Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Poem by the late Mr Qin Esheng
- Foreword by Professor Wang Gungwu
- Foreword by Professor C. A. Bayly
- Preface
- Part I The confusion of imperialism
- Part II The pretext for imperialism
- Part III The personalities of imperialism
- Part IV The rhetoric of imperialism
- Part V The mechanics of imperialism
- Part VI The economics of imperialism
- 14 Anglo-Chinese trade: The Chinese should buy more
- 15 China's maritime trade: The Chinese could buy more
- 16 The problem of India: The Chinese should and could buy more
- 17 The balance sheet: The Chinese are now buying more
- Part VII The dynamics of imperialism
- Chronology of major events
- Word list
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
16 - The problem of India: The Chinese should and could buy more
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Poem by the late Mr Qin Esheng
- Foreword by Professor Wang Gungwu
- Foreword by Professor C. A. Bayly
- Preface
- Part I The confusion of imperialism
- Part II The pretext for imperialism
- Part III The personalities of imperialism
- Part IV The rhetoric of imperialism
- Part V The mechanics of imperialism
- Part VI The economics of imperialism
- 14 Anglo-Chinese trade: The Chinese should buy more
- 15 China's maritime trade: The Chinese could buy more
- 16 The problem of India: The Chinese should and could buy more
- 17 The balance sheet: The Chinese are now buying more
- Part VII The dynamics of imperialism
- Chronology of major events
- Word list
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
It has been noted that British policy makers thought that the Chinese should (Chapter 14) and could (Chapter 15) buy more British manufactures. This chapter shows that their perceptions of the pertinent statistics led them to believe that the Chinese could do so while at least maintaining the existing level of the purchase of opium from India. It attempts to evaluate further aspects of free-trade imperialism and other pertinent theories, exploring still further the origins of the Arrow War.
I. A debt-ridden India
It is often said that India was a tremendous asset to the British Empire. In fact, for the period under review India was a heavy liability.
One problem was that India, administered by the British East India Company, had a net revenue which often fell short of expenses. For example, the company was in the red for four out of the seven years immediately before the Arrow War began in earnest (see Table 16.1, column 2). Even during the three years when the company had a surplus (see Table 16.1, column 1), it was far less than the annual deficit in the other years. Normally, loans are raised only when revenues are insufficient to meet expenditures. But Table 16.1, column 3, shows that whether the company was in the black or the red, it continued to borrow money both in England and in India. Why?
The answer is that these loans were related to the extension of British rule over more and more of the Indian subcontinent.
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- Information
- Deadly DreamsOpium and the Arrow War (1856–1860) in China, pp. 386 - 433Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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