Editing First Opium War (section)

=== Changing trade policy ===
In addition to the start of the opium trade, economic and social innovations led to a change in the parameters of the wider Sino-European trade.<ref name="Wood-1849">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tqVLAAAAYAAJ&q=great+recoinage+1816+shillings&pg=PA172 Report from the Select Committee on the Royal Mint: together with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index, Volume 2]'' (Great Britain. Committee on Royal Mint, 1849), p. 172.</ref> The formulation of [[classical economics]] by [[Adam Smith]] and other economic theorists caused academic belief in [[mercantilism]] to decline in Britain.<ref name="Seabrooke-2006">L.Seabrooke (2006). "Global Standards of Market Civilization". p. 192. Taylor & Francis 2006</ref> Under the prior system, the Qianlong Emperor restricted trade with foreigners on Chinese soil only for licensed Chinese merchants, while the British government on their part issued a monopoly charter for trade only to the [[British East India Company]]. This arrangement was not challenged until the 19th century when the idea of free trade was popularised in the West.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schirokauer |first=Conrad |title=A Brief History of Chinese Civilization |last2=Brown |first2=Miranda |publisher=Cengage |year=2012 |isbn=978-0495913238 |edition=4th |page=221}}</ref> Fueled by the [[Industrial Revolution]], Britain began to use its growing naval power to spread a broadly liberal economic model, encompassing open markets and relatively barrier free international trade, a policy in line with the credo of [[Smithian economics]].<ref name="Seabrooke-2006" /> This stance on trade was intended to open foreign markets to the resources of Britain's colonies, as well as provide the British public with greater access to consumer goods such as tea.<ref name="Seabrooke-2006" /> In Great Britain, the adoption of the [[gold standard]] in 1821 resulted in the empire [[Great Recoinage of 1816|minting]] standardised silver shillings, further reducing the availability of silver for trade in Asia and spurring the British government to press for more trading rights in China.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Xu |first=Zhongyou |publisher=World Book Publishing Company |year=2008 |isbn=978-7506287128 |language=zh |script-title=zh:中國近代史：1600–2000中国的奋斗 |trans-title=The rise of modern China}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}}<ref name="Wood-1849" />

In contrast to this new economic model, the Qing dynasty continued to employ a [[Confucian]]-Modernist, highly organised economic philosophy that called for strict government intervention in industry for the sake of preserving societal stability.<ref name="Fay-2000d" /> While the Qing government was not explicitly anti-trade, a lack of need for imports and increasingly heavy taxes on luxury goods limited pressure on the government to open further ports to international trade.<ref name="Columbia-2017">{{Cite web |title=Grandeur of the Qing Economy |url=http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/economy/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170512035204/http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/economy/ |archive-date=12 May 2017 |access-date=24 May 2017 |website=www.learn.columbia.edu}}</ref> China's rigid merchant hierarchy also blocked efforts to open ports to foreign ships and businesses.<ref name="Gao-2003">Gao, Feng (2003) p. 141.</ref> Chinese merchants operating in inland China wanted to avoid market fluctuations caused by importing foreign goods that would compete with domestic production, while the Cohong families of Guangzhou profited greatly by keeping their city the only entry point for foreign products.<ref name="Columbia-2017" /><ref>''Compilation Group'' for the "History of Modern China" Series. (2000). p. 17.</ref><ref name="Gao-2003" /><ref name="Rowe-2009">T., Rowe, William (2009). ''China's last empire : the great Qing''. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0674036123}}. {{OCLC|648759723}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}}

At the turn of the 19th century, countries such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, and the United States began to seek additional trading rights in China.<ref>Downs. pp. 22–24.</ref> Foremost among the concerns of the western nations was the end of the Canton System and the opening of China's vast consumer markets to trade. Britain in particular was keenly increasing its exports to China, as the empire's implementation of the gold standard forced it to purchase silver and gold from continental Europe and Mexico to further fuel its rapidly industrialising economy.<ref>Liu, Henry C. K. (4 September 2008). [https://web.archive.org/web/20081202024102/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/JI04Cb03.html Developing China with sovereign credit]. ''[[Asia Times Online]]''.</ref> Attempts by a British embassy (led by [[Macartney Embassy|Macartney]] in 1793), a Dutch mission (under [[Jacob Pieter van Braam]] in 1794), Russia (headed by [[Yury Golovkin]] in 1805), and the British again ([[William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst|Earl William Amherst]] in 1816) to negotiate increased access to the Chinese market were all vetoed by successive Qing emperors.<ref name="Peyrefitte 1993, p487-503" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} Upon his meeting the [[Jiaqing Emperor]] in 1816, Amherst refused to perform the traditional [[kowtow]], an act that the Qing saw as a severe breach of etiquette. Amherst and his party were expelled from China, a diplomatic rebuke that angered the British government.<ref>Guo Ting: ''History of Modern China'', Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1979 p. 39.</ref>

One major reason was that British consumers had developed a strong liking for Chinese tea, as well as other goods like porcelain and silk. But Chinese consumers had no similar preference for any goods produced in Britain. Because of this trade imbalance, Britain increasingly had to use silver to pay for its expanding purchases of Chinese goods. Britain suffered from a huge trade deficit during the Sino-British trade. Meanwhile, the high tariff made the British government very dissatisfied with the Qing government. The Chinese only allowed silver in exchange for the products they were offering so a significant amount of this commodity was leaving the British Empire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Opium Wars in China |url=https://asiapacificcurriculum.ca/learning-module/opium-wars-china |access-date=28 November 2021 |website=Asia Pacific Curriculum |language=en}}</ref>

As its merchants gained increasing influence in China, Great Britain bolstered its military strength in Southern China. Britain began sending warships to combat piracy on the Pearl River, and in 1808 established a permanent garrison of British troops in Macau to defend against French attacks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hariharan |first=Shantha |last2=Hariharan |first2=P. S. |date=1 December 2013 |title=The Expedition to Garrison Portuguese Macao with British Troops: Temporary Occupation and Re-embarkation, 1808 |journal=International Journal of Maritime History |language=en |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=85–116 |doi=10.1177/084387141302500209 |issn=0843-8714 |s2cid=161472099}}</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}