produces are absolute necessities to European nations and to
yourselves," the limited trade hitherto permitted at Canton is to
continue.

He would have shown less favour to Lord Macartney, but "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." He concludes with the injunction:
"Tremblingly obey and show no negligence!"

What I want to suggest is that no one understands China until this
document has ceased to seem absurd. The Romans claimed to rule the
world, and what lay outside their Empire was to them of no account. The
Empire of Chien Lung was more extensive, with probably a larger
population; it had risen to greatness at the same time as Rome, and had
not fallen, but invariably defeated all its enemies, either by war or by
absorption. Its neighbours were comparatively barbarous, except the
Japanese, who acquired their civilization by slavish imitation of China.
The view of Chien Lung was no more absurd than that of Alexander the
Great, sighing for new worlds to conquer when he had never even heard of
China, where Confucius had been dead already for a hundred and fifty
years. Nor was he mistaken as regards trade: China produces everything
needed for the happiness of its inhabitants, and we have forced trade
upon them solely for our benefit, giving them in exchange only things
which they would do better without.

Unfortunately for China, its culture was deficient in one respect,
namely science. In art and literature, in manners and customs, it was at
least the equal of Europe; at the time of the Renaissance, Europe would
not have been in any way the superior of the Celestial Empire. There is