The History of China - Special 1: To Qianlong, From George...

Episode Date: August 9, 2025

"Dear Emperor of China, will you be my friend? Check Yes or No..." 0:00:00 - Letter of Credence from King George III to Emperor Qianlong, 1793 CE 0:10:20 - Author's note 0:11:44 - Lord Macartney's Sixfold Proposals for the Improvement of Trade Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast. Summer is Tim's Ice Latte season. It's also hike season, pool season, picnic season, and yeah, I'm down season. So drink it up with Tim's ice lattes, now whipped for a smooth taste. Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. His most sacred majesty, George III, by the grace of God, King of Gris. Great Britain, France, and Ireland, sovereign of the seas, defender of the faith, and so forth. To the supreme emperor of China, Qianlong, worthy to live tens of thousands and tens of thousands

thousand years, send the greeting. The natural disposition of a great and benevolent sovereign, such as is your imperial majesty, whom providence has seated upon a throne for the good of mankind. is to watch over the peace and security of his dominions, and to take pain for disseminating happiness, virtue, and knowledge among his subjects, extending also to the same beneficence with all the peaceful arts, as far as he is able, to the whole human race. Impressed with such sentiments from the beginning of our reign

when we found our people engaged in war, we granted to our enemies, after obtaining victories over them in the four quarters of the world, the blessings of peace upon the most equitable conditions. Since that period, not satisfied with promoting the propensity of our own subjects in every respect, and beyond the example of any former times, we have taken various opportunities of fitting out ships and sending in some of the wisest and learned of our own people, for the discovery of distant and unknown regions, not for the purpose of conquest or of enlarging our dominions, which are already sufficiently extensive for all our wishes.

Not for the purpose of acquiring wealth or even of favoring the commerce of our subjects, but for the sake of increasing our knowledge of the habitable globe, of finding out the various productions of the earth, and for communicating the arts and comforts of life to those parts where they were hitherto little known. And we have since sent vessels with the animals and vegetables most useful to man, to islands and places where it appeared they had been wanting. We have been still more anxious to inquire into the arts and manners of countries where civilization has been perfected by the wise ordinances and virtuous examples of their sovereigns

through a long series of ages. And above all, our ardent wish had been to become acquainted with those celebrated institutions of your majesty's populace and extensive empire, which have carried its prosperity to such a height as to be able to. to be the admiration of all surrounding nations. And now that we have by prudence and justice avoided the calamities of war into which discord and ambition have plunged most of the other kingdoms of Europe, and that by engaging our allies in Hindustan to put an end to hostilities occasioned by the attack of an ambitious neighbor,

even when it was in our power to destroy him, we have the happiness of being at peace with all the world. No time can be so propitious for extending the bounds of friendship and benevolence, and for proposing to communicate and receive those benefits, which must result from an unreserved and amicable intercourse, between such great and civilized nations as China and Great Britain. Many of our subjects have also frequented for a long time past a remote part of Your Majesty's Dominion for the purpose of trade. no doubt the interchange of commodities between the nations distantly situated tends to their mutual convenience industry and wealth

as the blessings from which the great god of heaven has conferred upon various soils and climates are thus distributed on his creatures scattered over the surface of the earth but such an intercourse requires to be properly conducted so as that the newcomers may not infringe the laws and customs of the country they visit it, and that, on the other hand, they may be received on terms of hospitality and meet the justice and protection due to strangers. We are indeed equally desirous to restrain our subjects from doing evil, or even of showing an example in any foreign country, as we are that they should receive no injury in it. There is no method of affecting so good a purpose, but by the residence of a proper person authorized by us to regulate their conduct and to receive complaints against them, as well as any they might consider as having just cause to make ill-treatment toward them.

By such means, every misunderstanding may be prevented, every inconvenience removed, a firm and lasting friendship cemented, and a return of mutual good offices secured between our respective empires. All of these considerations have determined us, to dispute an ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to your court, and willing to make choice for this purpose of a person truly worthy of representing us and appearing before your august presence, we have fixed upon our right, trusty, and well-beloved cousin and counsellor, the right Honourable George Lord Viscount McCartney, Baron of Lissenour, and one of our most

Honourable Privy Council of our Kingdom of Great Britain. Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath and of the Most Ancient and Royal Order of the White Eagle, and Fellow of Our Royal Society of London for the Promotion of Natural Knowledge, a nobleman of High Rank and Quality of Great Virtue, Wisdom and Ability, who has filled many important offices in the state of trust and honour, and already worthy represented our person in an embassy to the court of Russia, and has governed with mildness, justice, and success several of our most considerable possessions in the eastern and western parts of the world, and appointed to the Government General of Bengal to be our ambassador

extraordinary and plenipotentiary to your imperial majesty with credentials under our great seal of our kingdoms and our sign manual, upon whom we entreat your majesty to grant a gracious reception, as well as a favorable attention to his representations. And in order to avoid every possibility of interruption in this amicable communication which we wish to establish and maintain with your sublime person in court, and which might happen after the departure of our said ambassador extraordinary, whose presence may be necessary to our affairs elsewhere, or in case of his death or occasion absence from your capital, we have appointed our trusty and well-beloved Sir George Staunton Bartholomew, honorary doctor of laws of our

University of Oxford, and fellow of our Royal Society of London for the promotion of natural knowledge, whom we have appointed our secretary of embassy under the direction of our ambassador as a gentleman of wisdom and knowledge, who hath already faithfully served us with fidelity and zeal as a member of our Honourable Council and Colonel of Militia in some of our dominions in the West Indies, and appointed by us our Attorney General in the same, and hath since exercised with ability and success the Office of Commissioner for treating and making peace with Tripu Sultan, one of the most considerable princes of Hindustan, to be also Minister of Plenipotentiary to your august person, with credentials likewise under our great seal, and for whom, in the case of the

death, departure, or occasional absence of our said ambassador extraordinary, we entreat in like manner your majesty's gracious reception and attention to his representations in our name. We rely on your Imperial Majesty's wisdom and justice and general benevolence to mankind so conspicuous in your long and happy reign that you will please allow our ambassador and representative at your court to have the opportunity of contemplating the example of your virtues and to obtain such information of your celebrated institutions as will enable him to enlighten our people on his return. He, on our part, being directed to give, as far as your majesty shall please to desire it,

a full and free communication of any art, science, or observation, either of use or curiosity, to which the industry, ingenuity, and experience of Europeans may have enabled them to acquire, and also that you will be pleased to allow any of our subjects frequenting the coasts of your dominions, and conducting themselves with propriety a secure residence there, and a fair access to your markets, under such laws and regulations as your majesty shall think right, and that their lives and properties shall be safe under your imperial protection, that one man shall not suffer for the crime of another in which he did not participate, and whose evasion from justice he did not assist,

but that every measure shall be taken on the part of your government, as our ambassador is instructed strictly to direct to be taken. on the part of our people, to seize and bring to condine punishment any of our subjects transgressing the laws or good order of your empire, or disturbing the peace and friendship subsisting between us. We have particularly instructed our ambassador to take every method in his power to mark our regard and friendly disposition to your imperial majesty, and it will give us the utmost satisfaction to learn that our wishes in that respect have been amply complied with and that we are brethren in sovereignty, so may a brotherly affection ever subsist

between us. May the Almighty have you in his holy protection, given at our court at St. James's in London and in the 32nd year of our reign. Impurator Augustisime, Vesta Bonus Frata et Amicus, Georgius Rex, Augustimo Principai, Cianlong, Signorum Supremo, Impuratory. Note from author Aubrey Singer. In the imperial collection of documents dealing with the McCartney mission, this edict exists in draft form, and, according to the memorandum attached to it, was dated 3rd August 1793. Therefore, it was in existence three days before McCartney set foot in China.

It was promulgated on the 23rd September of that year and translated into Latin on 3rd October. It was considerably toned down by the missionaries who translated it, as Kramer Bing rightly observes, quote, It is perhaps as well for subsequent Anglo-Chinese relations that neither McCartney nor the English government realized quite how condescending was the original Chinese version of the edict, end quote. Then, although creaking with pain, McCartney explained with consummate diplomatic skill the favors he had to ask, and in such a manner that they did not appear to be demands.

but merely to convey a sense of their propriety in themselves, unattended with the slightest inconvenience of any kind whatsoever to China. The six-fold proposals for the improvement of trade that should, he felt, seem reasonable and acceptable to the Chinese, comprised the details not contained in the letter from the king to the emperor, but extracted from his instructions. They were, quote, to allow British merchants to trade with Zhou Shan, Ning Bo, and Tianjin. To allow them to warehouse at Beijing for the sale of their goods, as the Russians had formerly.

To allow them some detached, unfortified island in the neighborhood of Zhou Shan, as a magazine for their unsold goods, and as a residence for their people to take care of them. To allow a similar privilege near Canton and some other trifling indulgences. to abolish the transit dues between Macau and Canton, or at least reduce them to the standards of 1782. To prohibit the exaction of any duties from the English merchants over and above those settled by the Emperor's Diploma, a copy of which is required to be given to them, as they have never yet been able to see it, for their unequivocal direction. Note, the Emperor's Diploma was a written list of the customs regulations, which, in spite of frequent requests from the merchant community in Canton,

had never been shown to them. He ended by assuring Hassan that imperial granting of these favors would be regarded by the king who had sent him as a strong indicator of benevolence and friendship. Moreover, that king's subjects would always endeavor to render themselves deserving of the emperor's favor and protection.

The French Revolution set Europe a blizzard. It was an age of enlightenment and progress, but also of tyranny and oppression. It was an age of glory and an age of tragedy. One man stood above it all. This was the Age of Napoleon. I'm Everett Rummage, host of the Age of Napoleon podcast. Join me as I examine the life and times of one of the most fascinating and enigmatic characters in modern history. Look for the Age of Napoleon wherever you find your podcasts.