Macartney’s Requests vs. Treaty of Nanjing
By: Joun Lee
Fifty years separated Macartney’s Requests and the Treaty of Nanjing, what had changed to make the results so different? This was determined by which nation had the upper hand. It all started with tea. Britain became a nation of tea drinkers; therefore, the demand for Chinese tea shot up dramatically. However, trading in order to acquire tea from China was very difficult for the British because the Chinese were not interested in most of the goods that Britain offered and because of the extremely strict way that China had its trading system set up. As a result, King George sent Lord Macartney to request more trading freedom of Qianlong (the emperor of China at the time) Qianlong rejected all five requests with no strong argument and with a tone of what seemed to be mocking. Britain would soon find a way to make China change its mind. This was how opium was introduced. The British, knowing its addictive effects, strategically spread and let Chinese people try it. Immediately the country was hooked, so the demand for opium speedily rose and money began pouring out of China to pay for this addiction. Now Britain had the upper hand. This weakened China’s economy drastically; consequently, the emperor appointed Lin Tse-hsu to stop this drug trafficking. First, Lin rounded up all of the addicts and made them kick the habit by means of harsh punishment, and also he punished all domestic drug dealers. After this, he forced all foreign merchants to sign a pledge of good conduct that banned them from selling drugs and said that they would be punished under Chinese law if they did. This last method that Lin used to rid China of opium caused the Opium War. Britain easily defeated the Chinese because they had far superior military equipment. Out of this came the Treaty of Nanjing which made China agree to things such as opening up more trade and allowing Britain to gain much profit. Comparing the Treaty of Nanjing to...