical or scientific advisory capacity by the Qing Court.
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.
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.
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).
[15] 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,[17] became the focus of the impetus for change.
[5] The Qing court's previous laxity had effectively allowed a coterie of Chinese merchants and local officials to take over foreign commerce in the southern port according to their own best financial interests.
[20] The new rules, known as the Vigilance Towards Foreign Barbarian Regulations (Chinese: 防範外夷規條; pinyin: Fángfàn wàiyí guītiáo; Jyutping: fong4 faan6 ngoi6 ji4 kwai1 tiu4 ) or Five Counter-Measures Against the Barbarians (Chinese: 防夷五事; pinyin: Fáng yí wǔ shì; Jyutping: fong4 ji4 ng5 si6) contained the following provisions: These rules did not apply to all Western merchants alike.
[31] 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.
[33] 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.
[35][36] Following the signature of the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, British subjects are "allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without molestation or restraint" at Canton, Shanghai, Amoy (Xiamen), Ningbo and Fuzhou.
