OF TRADE, AND REVENUE DERIVED FROM IT.
We have ourselves, in our maritime parts, some experience of the English, as traders [Kie-tee]. Something of their moral character is known, not as traders only, but as representatives of the general civilization of their tribe. It will be a long period before the events of the opium war are forgotten—when these selfish and cruel Barbarians came with their big fire-ships and great cannons, and massacred so many of our province, Quantung! Nor will the slaughters of the people of our Central Kingdom, and the burnings and plunderings at the Illustrious seat of our Exalted, pass out of mind for many generations. Trade! yes, Trade is the Moloch [Kan-ni-bli] of the English; there is nothing (of character) which they will not sacrifice to this Idol. The god by which they mostly swear, and whose name they apply to themselves, knew nothing of trade, and his words, as recorded in the Sacred Writings, condemn every practice customary in it. This inconsistency is always found in the devotees of irrational worship; where formal observances stand for practical virtues. Perhaps dishonesty in trade is no more conspicuous, than immorality everywhere; only traffic touching on all sides, and affecting nearly every interest, carries with it an almost universal debasement. Blind and conceited, it is the custom to speak of our Central Kingdom contemptuously, and to brand our people as Heathen thieves [ta-ki]. We have thieves, and punish them. But how strangely to those of our people who know these Barbarians, this charge sounds! It is notorious that the vile stuff packed up as Tea by our knaves is for the gain of English traders; and that the horribly obscene pictures of degraded artists find a market with the Barbarians! We punish these plunderers when we detect them; but these Christians who would convert us encourage this immorality!
The Law-making Houses are continually occupied (and occupied in vain) to find remedies for the almost universal crime of Adulteration [Kon-ti-fyt] of Food. Scarcely an article of food, or of drink, medicine, what not, escapes this dangerous cheat. To make a larger gain some cheap admixture, often poisonous and rarely harmless, is added to nearly every article. It is not easy to understand how general the moral debasement must be, when a thing of this sort, striking at once at health, and even life, is so common as to be scarcely contemned! To be cheated is a kind of comedy—one expects to be cheated—cheated in his clothes, his wine, his horses, his dogs, his meat, his drink, his beer, his sugar, his tea, his everything! To have been honestly dealt with is a surprise—a thing to be remarked upon. To have been cheated—a shrug of the shoulder—an exclamation—"Of course!" In fact, almost always the cause of a hearty laugh, especially if a sharp trick—or at another's expense! The very laws of trade are based on dishonesty; and a people will not generally be better than their laws.
The High-Caste affecting to despise trade, do, occasionally, in the Law-making Houses (as I have said), feebly interfere with the general rascality. Yet, they are so dependent, indirectly or directly, upon trade or its gains, that they will not do anything to hamper it; and any law which touches the utmost freedom of action in buying and selling, in their opinion, has this effect. On the whole, they say, better a few rogues flourish, and a few people be poisoned to death, than that commerce (an euphuism for rascally traffic) be injured.
That man has a fine nature which traffic, in its best ways, cannot tarnish; and laws should take their colour from the best—not the sordid. The old Romans cultivated the land, and looked with contempt upon traffic. When riches and its corruptions lowered manliness, and Commerce spread through the provinces—still, the Roman jurisprudence based itself upon equity—it did not place trade upon a pedestal above Justice! They made no such Barbarous mistake as to suppose that any business of a people could be more important to its prosperity, than the maintainance of right principle!
The English Barbarians say the interests of the public require a disregard of right; and their famous legal maxim (in the Roman) is Caveat emptor—the buyer must take care—must sharply watch the seller. This is to say, "The seller is to be expected to cheat; and, if the buyer be cheated, let him thank his own stupidity!" The old Heathen Romans made no such immoral rule; they required the most exact good faith upon both sides. The seller could not sell a horse blind of one eye, or incurably, though not always visibly, lame, and to the complaint of the buyer answer, "Oh! I gave no assurance of soundness."
The High-Caste, despising trade of any useful sort, none the less delight in traffic of a high-caste colour. They deal in pictures, equipages, horses, jewels, sculptures, books, dogs, nick-nacks of all sorts; know how to bargain, and understand the tricks, especially in horses, dogs, paintings, and the like, as well as those whom they affect to despise.
The English are, doubtless, successful traders and plunderers. They are rough, and brave, and reckless; and in traffic are as unscrupulous as in predatory ventures. Their conquests abroad have been incidental generally, commerce being the immediate object. But they have never scrupled to use force when it has seemed fittest. The plunder of a people has been found easier, and the returns quicker and larger, than the slower gains of traffic.