Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
A short history of
Shanghai
S
hanghai's history as a metropolis is distinct from that of the nation as
a whole, as the machinations of thousands of years of imperial dynas-
ties have not much influenced its destiny. In fact, it's a young city (for
China) whose story is dominated by trade rather than politics, by
international forces as much as domestic ones.
The port on the Yangzi
Contrary to Western interpretations, Shanghai's history did not begin with the
founding of the foreign concessions. Located at the head of the Ya n gzi River ,
Shanghai grew from a fishing village (Shanghai simply means “on the sea”) into
a major commercial port during the Song dynasty. B y the time of the Qing
dynasty, huge mercantile guilds , dealing in lucrative local products - silk,
cotton, and tea - often organized by trade and bearing superficial resemblance
to their Dutch counterparts, had established economic and, to some extent,
political control of the city. The Yangzi basin reaches half of China, and this
formidable route to the interior was bolstered by almost a million kilometres of
canals - vital trade routes in a country with very few roads. It was this unprec-
edented accessibility, noted by its first foreign visitor, Hugh Lindsay of the
British East India Company, that was to prove so alluring to the foreign powers,
and set the city of down its unique, tempestuous path. The story of foreign
intervention in China began in morally murky waters (and, some would say,
remained there): it started with a dispute over drugs and money.
Ocean barbarians
The Qing dynasty , established in 1644, followed the pattern of China's long and
repetitive history; a rebellion, in this case by the Manchus from the north, over-
threw the emperor and established a new dynasty which ran, as usual, on a feudal,
Confucian social model - everyone from peasant to emperor knew their place in
a rigid hierarchy. By the eighteenth century the Qing had lost their early vigour
and grown conservative and decadent, the out-of-touch royal court embroiled in
intrigue. As with all previous dynasties, they were little troubled by outsiders. For
thousands of years, China had remained alone and aloof, isolated from the rest of
the world; t he only foreigners in the Chinese experience were nomadic tribes-
men at the fringes of the empire - savages to be treated with disdain.
So when the British East India Company arrived in the early seventeenth
century the Manchu officials were not much interested. T The “ocean barbarians”
began trading in Canton in the far south, China's only open port - they sold
English textiles to India, took Indian cotton to China, and bought Chinese tea,
porcelain and silk. The Chinese wanted no British manufacturing in return,
only silver.
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