失之东隅 收之桑榆——马戛尔尼使华结局及失败原因再探

Losing on the Swings and Gaining on the Roundabouts——Reassessing the Results of Macartney Embassy to China and the Reasons for Its Failure

1793年,马戛尔尼使团承英国政府和英东印度公司的复合使命来华,客观上反映了18世纪末英国对改善中英关系和扩大对华贸易的要求。这场特殊的外交较量,均以双方的失败而告终。但英国外交虽败,亦收获颇丰。导致使团任务失败的根本原因并非礼仪之争和领土要求,而是中英双方经济基础的不同所导致的国家利益着眼点和对外政策的迥异,以及双方在自我中心的观念下衍生出的维护朝贡体制和坚持主权外交之间的矛盾与冲突。

In 1793, Macartney Embassy visited China on composite missions co -assigned by the British government and the British East India Company, which objectively reflected the pressing demands of Britain to improve Sino - British relations and expand trade with China for the sake of the development of capitalism in the late 18th century. This special diplomatic contest took two sides＇failure as a result. The Britain obtained considerable harvests, albeit failed in terms of diplomacy. Neither the controversy over cross - cultural etiquettes nor the territory requests could really be accounted for the missions＇ failure. As a matter of fact, the root causes leading to the unsuccessful negotiation were the following： different foreign policies and different foci on national interests as a result of different economic bases, the conflicts between upholding the tribute systems and pursuing the sovereignty diplomacy deriving from their respective serf- centered conceptions.