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Questions Refer to the Passage Below

question 40

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Questions refer to the passage below.
The following is the response given by Chinese emperor Qianlong following the first British envoy to China, known as the Macartney Embassy.
"As to your entreaty to send one of your nationals to be accredited to my Celestial Court and to be in control of your country's trade with China, this request is contrary to all usage of my dynasty and cannot possibly be entertained. It is true that Europeans, in the service of the dynasty, have been permitted to live at Peking, but they are compelled to adopt Chinese dress, they are strictly confined to their own precincts and are never permitted to return home. You are presumably familiar with our dynastic regulations. Your proposed Envoy to my Court could not be placed in a position similar to that of European officials in Peking who are forbidden to leave China, nor could he, on the other hand, be allowed liberty of movement and the privilege of corresponding with his own country; so that you would gain nothing by his residence in our midst.
It may be, O King, that the above proposals have been wantonly made by your Ambassador on his own responsibility, or peradventure you yourself are ignorant of our dynastic regulations and had no intention of transgressing them when you expressed these wild ideas and hopes. . . . If, after the receipt of this explicit decree, you lightly give ear to the representations of your subordinates and allow your barbarian merchants to proceed to Chêkiang and Tientsin, with the object of landing and trading there, the ordinances of my Celestial Empire are strict in the extreme, and the local officials, both civil and military, are bound reverently to obey the law of the land. Should your vessels touch the shore, your merchants will assuredly never be permitted to land or to reside there but will be subject to instant expulsion. In that event your barbarian merchants will have had a long journey for nothing. Do not say that you were not warned in due time! Tremblingly obey and show no negligence! . . ."
Emperor Qianlong: Letter to George III, 1793
-How does this document represent continuity in Chinese ways of thinking about their place in the world?


Definitions:

MPs

Members of Parliament, individuals elected to represent constituencies in the legislative body of a parliamentary government.

Wage Rate

The standard amount of compensation paid to employees per unit of time worked, such as an hour or a year.

Firms

Businesses or companies that produce goods or provide services in exchange for monetary profit.

Hired Workers

Individuals employed to perform services or labor for compensation under the direction of an employer.

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