The Role of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in the Sino-British Contest over the 1868 Tianjin Treaty Revision

After the First Opium War, as Hong Kong rose as an center for bulk import/export goods, smuggling by junk intensified significantly. This directly impacted tax of the Qing government. In 1868, authorities in Guangdong Province initiated crackdowns on this smuggling around Hong Kong, triggering the two-decade-long "Blockade of Hong Kong" dispute between China and Britain. In 1868, the revision of the Sino-British Treaty of Tientsin was seen by the British as a opportunity to resolve the "blockade of Hong Kong". The "blockade of Hong Kong" affected foreign merchants based in Hong Kong, with the British parties having differing opinions on the matter. The Hong Kong government and the British Colonial Office focused more on local Hong Kong affairs, especially the practical interests of the merchants, while the British Foreign Office and diplomats in China were more concerned with the whole picture of Sino-British relations, striving to promote the alignment of the Chinese system with the West. Caught in the middle was the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, which participated in various ways, systematically articulating their demands for the revision through petitions, hoping to expand their shares in the Chinese market, and using their influence to pressure the British government. The Chamber strongly dissatisfied with the British concessions, which led to the failure of the revision.