ABSTRACT
Great Britain secured and expanded her informal empire in China during the five years following the Sino-Japanese War. From 1895 through 1900 Lord Salisbury accepted England’s traditional, commercially oriented China policy and adapted it to dramatically altered political conditions in East Asia. From the beginning, Anglo-Chinese relations were commercial in nature. The East India Company’s country traders sailed from India to trade, not to conquer. These private British merchants smuggled opium violated Chinese law and her closed, Canton-system of trade, and established lucrative British companies that looked to England for protection. Sir Robert Hart was a major instrument and symbol of British informal empire in China. He had made the Manchus aware of the financial advantages of an English-directed and Western-staffed customs administration. With information and support from Hart, Sir Claude M. MacDonald Implemented the open door policy at Peking. He did not demand a secure, formal sphere of influence.
