KARL MARX
ARTICLES ON THE CHINA WAR
INDEX
1) REVOLUTION IN CHINA AND IN EUROPE
2) THE CASE OF THE LORCHA ARROW
3) PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES ON THE CHINESE HOSTILITIES
4) DEFEAT OF THE PALMERSTON MINISTRY
5) RUSSIA AND CHINA
6) WHOSE ATROCITIES?
7) SOME OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE
8) PERSIA-CHINA
9) [TRADE OR OPIUM?]
10) FREE TRADE AND MONOPOLY
11) TRADE AND THE TREATY
12) THE BRITISH AND CHINESE TREATY
13) THE NEW CHINESE WAR
14) ANOTHER CIVILIZATION WAR
15) THE NEW CHINESE WAR
16) TRADE WITH CHINA
17) ENGLISH POLITICS
REVOLUTION IN CHINA AND IN EUROPE
New York Daily Tribune
June 14, 1853
by
KARL MARX
A most profound yet fantastic speculator on the principles which govern
the movements of Humanity was wont to extol as one of the ruling
secrets of nature what he called the law of the contact of extremes.
The homely proverb that "extremes meet" was, in his view, a grand and
potent truth in every sphere of life; an axiom with which the
philosopher could as little dispense as the astronomer with the laws of
Kepler or the great discovery of Newton.
Whether the "contact of extremes" be such a universal principle or not,
a striking illustration of it may be seen in the effect the Chinese
revolution seems likely to exercise upon the civilized world. It may
seem a very strange, and a very paradoxical assertion that the next
uprising of the people of Europe, and their next movement for
republican freedom and economy of Government, may depend more probably
on what is now passing in the Celestial Empire -- the very opposite of
Europe-than on any other political cause that now exists -- more even
than on the menaces of Russia and the consequent likelihood of a
general European war. But yet it is no paradox, as all may understand
by attentively considering the circumstances of the case.
Whatever be the social causes, and whatever religious, dynastic, or
national shape they may assume, that have brought about the chronic
rebellions subsisting in China for about ten years past, and now
gathered together in one formidable revolution the occasion of this
outbreak has unquestionably been afforded by the English cannon forcing
upon China that soporific drug called opium. Before the British arms
the authority of the Manchu dynasty fell to pieces; the superstitious
faith in the eternity of the Celestial Empire broke down; the barbarous
and hermetic, isolation from the civilized world was infringed; and an
opening was made for that intercourse which has since proceeded so
rapidly under the golden attractions of California and Australia. At
the same time the silver coin of the Empire, its lifeblood, began to be
drained away to the British East Indies.
Up to 1830, the balance of trade being continually in favour of the
Chinese, there existed an uninterrupted importation of silver from
India, Britain And the United States into China. Since 1833, and
especially since 1840, the export of silver from China to India has
become almost exhausting for the Celestial Empire. Hence the strong
decrees of the Emperor against the opium trade, responded to by still
stronger resistance to his measures. Besides this immediate economical
consequence, the bribery connected with opium smuggling has entirely
demoralized the Chinese State officers in the Southern provinces. just
as the Emperor was wont to be considered the father of all China, so
his officers were looked upon as sustaining the paternal relation to
their respective districts. But this patriarchal authority, the only
moral link embracing the vast machinery of the State, has gradually
been corroded by the corruption of those officers, who have made great
gains by conniving at opium smuggling. This has occurred principally
in the same Southern provinces where the rebellion commenced. It is
almost needless to observe that, in the same measure in which opium has
obtained the sovereignty over the Chinese, the Emperor and his staff of
pedantic mandarins have become dispossessed of their own sovereignty.
It would seem as though history had first to make this whole people
drunk before it could rouse them out of their hereditary stupidity.
Though scarcely existing in former times, the import of English
cottons, and to a small extent of English woollens, has rapidly risen
since 1833, the epoch when the monopoly of trade with China was
transferred from the East India Company to Private commerce, and on a
much greater scale since 1840, the epoch when other nations, and
especially our own, also obtained a share in the Chinese trade. This
introduction of foreign manufactures has had a similar effect on the
native industry to that which it formerly had on Asia Minor, Persia and
India. In China the spinners and weavers have suffered greatly under
this foreign competition, and the community has become unsettled in
proportion.
The tribute to be paid to England after the unfortunate war of 1840,
the great unproductive consumption of opium, the drain of the precious
metals by this trade, the destructive influence of foreign competition
on native manufactures, the demoralized condition of the public
administration, produced two things: the old taxation became more
burdensome and harassing, and new taxation was added to the old. Thus
in a decree of the Emperor, dated Peking, Jan 5 1853, we find orders
given to the viceroys and governors of the southern provinces of
Wuchang and Hanyang to remit and defer the payment of taxes, and
especially not in any case to exact more than the regular amount; for
otherwise, says the decree, "how will the poor people be able to bear
it?" And "Thus, perhaps," continues the Emperor, "will my people, in a
period of general hardship and distress, be exempted from the evils of
being pursued and worried by the tax-gatherer." Such language as this,
and such concessions we remember to have he ard from Austria, the China
of Germany, in 1848.
All these dissolving agencies acting together on the finances, the
morals, the industry, and political structure of China, received their
full development under the English cannon in 1840, which broke down the
authority of the Emperor, and forced the Celestial Empire into contact
with the terrestrial world. Complete isolation was the prime condition
of the preservation of Old China. That isolation having come to a
violent end by the medium of England, dissolution must follow as surely
as that of any mummy carefully preserved in a hermetically sealed
coffin, whenever it is brought into contact with the open air. Now,
England having brought about the revolution of China, the question is
how that revolution will in time react on England, and through England
on Europe. This question is not difficult of solution.
The attention of our readers has often been called to the unparalleled
growth of British manufactures since 1850. Amid the most surprising
prosperity, it has not been difficult to point out the clear symptoms
of an approaching industrial crisis. Notwithstanding California and
Australia, notwithstanding the immense and unprecedented emigration,
there must ever, without any particular accident, in due time arrive a
moment when the extension of the markets is unable to keep pace with
the extension of British manufactures, and this disproportion must
bring about a new crisis with the same certainty as it has done in the
past. But, if one of the great markets suddenly becomes contracted,
the arrival of the crisis is necessarily accelerated thereby. Now, the
Chinese rebellion must, for the time being, have precisely this effect
upon England. The necessity for opening new markets, or for extending
the old ones, was one of the principle causes of the reduction of the
British tea-duties, as, with an increased importation of tea, an
increased exportation of manufactures to China was expected to take
place. Now, the value of the annual exports from the United Kingdom to
China amounted, before the repeal in 1834 of the trading monopoly
possessed by the East India Company, to only £600,000; in 1836, it
reached the sum of £1,326,388; in 1845, it had risen to £2,394,827; in
1852 it amounted to about £3,000,000. The quantity of tea imported
from China did not exceed, in 1793, 16,167,331 lbs.; but in 1845, it
amounted to 50,714,657 lbs.; in 1846, to 57,584,561 lbs.; it is now
above 60,000,000 lbs.
The tea crop of the last season will not prove short, as shown already
by the export lists from Shanghai, of 2,000,000 lbs. above the
preceding year. This excess is to be accounted for by two
circumstances. On one hand, the state of the market at the close of
1851 was much depressed, and the large surplus stock left has been
thrown into the export of 1852. On the other hand, the recent accounts
of the altered British legislation with regard to imports of tea,
reaching China, have brought forward all the available teas to a ready
market, at greatly enhanced prices. But with respect to the ...
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