In 1840, Britain launched the First Opium War against the Qing Dynasty with a fleet of guns and guns (the British called it the First Sino-British War or the "Trade War"), which was like a dividing line, with China on the left side of the line being the world's "bearer", and then only humiliation and resistance until 100 years after the founding of New China in 1949.
As early as the 15th century, Portugal and Spain had come to the coast of the Ming Dynasty, hoping to trade with the Ming Dynasty, and there had been skirmishes over this, all of which were blocked. The reason why Britain was able to successfully "knock" on the door of the Qing Dynasty was because the rise of the bourgeoisie promoted the outbreak of the first industrial revolution, which quickly grew into an "empire that never sets".
Around the 15th century (the middle of the Ming Dynasty), the germs of capitalism appeared in ancient China and Europe. So we can't help but ask, why didn't the first industrial revolution take place in China, which was the world's most prosperous country at the time. I believe that the fundamental reason is that state power was too centralized and insufficiently restricted during the feudal society on the mainland.
The state is an instrument of class rule by the economically dominant class. In the feudal period, the economically dominant class was the landlords, and the state represented the interests of the landlord class. And the emperor, as the largest landlord in feudal society (there is no royal land under the whole world), naturally did not want to see the rise of the bourgeoisie, and inevitably restricted and suppressed the development of the bourgeoisie.
In feudal China, the emperor had the right to transcend, "the law is the law". And Confucianism's restraint on royal power is too "arbitrary" in a way and to what extent. At the same time, in the ancient Chinese environment, merchants had a low status. Confucianism emphasizes honesty and honesty, which is in opposition to the merchant who "does not commit adultery and does not do business", so the status of merchant is ranked after that of scholar, farmer and worker. As a result, the bourgeoisie cannot grow until it has political resources.
Qing Emperor
So why did the first industrial revolution occur in Britain, which was also a feudal country? England also established a feudal state with strong royal power earlier, but on 15 June 1215, King John (1199-1216), King of the Plantagenet dynasty, was forced to sign the Magna Carta under the combined pressure of great feudal lords, clergy, knights and city citizens, the germ of modern constitutional government. It can be seen that British political power is not tied to royal power, and the royal power of the two countries is very different. This made it possible for the bourgeoisie to enter the political arena.
So when feudal autocracy hindered the development of capitalism, a bourgeois revolution broke out in England in 1640. The Republic was proclaimed on May 19, 1649. The dynasty was restored in 1660. After the tug-of-war between the two forces, the "Glorious Revolution" in 1688 established a constitutional monarchy, and in 1689 the document "Bill of Rights" was promulgated, which clearly restricted the royal power in the form of law. Bourgeois rule was established in Britain and laid the foundation for the rapid development of British capitalism.
The first industrial revolution began in the textile industry
Capitalism is a social system based on private ownership of the means of production. Its main form is that the bourgeoisie buys labor power, and the labor force uses the bourgeois means of production to complete production. The means of production can be expressed as money and credit for the purchase of labor and production materials; It can also be represented as a tangible machine; Or manifested as inventory of finished and semi-finished products.
On the one hand, the British bourgeoisie, which became the ruler, actively developed overseas trade and carried out colonial rule, while expanding vast overseas markets and cheap raw material production areas, accumulating abundant capital. On the other hand, the "enclosure movement" was carried out, and through a large number of cheap labor, workshop handicrafts were developed, production was increased, and a wealth of production technology knowledge was accumulated. However, it still cannot meet the needs of the expanding market. So a revolution in the means of production was on the horizon, for the first industrial revolution.