Source Collection: Europe and China in 1750
Source Collection: Europe and China in 1750
Sources compiled by Eman M. Elshaikh
Here is a look at distribution and trade networks, not from historians, but from the people doing trading. These six primary sources let you walk in the shoes of those who used, created, or profited from these vast networks.
Introduction to this collection
This collection gives a snapshot of European and Chinese production and distribution and trade networks around 1750. The sources let you walk in the shoes of those who used, created, or profited from these vast networks.
Guiding question to think about as you read the documents: How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
WHP Primary Source Punctuation Key
When you read through these primary source collections, you might notice some unusual punctuation like this: . . . and [ ] and ( ). Use the table below to help you understand what this punctuation means.
| Punctuation | What it means |
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ELLIPSES words … words |
Something has been removed from the quoted sentences by an editor. |
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BRACKETS [word] or word[s] |
Something has been added or changed by an editor. These edits are to clarify or help readers. |
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PARENTHESES (words) |
The original author of the primary source wanted to clarify, add more detail, or make an additional comment in parentheses. |
Contents
Source 1 – Qing Court Tribute Rules and Protocols, 1764 (0:25)
Source 2 – Five Rules to Regulate Foreigners, 1759 (4:20)
Source 3 – Excerpt from Diderot’s Encyclopédie, 1753 (8:10)
Source 4 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract, 1761 (13:40)
Source 5 – On the Duties of an Official, c. 1755 (19:05)
Source 6 – A Memorial on Grain Prices, 1763 (25:20)
Source 7 – The Complete English Tradesman, 1726 (29:15)
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Timestamps are in the source title. To locate a specific source in the audio file:
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Source 1 – Qing Court Tribute Rules and Protocols, 1764 (0:25)
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Title Qing Court Tribute Rules and Protocols |
Date and location 1764, China |
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Source type Primary source – government document |
Author Qing official |
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Description This excerpt is from the Qing statutes. It outlines rules and protocols for tributary missions. Notably, descriptions focus on Asian neighbors and not on Western European communities. |
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Key vocabulary protocol customary provincial envoy |
customs tribute duty |
Guiding question
How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
Excerpt
1. As to the countries of the barbarians on all sides that send tribute to Court, on the east is Korea; on the south- east, Liu-ch’iu and Sulu; on the south, Annam and Siam; on the southwest, Western Ocean, Burma, and Laos. (For the barbarian tribes of the northwest, see under. . .
6. As to tribute objects, in each case they should send the products of the soil of the country. Things that are not locally produced are not to be presented. Korea, Annam, Liu-ch’iu, Burma, Sulu, and Laos all have as tribute their customary objects.
. . .
14. As to trade,—when the tribute envoys of the various countries enter the frontier, the goods brought along in their boats or carts may be exchanged in trade with merchants of the interior (China); either they may be sold at the merchants’ hongs1 in the frontier province or they may be brought to the capital and marketed at the lodging house (i.e., the Residence for Tributary Envoys). At the customs stations which they pass en route (on the way), they are all exempted from duty. As to barbarian merchants who themselves bring their goods into the country for trade,—for Korea on the border of Shêng-ching [Shengjing] [Fengtien province], and at Chung-chiang [Zhongjang] [northeast of Chengtu, Szechwan], there are spring and autumn markets, two a year; at Hui-ning [southeast of Lanchow, Kansu], one market a year; at Ch’ing-yüan [Qingyuan] [in Chihli, now Chao-hsien], one market every other year,—(each) with two Interpreters of the Board of Ceremonies, one Ninguta (Kirin2) clerk, and one Lieutenant to superintend it. After twenty days the market is closed. For the countries beyond the seas, (the market) is at the provincial capital of Kwangtung [Guangdong]. Every summer they take advantage of the tide and come to the provincial capital (Canton). When winter comes they wait for a wind and return to their countries. All pay duties to the (local) officers in charge, the same as the merchants of the interior (China).
Citation
Fairbank, John King, and Ssu-yü Teng. Ch’ing Administration: Three Studies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960.
1 a large general trading house
2 Ninguta is another name for the province of Jilin (sometimes called Kirin) in northeastern China.
Source 2 – Five Rules to Regulate Foreigners, 1759 (4:20)
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Title Five Rules to Regulate Foreigners |
Date and location 1759, China |
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Source type Primary – government document |
Author Li Shih-Yao, acting general at Canton |
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Description Qing officials created a port system, agreed upon by treaty, in order to protect Chinese society from foreign influence. Many foreign merchants, particularly European ones, tried to circumvent (get around) this system. This set of regulations was proposed in an effort to make them either play by the rules, or not play at all. |
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Key vocabulary pretext discharge obligation |
uncultivated Cohong transaction |
Guiding question
How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
Excerpt
Since foreigners are outside the sphere of civilization, there is no need for them to have any contact with our people other than business transactions, whenever they come to China for trade purposes. . . The following rules, in the judgment of your humble servant, are both simple and practical enough to be adopted. They are presented here for Your Majesty’s consideration.
1. Foreigners should never be allowed to stay at Canton during the winter.
. . . Even if foreigners have to stay through the winter on account of business, they move from Canton to Macao after their ships have sailed for home. Lately many foreign traders, under the pretext that some of their merchandise has not been sold or that their debtors have failed to discharge their obligations in full, entrust their ships and cargoes to the care of other merchants who proceed home, while they themselves stay on in Canton. During their stay they devote themselves to the study of the prices of various goods in different provinces. . . .
Canton, being the capital of a province, is too important a place to allow foreigners to stay there on a permanent basis, since permanent residence will enable them to spy on our activities. From now on, when a foreign trader arrives at Canton, the Cohong3 merchants should sell all of his goods as quickly as possible, pay him immediately, . . . so that he can return home. . . .
2. While in Canton, foreigners should be ordered to reside in Cohong headquarters so that their conduct can be carefully observed and strictly regulated. ... These foreigners often become drunk and commit breaches of the peace. ... Their behavior in this regard is of course extremely improper.
Among the foreigners the British are the most violent and are prone to recreate incidents. . .
In an uncultivated, vulgar person the desire for material gain is always stronger than fear of the law. This is especially true of merchants, who often view law as a mere formality which can be violated at will. . .
Citation
Smith, Bonnie G., ed. Imperialism: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
3 a guild of Chinese merchants or hongs who operated the import-export monopoly in Canton (now Guangzhou) during the Qing dynasty (1644–1911).
Source 3 – Excerpt from Diderot’s Encyclopédie, 1753 (8:10)
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Title Encyclopédie |
Date and location 1753, France |
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Source type Primary source - publication |
Author François Véron de Forbonnais (author) |
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Description This entry from the Encyclopedia, “Colony,” sets out to provide a typology (classification by type) of colonies. This excerpt describes the sixth type of colony. These sections make frequent mention of trade and commerce, suggesting an important connection between production and distribution and colonial networks and communities. |
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Key vocabulary cultivation commodities metropole |
monopoly profit |
Guiding question
How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
Excerpt
VI. The discovery of America towards the end of the fifteenth century has multiplied European colonies, and offers us a sixth type.
All those on this continent were either founded with an eye towards both commerce and agriculture, or have eventually moved in this direction. On this basis, these colonies required the conquering of territory and the driving out of existing inhabitants, in order to import new ones.
Since these colonies have been established only for the needs of the metropole, it follows:
- That they must be directly dependent upon it, and consequently under its protection.
- That the founders of the colony must have a monopoly on trade there.
Such a colony best fulfills its purpose when it adds to what is grown in the metropole, when it supports a greater number of its men, and when it increases trade with other nations. These three advantages might not always coexist in each colony, but one of the three at least needs to be substantial enough to compensate for the others. If the compensation is not complete, or if the colony does not provide any of the above advantages, one might determine that it is ruinous for the mother country and is burdensome to it.
Thus, the profit derived from the trade and cultivation of our colonies is precisely: 1. the greatest income which their consumption provides to the owner of our lands, minus the costs of cultivation; 2. what our artisans and sailors earn from their work for them and through them; 3. everything we need which they provide; 4. the total surplus which they give us to export.
From this calculation, several things follow:
The first is that colonies would no longer be useful if they could do without the metropole. Thus, it is a law inherent in the nature of the system that one must limit the arts and cultivation in a colony to certain objects, according to the convenience of the colonizing country.
The second consequence is that if the colony undertakes trade with foreigners, or consumes foreign goods, the amount of this trade and these goods is like a theft against the metropole — a theft only too common, but punishable by the laws, and by means of which the real and relative power of a state is diminished by whatever foreigners gain.
It is thus not at all a violation of freedom of trade to restrict commerce in this case. Indeed, any regime that tolerates it by its indifference, or that allows certain ports to violate the first principle of the institution of colonies — is a regime destructive of commerce or of the wealth of a nation.
The third consequence is that a colony will be even more useful the more it is populated, and the more its land is under cultivation.
. . .
When a state has multiple colonies that can communicate amongst themselves, the true secret to increasing the power and wealth of each one is establishing regular navigation and communication routes between them. This private trade has the same power and benefits as the domestic commerce within a state, provided that colonial commodities are never of the sort which will compete with those of the metropole. Wealth will actually increase by this means, since the ease and comfort of the colonies will be returned to it as a benefit as a result of the consumption that it makes possible. For the same reason, trade that they pursue with the colonies of foreign countries in commodities needed for their own consumption is also advantageous, if it is contained within appropriate limits. . .
We have seen that, in general, liberty must be restricted in favor of the metropole. . .
Citation
Forbonnais, François Véron de. “Colony.” The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.246 (accessed July 8, 2019). Originally published as “Colonie,” Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 3:648–651 (Pasurris, 1753).
Source 4 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Social Contract, 1761 (13:40)
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Title The Social Contract and Discourses |
Date and location 1761, France |
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Source type Primary – political/economic treatise |
Author Jean-Jacques Rousseau |
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Description In this treatise, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a philosopher from Geneva, elaborates his ideas about how political communities work in the face of commerce, trade, and property relations. This document, and the type of thinking it represents, inspired many political revolutions and reforms in Europe in the late eighteenth century. At the same time, it launched furious debates and was very controversial. Many of its principles are also in tension with justifications for colonialism. In this excerpt on the subject of property, Rousseau argues that land ownership can only be legitimate if there are no prior claimants to that land. |
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Key vocabulary possession irrevocable occupier subsistence |
the Sovereign proprietor usurpation |
Guiding question
How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
Excerpt
CHAPTER IX: real property
Each member of the community gives himself to it, at the moment of its foundation, just as he is, with all the resources at his command, including the goods he possesses. This act does not make possession, in changing hands, change its nature, and become property in the hands of the Sovereign; but, as the forces of the city are incomparably greater than those of an individual, public possession is also, in fact, stronger and more irrevocable, without being any more legitimate, at any rate from the point of view of foreigners. For the State, in relation to its members, is master of all their goods by the social contract, which, within the State, is the basis of all rights; [20] but, in relation to other powers, it is so only by the right of the first occupier, which it holds from its members.
The right of the first occupier, though more real than the right of the strongest, becomes a real right only when the right of property has already been established. Every man has naturally a right to everything he needs; but the positive act which makes him proprietor of one thing excludes him from everything else. Having his share, he ought to keep to it, and can have no further right against the community. This is why the right of the first occupier, which in the state of nature is so weak, claims the respect of every man in civil society. In this right we are respecting not so much what belongs to another as what does not belong to ourselves.
In general, to establish the right of the first occupier over a plot of ground, the following conditions are necessary: first, the land must not yet be inhabited; secondly, a man must occupy only the amount he needs for his subsistence; and, in the third place, possession must be taken, not by an empty ceremony, but by labor and cultivation, the only sign of proprietorship that should be respected by others, in default of a legal title.
In granting the right of first occupancy to necessity and labor, are we not really stretching it as far as it can go? Is it possible to leave such a right unlimited? Is it to be enough to set foot on a plot of common ground, in order to be able to call yourself at once the master of it? Is it to be enough that a man has the strength to expel others for a moment, in order to establish his right to prevent them from ever returning? How can a man or a people seize an immense territory and keep it from the rest of the world except by a punishable usurpation, since all others are being robbed, by such an act, of the place of habitation and the means of subsistence which nature gave them in common? When Nuñez Balbao, standing on the sea-shore, took possession of the South Seas and the whole of South America in the name of the crown of Castille, was that enough to dispossess all their actual inhabitants, and to shut out from them all the princes of the world? On such a showing, these ceremonies are idly multiplied, and the Catholic King need only take possession all at once, from his apartment, of the whole universe, merely making a subsequent reservation about what was already in the possession of other princes.
Citation
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Social Contract, and Discourses. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd. 1923.
Source 5 – On the Duties of an Official, c. 1755 (19:05)
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Title On the Duties of an Official |
Date and location c. 1755–1770, China |
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Source type Primary source - letters |
Author Chen Hongmou |
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Description Chen Hongmou, a Qing official, was regarded as an exemplary official and a morally upright person. In his writings, he emphasizes the need for officials to maintain uprightness. This excerpt demonstrates the ways in which moral beliefs, senses of community, and social responsibility are woven into matters of political and economic governance and administration. Officials are exhorted to be diligent, honest, and thoughtful in their work, so as to ensure a prosperous future for China. This excerpt also demonstrates the robust government institutions in place for managing society and commerce, both on a short- and long-term basis. |
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Key vocabulary patronage diligently litigation |
surtax reclamation magistrate |
Guiding question
How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
Excerpt
Letter to the Prefect of Guangxi, Chen wengong gong shudu
The Way of shepherding the people involves no more than educating and nurturing them. … By “nurturing” I mean construction and maintenance of irrigation works, encouragement of land reclamation, and patronage of community granaries. These are all matters of great urgency. If the people can be made to produce a surplus, store it, and allow it to accumulate over the years, their well-being will be ensured. By “education” I mean promoting civilized behavior, diligently managing public schools, and widely distributing classical texts. . .
Letter to the Governor of Guangxi, Huangchao jingshi wenbian
As our dynasty has long exercised benevolent rule, the population has continually grown. All available natural resources have been turned into productive assets. I fear, however, that our limited supply of land cannot adequately support our growing population. Under these conditions, officials cannot sit idly by and watch as potentially useful land remains undeveloped, on the excuse that the effort involved would not yield immediate results. Now, feeding the people directly by the government is not as good as developing the means whereby the people can feed themselves. . . officials must look to the long term, not the present, and in so doing put the interests of the people ahead of their own [career] concerns.
Official correspondence
Popular attitudes and customary practices vary from locality to locality. It is the duty of the official to promote those that are advantageous and eliminate those that are disadvantageous. … Magistrates are therefore directed to compile and submit to me a casebook, describing in detail the situation in their counties with regard to each of the following items:
- Tax and surtax assessments and collections …
- Grain tribute assessments and collections …
- Government granaries …
- Community granaries …
- Varieties of crops grown …
- Potentially reclaimable land …
- Water conservancy and irrigation works …
- Local customs regarding marriage and funerary rites and popular religious practices …
- Community libation (drinking) rituals …
- Exemplary cases of filiality (parent-child relationship) or virtuous widowhood …
- Official temples and sacrifices …
- Scholarly trends and fashions …
- Academies and public schools …
- Incidence of feuds and capital crimes …
- Incidence of theft. . .
- Incidence of banditry …
- Incidence of cattle theft and illegal slaughter. . .
- Tax arrears (debt)…
- Incidence of gambling and smuggling …
- Counterfeiting or melting down of government coins …
- Backlog of civil litigation (legal matters)…
- Maintenance and security of cemeteries …
- Refugees and vagrants …
- Poorhouses and orphanages …
- Dikes and flood-prevention measures. . .
- Market towns and overland or water commercial routes …
- Postal depots …
- Historical relics …
- Pettifoggers4 …
- Leading lineages …
- Sales of government salt …
- Sub-officials assigned to the district …
Citation
De Bary, Wm. Theodore, and Richard Lufrano. Sources of Chinese Tradition: Volume 2: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. 2010.
4 to carry on a petty, shifty, or unethical law business or to practice financial deception of any kind
Source 6 – A Memorial on Grain Prices, 1763 (25:20)
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Title A Memorial on Grain Prices, the Grain Trade, and Government-Controlled Brokerages |
Date and location 1763, China |
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Source type Primary source – government correspondence |
Author Yang Yingju, governor-general of Shaanxi and Gansu |
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Description In this excerpt, a Qing official presents an analysis in response to an inquiry from the Qing court about whether to abolish grain brokerage. He resists making a blanket statement or recommending an inflexible regulation, instead insisting that officials must be sensitive to regional differences. He is cautious about overregulating trade but also is concerned about merchants’ abuses, with his ultimate goal being public welfare. |
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Key vocabulary coercion precedents broker |
quota directorate |
Guiding question
How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
Excerpt
When I was in Guangdong and taking care of the people’s nourishment in order to meet [Your Majesty’s] sagely concerns, I managed to make market prices go down, but the abolition of the grain [directorates] and brokers was only one link in the process. For if the Guangxi merchants are only moved by profit, in the same way they are necessarily deterred by harassment; [from this] it follows that it is necessary both to treat them with compassion and to know how to encourage them, so as to make it clear to them that they have no harassment to fear and that “there is profit to be made”; then, inevitably, grain will come in a continuous flow. I [therefore] gave strict orders to the district magistrates along the route [from Guangxi], to the effect that when they have to restock grain in the [public] granaries, they should acquire it in the markets, and in no case halt the Guangxi merchants’ grain boats and force them to sell, resulting in coercion and delay.
Also, [one should remember that] the precedents according to which hoarding was prohibited dealt specifically with whoever stores too much and waits for prices [to rise], or restrains [the circulation of goods] to corner the market; but in the case of those Guangxi merchant boats coming every day, one mast following the other, the situation requires that the rich local families buy and resell, which, moreover, makes it possible for the merchants rapidly to ply their oars and repeat the process; this is exactly how grain can be circulated and prices be brought down. . .
The problem is that local conditions are never the same. If one wants to prevent middlemen from using their crafty devices, and thus keep prices from soaring, it is entirely a matter of examining what fits which place at which moment; it is difficult to stick by regulations fixed once and for all. . . .
When dealing with the people’s nourishment one cannot stick by a fixed set of regulations; investigating brokers and arresting stockpilers is, however, one task in the [more general program of] suppressing abuses.
Citation
De Bary, Wm. Theodore, and Richard Lufrano. Sources of Chinese Tradition: Volume 2: From 1600 Through the Twentieth Century. New York: Columbia University Press. 2010.
Source 7 – The Complete English Tradesman, 1726 (29:15)
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Title The Complete English Tradesman |
Date and location 1726, Great Britain |
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Source type Primary source – political work |
Author Daniel Defoe (1660–1731) |
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Description Daniel Defoe, born Daniel Foe, was an English tradesman and writer, most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe. In this political essay, Defoe argues that the English tradesman is far superior to his counterparts abroad and attributes Britain’s greatness and success to trade. |
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Key vocabulary obtain prodigious |
tradesman trafficker |
Guiding question
How were networks of exchange in China and Europe similar and different?
Excerpt
The word tradesman in England does not sound so harsh as it does in other countries; and to say a gentleman-tradesman, is not so much nonsense as some people would persuade us to reckon it: and, indeed, as trade is now flourishing in England, and increasing, and the wealth of our tradesmen is already so great, it is very probable a few years will show us still a greater race of trade-bred gentlemen, than ever England yet had.
The very name of an English tradesman will, and does already obtain in the world. . .it is evident their wealth at this time out-does that of the like rank of any nation in Europe; and as their number is prodigious, so is their commerce; for the inland commerce of England—and it is of those tradesmen, or traffickers, that I am now speaking in particular—is certainly the greatest of its kind of any in the world; nor is it possible there should ever be any like it, the consumption of all sorts of goods, both of our own manufacture, and of foreign growth, being so exceeding great.
If the English nation were to be nearly inquired into, and its present opulence (wealth and luxury) and greatness duly weighed. . .there is no comparison in its wealth, the number of its people, the value of its lands, the greatness of the estates of its private inhabitants; and, in consequence of all this, its real strength is infinitely beyond whatever it was before, . . .
These things prove abundantly that the rising greatness of the British nation is not owing to war and conquests, to enlarging its dominion by the sword, or subjecting the people of other countries to our power; but it is all owing to trade, to the increase of our commerce at home, and the extending it abroad.
It is owing to trade, that new discoveries have been made in lands unknown, and new settlements and plantations made, new colonies placed, and new governments formed in the uninhabited islands, and the uncultivated continent of America; and those plantings and settlements have again enlarged and increased the trade, and thereby the wealth and power of the nation by whom they were discovered and planted. We have not increased our power, or the number of our subjects, by subduing the nations which possessed those countries, and incorporating them into our own, but have entirely planted our colonies, and peopled the countries with our own subjects, natives of this island; and, excepting the negroes, which we transport from Africa to America, as slaves to work in the sugar and tobacco plantations, all our colonies, as well in the islands as on the continent of America, are entirely peopled from Great Britain and Ireland, and chiefly the former; the natives having either removed farther up into the country, or by their own folly and treachery raising war against us, been destroyed and cut off.
As trade alone has peopled those countries, so trading with them has raised them also to a prodigy of wealth and opulence; and we see now the ordinary planters at Jamaica and Barbadoes rise to immense estates, riding in their coaches and six, especially at Jamaica, with twenty or thirty negroes on foot running before them whenever they please to appear in public.
What is it but trade?—the increase of business at home, and the employment of the poor in the business and manufactures of this kingdom, by which the poor get so good wages, and live so well, that they will not list for soldiers; and have so good pay in the merchants’ service, that they will not serve on board the ships of war, unless they are forced to do it?
Citation
Defoe, Daniel. The Complete English Tradesman (1839 Ed.), 2004. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14444.
Eman M. Elshaikh
Eman M. Elshaikh is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East and written for many different audiences. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.
Image credits
This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0 except for the following:
Cover image: View of Canton (Guangzhou) c.1760-70. This bird’s-eye view of Canton (circa 1770) is an export painting designed with the European merchant in mind. The painting displays a melange of European and Chinese styles and depicts Canton in the third quarter of the 18th century. Public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Canton,late_18th_century.jpg