During the Qianlong period, the seeds of western capitalism gradually extended to the Qing Dynasty. At that time, although the Qing Dynasty opened ports to trade with foreign businessmen, many foreign businessmen colluded with China profiteers to do something illegal and profitable, so Qianlong closed three ports, Xiamen, Quanzhou and Ningbo, leaving only Guangzhou for foreign trade. He also ordered his men to formulate the "Regulations on the Prevention of Foreign Countries" to prohibit foreign businessmen from spending the winter in Guangzhou. Foreign businessmen must accept the inspection of China Merchants Bureau; Prohibit foreign businessmen from hiring servants from China; Foreign businessmen are not allowed to hire people to deliver messages; Foreign businessmen are not allowed to enter and leave Guangzhou freely.
It also stipulates that many goods cannot go abroad, and foreigners coming to China are guaranteed by the Insurance Bureau. Later, people often said that "closing the country to the outside world" also refers to these laws and measures promulgated by Emperor Qianlong. At that time, Britain's trade with China was the largest and dominated. Later, in the name of Emperor Long's birthday, the British king sent Ma Gorni to China, bringing gifts such as astronomy, geographical instruments, clocks, images, weapons, music and utensils. However, some cultural conflicts occurred later, and Qianlong asked the British envoys to perform the "three kneeling and nine knocking" ceremony, but Ma Gorni and others thought it was not in line with British etiquette and refused to accept it. Gan Long thought the British ambassador was "arrogant" and finally reached a compromise. Xu Ying knelt down and bowed.
On August 10th of the lunar calendar, the British ambassador presented a watch and a gift to Emperor Qianlong. Ganlong also gave a gift to the king of England. Later, the British ambassador called for expanding trade, increasing trading ports, allowing British people to live in Guangzhou, allowing goods to be stored on the island and allowing missionaries to preach in various provinces. In order to safeguard China's * * * and dignity, Qianlong flatly rejected the British request, but the British envoy failed. In the 18th year of Qianlong (1753) and the 60th year of Qianlong (1795), Portugal and the Netherlands sent envoys to visit. Qianlong was quite friendly to envoys, but said nothing about trade. Sensitive Qianlong was very cautious when dealing with foreign colonists. However, regardless of his achievements, the descendants of Aisinggioro seem to be very interested in the "literary inquisition", so this passionate emperor can't avoid customs during his reign. He carried out the literary inquisition, unexpectedly taking looting of property and extermination of life as a common practice, and created more than 130 literary inquisitions, accounting for 80% of the whole literary inquisition in Qing Dynasty.
In this amazing number, 47 criminals were sentenced to death, but the death penalty in the literary prison was different. Once implemented, it means the year of death, the body is slaughtered, and/kloc-male relatives over 0/5 years old sit down and behead. Although many of them are catching shadows, Emperor Qianlong still enjoys it. In addition, Qianlong has a series of policies to win over Han intellectuals. During the Qianlong period, celebrities and scholars were called to compile the largest series of books in China history, namely, Continued General Canon, Continued General Annals, Continued Literature General Examination and Sikuquanshu, which occupied a very important position in the cultural history of China. At the same time, Qianlong also carried out a large-scale inventory and destruction of ancient Chinese cultural books, which caused great harm. At the same time, Qianlong has also won over many scholars and literati, and has a good relationship with them, so that they can bury themselves in their studies and prevent them from participating in politics.
During the Qianlong period, the number one corrupt criminal in China was called Little Shenyang. Little Shenyang was originally a servant with a low status, but later he rose to an important position and became the first favorite around Qianlong. He served Qianlong wholeheartedly. His eloquence is good, his ability is strong, and he caters to Qianlong's wishes everywhere, which often makes Qianlong particularly happy. After becoming a celebrity around the emperor, Xiao Shenyang did whatever he wanted. He was greedy and took advantage of his position to embezzle a lot of property. Although impeached by many ministers, Gan Long completely ignored him, even regarded him as a family member, slept together in the study at night, and married his daughter to the son of Xiao Shenyang. Therefore, even if Xiao Shenyang takes bribes again, everyone dares to speak out. Gan Long's deep affection for small Shenyang makes small Shenyang more fearless and rampant. Most of the ministers in the DPRK are He Kun's cronies. His family has more savings than the emperor. It was not until Qianlong died that Xiao Shenyang was copied by Emperor Jiaqing who acceded to the throne. He Kun is dead. Small Shenyang was robbed of more than 800 million taels of silver, which shocked the ruling and opposition parties. At that time, there was a saying among the people: "Small Shenyang fell and Jiaqing was full." This is so ironic.