Only by having mutual communication, trade exchanges and mutual cooperation can we achieve a win-win situation.
In ancient society, China's rulers often maintained peaceful coexistence trade relations with the outside world, and such cooperation not only allowed their own countries to obtain rich goods, but also carried out long-term cultural exchanges with other countries to complement each other's strengths.
However, the development of things has never been as simple as we imagined, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong began to implement a policy of closing the country to the outside world, which made China's communication with the outside world blocked, resulting in the country's economic or scientific development, unable to connect with international standards, and lost the initiative in foreign trade, which also made the Qing Dynasty's rule also face disintegration.
At that time, foreigners doing business gathered in Guangdong, and everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment. In the twentieth year of Qianlong, in order to open up trade, a British merchant named Hong Renhui was sent by the British East India Company to the coast of Zhejiang to ask for directions. He has been trading in Guangzhou for many years, and he can be said to be familiar with China's trade situation, and he and the company's big Class Hansen took a boat directly to Ningbo, Zhejiang.
Ningbo was the port that Kangxi Ye ordered to open, and as a result, because the nearby coast was mostly shoals, the water was turbulent, and the lack of funds for British merchants led to the gradual decline of this port. I haven't seen foreigners here for a long time, and suddenly a British ship has arrived, and they are not going to meet each other, right? Qianlong was afraid of this, and he began to worry about the coastal defense in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Therefore, in order to control the British merchants in a small area in southern China, Qianlong came up with a way to return: if trade was banned, it would seem a little too narrow, and it would be better to raise tariffs, and if the merchants did not see the benefits, they would naturally not come again. However, the British did not come as Qianlong thought, and they preferred to pay more tariffs than to go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to develop trade.
Zhejiang is no better than Guangdong, Guangdong has a tiger gate to defend, and the sea in Zhejiang is vast, and foreign ships can drive straight in smoothly. If they loaded some firearms and ammunition on the ship, then the Qing navy could not resist. Qianlong saw that he was anxious in his eyes, so he had no choice but to give an edict: "If foreigners want to do business, they should go to Guangdong, and Zhejiang is not the place where you do business." ”
In this way, all the British ships in zhejiang waters were expelled to Guangdong. After that, the Qing Dynasty navy was also fortified everywhere, so British merchants could only honestly stay in Guangdong first. However, what no one in the whole world expected was that four years later, the British merchant ship actually appeared in the waters of Tianjin: this ship carried Hong Renhui, who was British, the Chinese translator of the British East India Company, and this time he had come to file a complaint.
Hong Renhui said: "Guangdong Customs traitors are corrupt and extorted, and only one trade port in Guangzhou monopolizes trade, and he demands that the access be opened and free exchanges allowed." "It is also incredible that a foreigner actually came to the capital to file a complaint, or came by water. Qianlong immediately sent the Beijing officials to escort him back to Guangdong by land, and sent a general stationed in Fuzhou to Guangdong to investigate the matter.
As a result, the Guangdong customs supervisor was indeed dismissed from his post and investigated, and his family property was confiscated and exiled to the northwest. However, Hong Renhui himself did not fish well, who gave you the courage to drive the ship to the port that was not open? Hong Renhui was sent back to Macau and imprisoned for three years, and through Hong Renhui's tossing, the Qing Dynasty once again strengthened its defenses against foreign businessmen.
To this end, the Governor of Liangguang also deliberately put forward a regulation on the prevention of qiyi, which stipulated all the affairs of foreign businessmen in China in every detail, and even interfered with the daily actions and private lives of the Taoists. What is even more incredible is that Qianlong actually approved such a charter. In principle, the emperor did not interfere in the domestic affairs of the ministers, so how could Chinese take care of these affairs of foreigners?
In fact, when Guangzhou first opened, the wives of foreign merchants and foreign guns and cannons were explicitly prohibited, and even if foreign merchants had wives accompanying them, they could only live on ships temporarily. It was not until the eleventh year of Qianlong that the Viceroy of Liangguang allowed foreign merchants to live in Macau, but it had to undergo extremely strict scrutiny. However, there is no impermeable wall in this world, and the couple has been separated for a long time, and no one will be happy to change.
Therefore, in the tenth year of Daoguang, foreign wives appeared on the streets of Guangzhou, and they were brought by the British East India Company in Guangzhou. They came to Guangzhou from Macau, rode in a green tweed car, and swung into the commercial hall.
This matter was suddenly full of storms, and these foreign ladies became the protagonists of a diplomatic storm for a while.
When the emperor learned of this, he ordered the viceroy of Liangguang to return them to Macao, saying: "They are not welcome in Guangzhou, but they are just western barbarians, how can they sit in palanquins?" ”
How could the foreign businessmen agree to such a statement, and they personally ran to the Jinghai Gate to present the prayer, expressing their dissatisfaction with the stipulation that foreign businessmen were not allowed to bring their families. However, the imperial court ignored this and issued a notice: "If within two or three days, the master still disobeys the order to send his wife back to Macao, he will send officers and soldiers into the shangguan and carry out expulsion." However, the British were not afraid of war at all, so they took the lead in sending troops to protect the merchant house.
In fact, the imperial court knew in its heart that if the two sides really had a big conflict, their own side would not be able to please them. What's more, if there was a real fight, the two governors of Guangdong would not be able to account to the emperor. Therefore, the Chinese side sent people to negotiate, and the British side first made concessions, saying: "Our troops are also stationed to protect the safety of the shangguan, as long as the imperial court can ensure the safety of the shangguan, our army will leave immediately." ”
In this regard, the governor of Liangguang promised with all his mouth, and the British also withdrew their troops, and as for the ladies, they had enough to play on the grounds that they had to take care of the sick master, and then returned to Macau. There must always be a result in the matter of the master's wife, the ladies are already gone, and they cannot always take the foreigner's knife. Therefore, the Chinese who sent the green tweed caravan to the foreign merchants became a scapegoat, and the governor gave him a charge of "making friends with Yi merchants" and sent him to Ili.
The handling of the Shi Lady incident allowed foreigners to find out the bottom card of the local officials of the Qing Dynasty. Ten years later, in 1840, the lands of Jiangsu and Zhejiang that were reluctant to open up, and foreign ladies who were not allowed to enter the customs, all legally entered the Treaty of Nanjing. Since then, foreign businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have been bustling with each other, and ladies can also be seen everywhere.
Just imagine, if the rulers of the Qing Dynasty could have put down their posture, opened ports, and learned foreign studies, perhaps, there would not have been such a painful lesson in the future.
Resources:
[Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Gaozong Benji, Detailed Description of the Problem of "Closing the Country to the Outside World" in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Xuanzong Benji]