Today it often seems as if all China wants to buy from the west is dollars. While the west wants everything China can make. It isn’t a new problem.

The following was taken from Bubbles and Wisdom, a new book co written by Michael Baxter, the editor of Investment and Business News.

When the British king went by the name of George III, all China seemed to want from Britain was Georgian silver. Britain, on the other hand, wanted an awful lot that China produced. The Georgians tried their best. In 1793 a trade delegation was sent to China in an attempt to petition the Chinese emperor for the establishment of a trading port. The Chinese Manchurian emperor, Qianlong, sent this reply to the British monarch:

“Yesterday your ambassador petitioned my ministers to memorialize me regarding your trade with China, but his proposal is not consistent with our dynastic usage and cannot be entertained. … Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders. There was, therefore, no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce. … Nevertheless, I do not forget the lonely remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by intervening wastes of sea, nor do I overlook your excusable ignorance of the usages of Our Celestial Empire. I have consequently commanded my ministers to enlighten your ambassador on the subject, and have ordered the departure of the mission.”

It is perhaps no surprise the British king went mad some time later.

Britain did eventually find a product the Chinese wanted: opium. These days of course, countries that export drugs are considered to be rogue states – back then it was a legitimate form of trade, at least that’s how Britain saw it. The Chinese emperor was not so thrilled by the prospect of importing opium. The result was the Opium Wars. Incidentally, one of Britain’s rewards for her victory in these wars was the possession of that territory we call Hong Kong.

It is tempting to conclude that history hasn’t changed, that the West still has the same problem it always used to selling to China, but it would be the wrong conclusion. It may have taken a near total failure in the Chinese system, but today Western ideas permeate modern China.