SocietyEast Asia
The Macartney embassy
The British ask for trade and are refused
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The letter has become a symbol of Chinese self-sufficiency, but read in context the answer was rational: China did have an enormous trade surplus, and the British paid in silver because they had nothing the Chinese wanted. The solution the British found to that deficit was opium.
For children
A British delegation travelled to China to ask for free trade and an embassy. The emperor replied that China possessed everything it needed and lacked nothing from abroad. Fifty years later the British returned with gunboats.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org