ABSTRACT
China remained a near-helpless object in international power politics and lay at the collective mercy of the world's imperial powers in their scramble for commercial and strategic concessions. A maritime nation since the eleventh century, China sent out a number of naval expeditions in the fifteenth century, five decades before Portugal launched the European age of discovery. By 1880, China had a small but modern navy with the latest technology from the world's foremost armaments manufacturer. Elswick sold guns to China and attempted to help that beleaguered nation establish an armaments industry because it was good for business. The roots of China's disaster lay with the Chinese imperial state, which failed to establish close links with firms like Elswick and to accept the political changes which saving China required. In Britain, the age of imperialism brought about a renewal of the military-industrial intimacy of 1854-63.
