In 1841, British government claimed that ‘Chinese traders were invited to trade and stay in Hong Kong where they received full protection from Britain. And Hong Kong being on the shores of Chinese Empire, neither will there be any charges on imports and exports to the British government.’ (Chiu, 1973)

 

At that time, Hong Kong was still a barren island with a few mat-sheds for fishermen. Under British governance, Hong Kong was stabilized and developed steadily. Hong Kong’s population raised enormously, from 5650 in 1841 to over 85000 in 1859. (Courtauld & Holdsworth, 1997) 

She had become the center of a wide-ranging overseas Chinese trading network, dominated by the prosperous Hong Kong business elite under British colonial protection. Refering to Bard (1993), there was a growth of the trade in 1845, there were 672 vessels of 226998 tons arrived the port and in 1850, 884 vessels of 299009 tons arrived the port.

 

Trading kept increasing after cede of Kowloon Peninsula to Britain. Population rose to 1.6 millions in 1881. Numerous merchants had set up their headquarters in Hong Kong, for example, Jardine, Matheson and Company, in Cantonese Yee Wo, was the first company to build up warehouses and offices in Hong Kong and it is going to be explained. These merchants helped a lot with Hong Kong’s trading.

 

In 1870, 4791 foreign vessels of 26 millions tons arrived Hong Kong. In 1881, 3200 foreign vessels entered Hong Kong of over 30millions tons. Hong Kong’s entrepot developed well and brought prosperous to Hong Kong. In 1891, 8707 vessels entered Hong Kong of 102 millions tons, while 70% of them were British vessels. (Chiu, 1973)

 

The year 1895 was a turning point in Sino-Foreign relations.  In 1894-1895, the First Sino-Japanese War broke out and China was defeated in the War.  The Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) was concluded between the two countries.  Taiwan, Liaodong, and the Penghu Islands were ceded to Japan.  This was the first time in the history of the Qing Dynasty that China had ceded provinces to a country.  Furthermore, Japan was allowed to build factories in treaty ports, implying that its products could be exempted from tariffs, rendering them more competitive than western products as their cost of production became less.  In addition, Fujian was made a Japanese sphere of influence.  Western powers were alarmed and they began to “scramble for concessions” in China.  Manchuria and Mongolia became Russian spheres of influence, Shandong came under the Germans, Guangdong and Guangxi came under the French, and the Yangtze came under the British.

 

Evidently, China had experienced a revival of foreign imperialism after the Sino-Japanese War, and tremendous changes in Sino-foreign relations, especially the turning of its coastal areas into semi-colonies and rapid increase of Sino-foreign trade.  As such changes also interrupted the growth of China trade at Hong Kong, our study therefore will focus on the unique position of Hong Kong as a colony in the China trade since its early founding years up to the year 1895.

 

Therefore, we would like to choose the ending year of our study to be 1896, which was before drop afterwards and thus we can focus on early development and the foundation on Hong Kong trade.       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why choosing the period 1841 - 1895?