Summary Of China's Letter To King George III

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Summary This document is a letter that China’s emperor sent to King George III in response to Britain asking to buy goods from them. The Chinese emperor states “I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufacture…” (Judge and Landon pg. 600). He is stating that he doesn’t feel the need to purchase goods from Britain before they do not have anything they need. Lord Macartney states that Britain doesn’t have anything that China doesn’t already own; he also implying that they are better than Britain by calling them Barbarians. At the end of the letter, Macartney aggressively states that he is not going to overlook them cutting themselves off from others and the uses of the Celestial Empire; therefore, he “ordered the departure of the mission…” (Judge and Landon pg. 600).
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Because of this, foreigners had to pay for their things in silver. Therefore, in 1793, Britain sent the Macartney mission which was a plan to send their men to talk to China about purchasing their goods which did not go in their favor. There were two things that Britain had over China, machines and weapons and opium. Opium was an illegal drug that people were addicted too but China didn’t have much of it so, In response to the rejection from China, the opium trade took place. British smuggled it into China from India and sold it to the Chinese people and the value of opium “eventually exceeded that of all Chinese goods sold to British, shifting the trade balance in Britain’s favor and causing silver to flow out of China” (Judge and Landon pg.

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