ABSTRACT
The idea of the protege has been largely missing from discussions of Qing extraterritoriality, but it is helpful in unravelling Qing official attitudes toward foreign missionaries, businessmen, and proposals for foreign investment in the 1860s and 1870s. While the term ‘protege was rarely used in the Chinese case, problems with proteges in missionary and mercantile situations were fundamental to the early practice of extraterritoriality in China, and profoundly influenced the thinking of Qing officials. In the eyes of Qing officials, individuals with extraterritoriality were effectively ungovernable. The Luoyuan riot gives a good sense of what concerned Qing officials about missionaries and their use of extraterritoriality. For Qing officials in the late 1860s, extraterritoriality was an issue of preeminent importance in shaping their view of relations with the Western powers. In fact, as many of these Qing officials were aware, merchant proteges were already a problem on the coast.
