The Business Negotiation Of Foreign Merchants’ Violation Of Treaties In The Late Qing Dynasty(1861-1911)

After the signing of the Treaty of Nanking,the ancient China began to enter the era of treaty.In this era,a new Treaty system was eventually built up by the unequal treaties after the Second Opium War.This new treaty system not only included the all possible types of privileges that foreign merchants had in China,but also contained some of the business restrictions which were imposed by the Qing Dynasty.The endless treaty privileges were the foreign merchants’ pursuit.To get more money and privileges urge the merchants to transgress the treaties.The restriction on foreign business was derived from the policy of Jimi,and later developed by the sovereignty consciousness.To deal with the contradictions that were inside and outside,the Qing Dynasty had to negotiate with the foreign countries.What they talked about was concerned with the identity of the foreign merchants,the business scope and the contraband trade.In the negotiation of breach of foreign status,to ban the foreign merchants be the merchant consuls and as the patron of the Chinese were difficult things for the Qing Dynasty.In order to deal with the unreasonable demands from the foreignministers and consuls,the Qing Dynasty was not only strive to use the treaties as the negotiating tool,but also need to change the strategies to adapt the different conditions.The business region of the foreign merchants was prescribed by the treaty.But the foreign investors in order to expand the reach of business,they broke the restriction that the merchants could only trade in the ports,and came into the mainland to open the shops secretly.On the basis of occurrence time,the contraband trade can divide into the peacetime trade and the wartime trade.In the peace time trade,the contraband was the items that were clearly recorded in the treaty,and the rice and the arms were the main categories.In the war time trade,because of the weak strength of nation,the Qing Dynasty was always lose in the contraband negotiation.Although the Qing government in the late Qing Dynasty on foreign business negotiations could not achieve the remarkable results,we also need to study the problem.We need to explore what the characteristics of the negotiations are,the means of them,and the influence of the treaties and public international law.And what’s more,the experiences of the business negotiations are also worth learning for people today.