The Amherst Embassy to China: A Whimper and a Bang

Abstract

The Amherst embassy of 1816–17 has usually been considered little more than a failure. Recent studies, however, have shown how the embassy provided invaluable first-hand information about a China in decline and thus paved the way for more confrontational British views of the Middle Kingdom. But there is little evidence that the embassy had any significant impact on British attitudes towards China. It largely reconfirmed or reinforced pre-existing impressions, especially for the members who had already spent time there. Nor did the embassy cause much of a stir in Britain, and China was rarely the topic of sustained discussion there until the 1830s. Yet the embassy matters in several important ways that have often been overlooked. One is the lessons that were learned and applied from the Macartney embassy, both before and during this second British embassy. Another is how the East India Company's officers in Canton were able to influence the practice of British diplomacy in China. Far from viewing the embassy as a failure, these ‘men on the spot’ considered it a splendid example of British firmness and resolve when dealing with the Qing authorities. Focusing on the failure of the embassy also overlooks the interplay between local knowledge and experience in Canton and that in the rest of China, even if the expedition to and from Peking mainly confirmed earlier assumptions about China and its people.