China’s Story - Chinese Renaissance and Education - E-book - Multi-format

The intercourse between China and the West began when the Portuguese sent their first trading vessel to her southern ports, of which Canton is the chief, in 1516, and till 1812 it was a purely commercial relation in which the power and civilization of Europe were represented for the most part by the East India Company, seeking only for the advantages of trade and persistently opposing all efforts designed to enlighten the people with whom they dealt.
"The attitude of official China during this period was that of supercilious arrogance. China sought no intercourse with outsiders. If they sought trade with her, it was granted as a gracious favor by an officialdom which despised trade and traders too much to attend seriously to the details involved until they became matters threatening international rupture." The event which began the new order of things was the 'opium war' between Great Britain and China, which, though little to the credit of a righteous nation, nevertheless has served as the origin of what must ultimately be of immeasurable benefit to the more benighted land.
By the treaty of peace of 1812 British subjects were permitted to reside at certain important ports along the eastern coast and to trade with whom they pleased. This was soon extended to subjects of the United States and France, and since then the rights of foreigners in China have .steadily increased. There are now over thirty ' treaty ports/ the gateways of Western trade and influence. American commerce with China began in 1784, the first ship leaving New York on Washington's birthday of that year, and taking fifteen months for the round trip.
Our trade with China has been successful from the start, and is greater in importance and value than that of any other nation except Great Britain...