Fairbank, John. "The creation of the treaty system", In The Cambridge History of China, Vol.10, Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, Part 1, edited by Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Fairbank, John. "The creation of the treaty system", In The Cambridge History of China, Vol.10, Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, Part 1, edited by Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

• In the early and mid-1800s, the Qing Empire did not have popular nationalism in the modern system. Instead, Qing authority rested on the scholarly landlord class, who were expected to provide administration and suppress revolt in otherwise isolated areas. This meant that all conflicts with the British started as localized events (213).
• Opium merchants were heavily involved with the British government and had the ear of a number of major government figures. They also facilitated the war effort against China, loaning ships and naval officers to the British fleet and giving the British government large amounts of hard cash by purchasing war bonds (213).
• The lives of the vast majority of people in early 19th Century Britain and China were not immensely different, with the poor laboring under similar conditions in both countries. The bigger differences was in the power and organization of their ruling classes (215).
• The 'unequal treaties' signed by the Qing government after its loss in the Opium War mainly focused on codifying and enforcing the rights of foreign merchants in China and visa-versa, guaranteeing the same 'rights' of free trade and extraterritorial legal protection accorded to British merchants in European ports (217).
• The first set of treaties between the British and the Qing Empire were negotiated in 1842 after the British capture of Nanjing in the First Opium War. The Qing initially feared that the British were the newest foreign conquerors, but were soon convinced that the British desired trade rather than conquest. The Qing negotiators thus sought to grant economic concessions to the British, while still enforcing a hierarchical obedience (218).
• This attitude was successfully and is reflected in the continually degrading treatment of foreigners by the Qing government in the 1840s and 1850s, often forcing them to meet in warehouses and only permitting contact with lower-ranking officials (219).
• Despite the disdain in general relations, the Qing really did apply the same techniques they had used in the past to subdue nomadic invaders. This included controlling barbarian leaders through friendship, a tactic obviously attempted on East India Company representatives, whose were basically hit on by Qing officials (220).
• The British objectives in negotiating the first Sino-British treaties following the Opium War were fairly simple, to establish a legal regime that would facilitate British trade in China. Since many of the British negotiators were not familiar with the Qing system, their demands for lower tariffs had only limited effect, as the fees prohibited under the treaties were just replaced by new fees, keeping the entire Qing trade regime highly exploitative (221).
• They also succeeded in obtaining the extraterritorial legal protection for British merchants in the Qing Empire, a right which they had asserted for decades, meaning that British criminals had to be returned to Britain for trial (221).
• The final treaty, signed on 8 October 1843 between Viceroy Qiying 耆英 and Sir Pottinger, also opened the ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, and Fuzhou to British trade and residence. It also required that all subsequent treaty ports created with other powers must be open to the British (221-222).
• The British had intended to exploit their new possession of Hong Kong as a warehouse to flood the Chinese market with British goods, however, the Qing government still required that Qing ships purchase customs permission to trade with the foreigners on Hong Kong, attempting to limit trade (222).
• The British circumvented this law by exploiting an element of the treaty which allowed the British to protect ships underneath their flag. By giving British flags and papers to Chinese ships, the British were able to secure passage for their goods from Hong Kong (222).
• Capitalizing on the devastation of the Qing military after the Opium War, the Americans and French negotiated their own treaties. In 1844, the Americans gained full rights at Guangzhou, although trade remained poorly regulated. In 1846, the French managed to receive toleration for Catholics in China, and rights for Protestants in the treaty ports (224).
• Qing relations with the Western powers were conducted a number of 'barbarian specialists', men whose job was to study the cultures and ways of Europeans and Americans to gain insights. They concluded that the West was focused only on profit, indicating a moral corruption that could be exploited. The Qing tried to do just this through treaty ports, which they hoped would provide a hostage of commercial interests in case the West became uppity (226).
• Foreign presence in China in the mid-1800s was heavily concentrated in Guangzhou and Shanghai, with the other treaty ports being home to fewer than 30 foreigners. Shanghai was the much more populous and diverse center, with Guangzhou still dominated by the technically illegal opium trade (227).
• Foreigners in these treaty ports were segregated from the general Chinese population and resided beyond the city walls, usually on islands or on the coast. The settlements were often fortified, especially in the case of Shanghai (228).
• The foreign settlements in Qing treaty ports were dominated by men, with very few women being present. Around half of the men in Shanghai were from Britain, another quarter were Indian, and the rest were American or French (228).
• Originally, segregation between foreigners outside the city and Chinese inside the side was fairly enforced, but after the capture of Nanjing by the Taiping rebels in March 1853 and a Triad revolt in the walled city of Shanghai in September, refugees flooded the settlement. Foreign consuls became the local administration and established total dominance over all Shanghai, including its Chinese residents, and eroding Qing law for decades (239-240).
• Catholic missionaries, almost entire French Jesuits or Lazarites, expanded rapidly during this period, from 30 missionaries in 1839 to over 70 in 1845 stretching from the coast to Mongolia. Protestants were much less successful, being most confined to treaty ports and refusing to adopt Chinese customs in their missionary work (228-229).
• The Western merchant community in China more cooperated with than was controlled by the British consuls in the treaty ports, largely because they were so powerful. Commerce was dominated by a trust between Jardine, Matheson and Co. and Dent and Co. on the British side, and the American firm, Russell and Co. These companies had a monopoly on the opium trade, and also controlled most other profitable sectors (229-230).
• The foreign merchants companies often depended very heavily on Chinese agents and employs to actually hook them up with local markets and handle negotiations with the Qing government. These Chinese agents of British firms were extremely powerful and were key partners in business activities (230-231).
• The British consuls in the treaty ports were almost entirely engaged in commercial activities, for which they were responsible for the registration of ships with the Qing customs office, preventing smuggling, and ensuring that free trade was secured in the ports (231).
• The terms of the unequal treaties were enforced through gunboat diplomacy. This was demonstrated in 1848 during the Qingpu affiar, when a group of missionaries were attacked outside of Shanghai by boatmen on the grand canal. The Qing government was initially unwilling to seize members of the grain fleet prepared to send rice to Beijing, but submitted after the British mobilized a ship to blockade the fleet and threaten bombardment (232).
• Popular resentment towards the British in Guangdong never died down, and the same local gentry empowered during the Opium War maintained their militias during the peace, collecting taxes and maintaining an army of thousands. When Brits ventured into Guangzhou or the countryside, they were often stoned or beaten (233).
• In 1847, the British attempted to resolve this hostility by using the British fleet in Hong Kong to bombard the forts in the Humen strait and force the Qing governor to agree to stop the violence. In practice, this did nothing of use and Brits outside of the city continued to be killed by militias. The Qing government now killed alleged perpetrators, however, which alienated it from the general population (233-234).
• The hostility towards the Qing governor following the 1847 incident led to his replacement in 1848 with Tü Guangjin, who pursued a policy of reconciliation with the rural militia. He refused British entry to Guangzhou and received imperial honors, forcing them to demure as they felt unprepared for another full-fledged war with the Emperor (234).
• The British system of avoiding tariffs by granting British protection to many Chinese vessels created a entire class of merchants and smugglers between the British and Qing legal systems. This help break down government order in the coast, as previously millenarian secret societies transformed into the modern Triad of crime syndicates (234-235).
• They often changed flags or clothes to present themselves as British or Chinese depended on the situation, helping them evade capture by the Qing government (235).
• Poverty in coastal China combined with the boom in trade caused an explosion in piracy that the Qing government was unprepared to handle. The British often took over this responsibility, hunting down pirates. However, the problem was too widespread and contributed to a declining security situation as fishermen armed themselves and turned to habitual piracy (236).
• The spread of piracy was met by a growth in a need for armed convoys as protection for Chinese fishermen. European ships began to rent themselves out for this purpose, inevitably become mere mercenaries involved in local feuds. Many, especially the Portuguese and Cantonese pirates began to use the system as a protection racket, a situation worsened by unclear jurisdiction between the British and Qing governments (236-237).
• Because so many of their members engaged in trade with Europeans or were officially registered as citizens of European states, the responsibility for policing Triad fell on the British. They almost never did anything, as they profited from the Triad involvement in buying opium and procuring Chinese labour to be exported to Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Americas, often under conditions equivalent to slavery (236).
• The collapse of Qing governance in Shanghai during the Taiping rebellion led to the abolition of the tariff system that had existed under the unequal treaties, as the Qing government could not longer collect revenue. The system that replaced it saw Western agents collect revenue on behalf of the Qing government, working for the Qing Emperor (242).
• Although they eventually intervened on the side of the Qing government, American, British, and French consuls all initially agreed to exploit the Taiping Rebellion by pressuring the Qing government for a revision of treaty terms in general that would favor the Western powers even more (245).
• "The Western merchants, missionaries and military on the coast seemed quite peripheral - only a border problem. Few in numbers though irresistible in firepower, they could fight their way up to Canton, or even, in the end, to Tientsin and Peking, but they could not displace Chinese populations nor rule them without Chinese help" (244).
• Guangdong had been devastated by the Taiping Rebellion, along Governor Ye had managed to avoid the capture of Guangzhou by the rebels. The region was also struck by the Red Turban Rebellion, an affiliate of the Taiping, and local rebellions by Triads in many port cities. Qing rule was only restored through the empowerment of the peasant militias, who restored brutal order through predation and the execution of tens of thousands of alleged rebels (245-246).
• In 1850, Emperor Xianfeng was coronated. He was utterly isolated and ignorant of the outside world, and depended on the advice of Commissioner Tü Guangjin and his ally Ye Mingchen 叶名琛, governor of Guangdong. They guided the Empire on a path of resistance to Western intransigence (244).
• Governor Ye ended up starting the Arrow War, or Second Opium War, in October 1856, by seizing the vessel Arrow, which had engaged in piracy. The vessel was flying the British flag at the time of capture, prompting a British reaction to alleged Qing violation of the treaty terms (246).
• The British bombarded and captured the forts at the Humen strait and bombarded Guangzhou. Governor Ye utterly refused to give way, closed down all trade and in December, he burned the factories (246-247).
• The British resolved to go to war over the conflict, but delayed their response to repress the Sepoy Mutiny. The French agreed to participate to avenge the murder of a priest in Guangxi the previous year. The Anglo-French force finally attacked Guangzhou in January 1858, seizing the city and exiling Ye Mingchen to Calcutta. The British reopened trade in February under an occupation regime of former British and Qing merchants (247).
• The Qing government encouraged attacks by the peasant militias on Guangzhou, but these were majorly unsuccessful. After an unsuccessful assault in July, government support dried up. The British and French pushed into the countryside with overwhelming violence, and within a year the militias had effectively disbanded (248-249).
• In mid-1858, the Qing government agreed to start peace talks. In June 1858, Anglo-French gunboats broke into Tianjin and began negotiations with Qing officials. They agreed to sign the Tianjin Treaty with the French, British, Russians, and Americans (249).
• The treaty established a British resident in Beijing, leveled 16 million taels of indemnities, permitted foreign travel inland, opened roughly 10 additional treaty ports, lowered tariffs, established a Western-run customs office, and force the Qing government to legalize the opium trade (251).
• The British essentially demanded two things from China in the Treaty of Tianjin, the incorporation of China into the international trade regime, and its incorporation into the modern state system. These changes, however, would end the systems of protectionism and tribute that characterized contemporary Chinese thought (252).
• The Qing government agreed to the Treaty of Tianjin during conditions of intense civil war and threat of foreign intrusion. Facing the Taiping rebellion in the South and the Nian rebellion in the North, as well as the constant threat of Russian conquest, the Qing government considered the British and French demands minor (252-253).
• Despite the concession of direct, if infrequent, contact between the British government and Emperor Xianfeng, the relationship between Britain and China remained much more dynamic and important on the coast, where ad hoc solution were created for common problems. The rise of press gangs and slavers in the labor trade was a cause of concern, for which the British and Qing tried, semi-successfully, to limit the purchase of 'coolies' from designated establishments (255).
• Hostilities unexpectedly restarted in June 1859, when a British force tried to sail past the Dagu forts at the mouth of the Hai river, a request denied by the Qing garrison, as the Treaty of Tianjin had not yet been ratified. The Qing garrison won the battle and sunk four British ships, an unexpected victory that persuaded Emperor Xianfeng to reject the Treaty of Tianjin and demand a new treaty without indemnities, foreign presence in Beijing, or foreign travel in the interior (256-257).
• The Americans, who never demanded an indemnity, residency in Beijing, or rights to travel, were able to get their treaty ratified in August 1859 after traveled to Beijing via land and participating in the customs of tribute (257).
• The British and French sent another armed expedition to impose the terms of their original treaty on the Qing, this time with a massive force of French warships, British marines, and a collection of Triad-affiliated mercenaries. In August 1860, they landed a force to take the Dagu forts and began occupying Tianjin on 25 August (257).
• The Franco-British forces continued to move up the Hei river, refusing Qing offers to restart peace negotiations in Beijing that involved tributary procedure. The Franco-British command demanded an imperial audience to discuss peace terms, an offer refused despite troops closing in on Beijing. On 21 September 1860, the Emperor fled Beijing to safety beyond the Great Wall in northern Hebei (257).
• Following the flight of Emperor Xianfeng, Prince Gong was now left in change of negotiations with the French and British. He negotiated and signed the Beijing Convention, which agreed to all uncontested aspects of the Tianjin Treaty as well as indemnities and the concession of Kowloon peninsula to British rule (258).
• Emperor Xianfeng died in exile in northern Hebei in August 1861, leaving a coterie of princes and bureaucrats to government as regents of the new child Emperor Tongzhi. Upon his return to Beijing, Prince Gong had many of these regents murdered, taking control of the Qing government (259).
• The order of the joint French and British force in China had begun to breakdown by November 1860, all disputes between the Western powers was reflected in poor discipline among troops. British-French rivalries undermined logistics, while the Russians covertly provided military support to the Qing via a Orthodox church in Beijing. During the chaos within the military staff, soldiers looted and raped in the surrounding countryside. Most infamous was the purposefully burning of the summer place by British soldiers (258).
• "The major event of the late 1850s in China's foreign relations, [...] was the build-up of the Sino-foreign trading community. The volume and value of trade increased, even though erratically, in this period of warfare and instability, while personnel emerged on both sides capable of working together for common end" (259).
• The Western powers were at least somewhat involved in selling arms and materiel to the Taiping rebels (262).