Guest
Contact between Europe and China goes back to at least the time of the Roman Empire. For much of history, though, such contact was quite tenuous and infrequent. Marco Polo’s visit in the 13 th century and the reports of missionaries did little to engender clear knowledge about China in the West. In the 16 th century, as Europeans began to explore and participate more fully in the global economy, information began to improve, but contacts remained marginal for both sides. With the Industrial Revolution and the rise of free-trade ideas in the West, a new age opened. For centuries, the economic relationship between Europe and China was based on Europeans buying Chinese goods with silver, much of it originating in the mines of Spanish America. By the end of the 18 th century, the British, in particular, were eager to open broader trading relations and were desperate to find a commodity other than silver that they could trade for China’s superior goods.
