Rosetta Stone Chinese v4 TOTALe - Level 1, 2 & 3 Set - Windows/Macintosh
° Amoy ° Bejing ° Guangzhou ° Fuzhou, Pagoda Island
° Canton ° Hong Kong ° Macau ° Shanghai
° Tientsin ° Yangzhou
Early in the 19th century, British merchants began smuggling opium into China in order to balance their purchases of tea for export to Britain. In 1839, China enforced its prohibitions on the importation of opium by destroying at Guangzhou (Canton) a large quantity of opium confiscated from British merchants. Great Britain, which had been looking to end China's restrictions on foreign trade, responded by sending gunboats to attack several Chinese coastal cities.
China, unable to withstand modern arms, was defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue (1843). These provided that the ports of Guangzhou, Jinmen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai should be open to British trade and residence; in addition Hong Kong was ceded to the British.
Within a few years other Western powers signed similar treaties with China and received commercial and residential privileges, and the Western domination of China's treaty ports began. In 1856 a second war broke out following an allegedly illegal Chinese search of a British-registered ship, the Arrow, in Guangzhou. British and French troops took Guangzhou and Tianjin and compelled the Chinese to accept the treaties of Tianjin (1858), to which France, Russia, and the United States were also party. China agreed to open 11 more ports, permit foreign legations in Beijing, sanction Christian missionary activity, and legalize the import of opium. China's subsequent attempt to block the entry of diplomats into Beijing as well as Britain's determination to enforce the new treaty terms led to a renewal of the war in 1859.
London and China Telegraph, May 15, 1876
London, United Kingdom
COCHIN CHINA.
SAIGON.
The Independant de Saigon supplies the following particulars of the piratical seizure of the steamer Pelican when on her voyage between Mytho and Vinh-Long:
The Pelican is a regular trader between Cholon and Pnumpenh, and belongs to a rich Chinese firm in Cholon. On the morning of the 24th March she left Cholon for Pnumpenh with a crew of ten men, and twenty passengers,—all Chinese. All went well till the middle of the first night, when four of the passengers, armed with hatchets and knives, attacked the man at the helm and threw him overboard; they then rushed into the cabin, where the master and a wealthy Chinese merchant of Sadee were sleeping, and killed them. It is said that one of the firemen was in collusion with the four assassins, and that he despatched the first fireman, who was in charge of the engine. This is the more likely, because without his assistance the four pirates could not have managed the engine. The passengers were next attacked as they lay asleep on deck, and ten of them, several of whom were wounded, were thrown overboard, but succeeded in gaining land. The rest of the crew and passengers are missing, except two bodies, which have been found in the river. One of the corpses was headless and unrecognisable,—the other was that of the Sadec merchant. The pirates then plundered the vessel and scuttled her at the mouth of the river Mytho. The Pelican had a good deal of cargo on board, and $20,000 to $25,000 worth of Chinese silver and gold leaf. Immediately on receipt of the news in Saigon the Government despatched two gunboats to the scene of the tragedy, and there are some hopes entertained of the capture of the pirates and the recovery of their booty. The owners of the Pelican have offered a reward of $500 for any information that may lead to their discovery.
London and China Telegraph, May 22, 1876
London, United Kingdom
COCHIN CHINA.
SAIGON
Three of the thirteen Chinese who were missing after the piratical attack on the steamer Pelican have been found, thus reducing the number to ten; but it is feared that the whole of the remainder have been either killed or drowned. It is thought that the pirates must have hidden themselves in the swamps and brushwood near the place where the Pelican was scuttled, and that some of them may probably be captured. The German steamer Madagascar, which arrived at Saigon on the 20th March, in a damaged state, appears to have narrowly escaped being totally lost. The Madagascar left Bangkok, with a full cargo of rice, for Hong Kong, and was driven out of her course by currents and thrown on the Britto Banks, about fifty miles from Cape St. James, on the 19th March. The position of the steamer becoming critical, the captain was obliged, in order to lighten the ship, to throw overboard 10,000 piculs of rice, this operation occupying about eighteen hours, and then the ship floated off from the bank. The captain steered for the Cape, the ship making much water, and it was deemed necessary to run her ashore inside the bay to prevent her going down. The leak was then stopped, and the Madagascar was steered for Saigon, the pumps working constantly. Fortunately the dock was "ready to receive her when she arrived there, for in a few moments more she would infallibly have sunk. The bank on which the Madagascar stranded is the same one where a similar accident happened to the Portuguese corvette Duque de Pamella in 1873.
The port of Quiuhon was opened to foreign commerce on the 1st November last, under the conditions stipulated in the treaty of 15th March, 1874. The Government rate for Treasury payments has been reduced from f .5.55 to f.5.35 per dollar. Hospital charges have undergone some alteration, and officers are now received at f.9, and seamen at f.7 per diem. Cost of burial from hospital is f.20. Postal rates to Europe and America have been very much reduced, being now 40c. per 15 grammes, while the rate to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Chinese ports remains at 48c. The prompt measures taken in apprehending the pirates engaged in the Pelican affair, and their subsequent speedy execution, has apparently rid the country of an organised gang that bade fair to cause considerable trouble.
AMOY (Xiamen Island)
London and China Telegraph, London, United Kingdom
October 21, 1890
MISCELLANEOUS.
In a recent issue we gave, an account of the execution of eleven pirates at Amoy. The comrades of the men have taken a ghastly revenge, having seized a trading junk and murdered in cold blood the whole of the crew of thirty-six men. The Amoy correspondent of the North China Daily News, in an account of the execution of the pirates, says : — It is rumoured that about a hundred pirates came down to this execution to try and effect a rescue, but the large number of troops present effectually over-awed them. A curious custom prevails here ; the executioners, when they have done their work, go with their swords reeking with human gore and demand a squeeze at each of the butcher's shops, and, in the event of their not getting one smear the meat exposed for sale with the hot blood from the swords.
Canton
Distance between San Francisco and Canton: 6,073 Nautical MilesHong Kong
Distance between San Francisco and Hong Kong: 7,262 Nautical Miles.
From as early as 200 BC Chinese junks sailed to the Malay Peninsula and through the Strait of Malacca. There they met and traded with the Indonesian people and with merchants from east India. During the time of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.), Chinese products, such as silk reached the Roman Empire. Nabataean merchants not only traded in silk, but began to manufacture silk products in both Damascus and Gaza, known as Damask and Gauze silk products. Some historians have speculated that the rise in international trade during the period of 200 BC to 200 AD helped the Asian and Arabian civilizations rise to great heights, and acquire great wealth.
When the British started using the excellent harbor on the northern side of Hong Kong Island in the early 1840s, they found more than 3,000 inhabitants in villages and 2,000 fishermen living in their boats in the harbor. The British started referring to the small, hilly, rocky island sheltering the harbor as "Hong Kong," which comes from a local Cantonese dialect and means "fragrant harbor."
The British colony of Hong Kong was born from the clash between two great empires. The ostensible reason for the outbreak of war between China and Great Britain in 1839 was opium, which the British and other Western traders were importing illegally into China.
Captain Charles Elliot, Royal Navy, arrived in Hong Kong on January 25, 1841 and planted the Union flag, proclaiming Hong Kong as a colony for the United Kingdom.
In 1841, the Queen of England pronounced dominion over Hong Kong Island and promised them:
- Protection against all enemies;
- Freedom to practice their own religion;
- Government according to Chinese laws and customs by village elders, subject to the control of a British magistrate;
- Exemption from the payment of taxes to the British Government.
Britain acquired Hong Kong Island under the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) in 1842 at the end of its first war with China. Elliot invited merchants to trade in Hong Kong and he organized the first government land sales. Land was parceled into marine lots (by the sea), town lots (certain areas inland) and suburban lots (all remaining). Some areas were designed as Chinese bazaars and some were reserved for the army and the navy.
The conflict continued, however, because of two fundamentally different concepts of international relations and trade. In the face of Western pressures to open China to trade, the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) clung to the old tributary system and struggled to keep the West at bay. Resenting the Qing dynasty's disdain of foreigners, Britain and other Western traders demanded equal treatment and commercial access to the Chinese market.
By 1844, the population of Hong Kong Island was 20,000, with an influx of Chinese immigrants from the Chinese mainland seeking work.
Maintaining law and order in a community of buccaneers, entrepreneurs and scoundrels was a major problem. Flogging held no terror for half-starved jailbirds from Canton, and imprisonment in the Hong Kong jail was a welcome respite for some. By 1845, a police force was formed of Europeans, Indians and Chinese. But it was inept as crime and fever raged through the Island. In the summer of 1843, 440 Europeans troops died and many people were seriously ill.
The commercial development of Hong Kong's fine natural harbor, which had attracted the British in the first place, began slowly, and Hong Kong lagged behind Shanghai as a port. With the discovery of gold in California in 1849, however, Hong Kong became a center for Chinese emigration from Guangdong Province to the United States, helping to build Hong Kong's economy, as many of the Chinese who went to California returned with their new-found riches.
In 1850 when a new emperor assumed the throne in Beijing, and it became clear the treaties were not being observed. Another war, fought between 1856 and 1860, resulted in Britain's obtaining the tip of the Kowloon Peninsula (on the mainland across the harbor from Hong Kong Island) and Stonecutters Island.
In the ten years to 1853, the population nearly doubled, reaching over 39,000 and by 1859 the population had reached more than 86,000. The huge influx of Chinese was caused partly by the Taiping Rebellion on the mainland and partly by Hong Kong's growing prosperity. To a limited extent, immigration was offset by Chinese emigration to North America and Australia with the gold rushes of 1849 and 1851. Emigration also resulted from the illegal trade in coolie labor for the West Indies.
Pirates preying on shipping in Hong Kong waters were a constant problem, and not all were Chinese. A famous English renegade, William Fenton, was eventually brought to trial in 1851, sentenced to three year's hard labor, then deported. An American pirate, Eli Boggs, was tried for murder and piracy in 1857 and deported.
During these trade development years, Chinese authorities were unable to prevent to control the trade of opium, which lay in the hands of the English, who attempted to create an opium monopoly in Hong Kong. The monopoly was unsatisfactory, so licenses were sold -- at $30 a month -- to sell raw opium. By 1858, with the Treaty of Tientsin, which legalized opium sales in China, the drug was also taxed by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs.
During the 1850s and 1860s, opium was listed as part and parcel of the cargo being brought into San Francisco and sold through it's auction houses through advertisements in the Daily Alta California. Despite the formation in 1874 of the Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade in England, it was not until 1891 that the first serious attempt was made to suppress opium in Hong Kong. But it was 1909 when the export from Hong Kong of prepared opium was forbidden to any country which prohibited its import. However, use of opium remained legal in Hong Kong until the second world war.
Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited was established in 1865 to finance the growing trade between Europe, India and China. The inspiration behind the founding of the bank was Thomas Sutherland, a Scot who was then working for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. He realised that there was considerable demand for local banking facilities in Hong Kong and on the China coast and he helped to establish the bank which opened in Hong Kong in March 1865 and in Shanghai a month later. Soon after its formation the bank opened agencies and branches around the world. Although that network reached as far as Europe and North America, the emphasis was on building up representation in China and the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. In Japan, where a branch was established in 1866, the bank acted as adviser to the government on banking and currency. In 1888, it was the first bank to be established in Thailand, where it printed the country’s first banknotes. From the outset trade finance was a strong feature of the local and international business of the bank, an expertise that has been recognised throughout its history. Bullion, exchange, merchant banking and note issuing also played an important part. By the 1880s, the bank was acting as banker to the Hong Kong government and also participated in the management of British government accounts in China, Japan, Penang and Singapore. In 1874 the bank handled China’s first public loan and thereafter issued most of China’s public loans. By the end of the century, after a strong period of growth and success under the leadership of Thomas Jackson (chief manager for most of that period from 1876 to 1902), the bank was the foremost financial institution in Asia.
By the last quarter of the 19th century, Hong Kong had developed as a British Crown Colony. The 1880s and 1890s were the heyday of colonialism in Asia, and colonial society in Hong Kong reflected the temper of the times. During this period, Hong Kong became an increasingly popular destination for western travelers in Asia. In 1879 Ulysses S. Grant visited Hong Kong during his two-year voyage around the world. Grant's official welcome united the former commander of the Union army with Col. John Mosby, the former Confederate guerrilla leader (who was representing the United States in Hong Kong), and Hong Kong Gov. Sir John Pope-Hennessy, in full imperial regalia. Hong Kong's elite society loved it.
January 29, 1896, Echo
London, United Kingdom
IMPERIAL PORCELAIN STOLEN
A considerable robbery of some priceless porcelain from the Imperial Palace at Pekin has recently come to light. It is alleged that over 300 large and small pieces of green jade, peach blow, sang de boeuf, rose pink egg shell, black hawthorn, and other rarities are missing. The principal curio shops in Pekin are said to have been closed, and their owners arrested, while a number of pieces have been recovered from foreign collectors at Tientsin and Pekin. A well-known Pekin dealer who has been in Shanghai for about a month has left for the north, overland, at the summons of the authorities, to answer for his subordinates. Oue execution is already reported.
