(1) Due to the increasing trade imbalance between China and Great Britain, impelled by the latterвЂ™s great demand for tea, porcelain, and silk, the British tried to address the trade deficit by showcasing their products of technology, such as clocks, telescopes, weapons, textiles, and others, so as to motivate the Chinese to purchase more British commodities. The real goals of this mission were as follows: This mission led by Earl Macartney was the first British diplomatic delegation to China. George Macartney, Thomas Hickey, and Henry William Parish, Watercolors For Lord MacartneyвЂ™s Embassy, f1792-1794, Volume 3.

After nearly 11 months journey the Macartney mission arrived in Beijing on Augand they were received in audience by Emperor Qianlong in Chengde on September 14, 1793. The squadron was initially composed of three vessels, the HMS Lion, the Hindostan, and the Jackall, and later added the ClarenceВ in Batavia and the East Indiaman EndeavourВ at the Yellow Sea. The mission was composed of over 100 members, including Earl MacartneyвЂ™s right-hand man George Staunton, his teenage son Thomas Staunton, the comptroller John Barrow, two doctors Hugh Gillan and William Scott, two artists William Alexander and Thomas Hickey, the President of the Royal Society Joseph Banks, a group of scientists led by James Dinwiddie, and four Chinese Catholic priests who served as interpreters. The mission, financially sponsored by the East India Company, was dispatched by King George III to meet Chinese Emperor Qianlong on the occasion of his 80th birthday. On September 26, 1792, a mission led by Earl George Macartney (1737вЂ“1806) departed from Portsmouth, England, for China. Liren Zheng, curator of the collection at Cornell University Library, explains the importance of both the eighteenth-century mission and the accumulation of this material into one holding. This valuable piece of Anglo-Chinese history is now available in GaleвЂ™sВ Archives Unbound programme, where it sits alongside collections such asВ Papers of the British Consulates and Legation in China (1722вЂ“1951), theВ Chinese Recorder and the Protestant Missionary Community in China, 1867вЂ“1941. The Charles Wason Collection at Cornell is the largest collection of material on this event held in one place, covering a period from 1784 to 1916. It is a new digitization of a fascinating resource вЂ“ letters, books, sketches and journals relating to the important Macartney mission from George III to the Chinese Emperor Qianlong in 1792вЂ“1794. The Earl George Macartney Collection launches this month in Archives Unbound.

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