A Study On Tea Trade Disputes Between China And The West In The Late Qing Dynasty

In the late Qing Dynasty,with the opening of the various ports of commerce and the increase in the scale of the Chinese and foreign tea trade has been expanding,the Chinese and foreign tea merchants so the trade friction and conflict has also increased.The main types of Chinese and foreign tea trade disputes in the late Qing Dynasty mainly included:Firstly,the deficit of silver disputes.Chinese and foreign merchants from time to time through the mainland acquisition system,the port tea house system and the Chinese merchants delegated to the foreign merchants in the consumer market on behalf of the tea trade,in the process,the Chinese and foreign tea merchants are prone to disputes over deficiency of silver due to the order,overdue loans,the buyer’s money to escape or deficit,bankruptcy,entrusted to sell and other reasons.Secondly,tea quality disputes.Tea since the picking to the sale of foreign merchants,during the period also go through the tea reprocessing,transportation,storage and other links,in any of which the quality of tea may be damaged by some factors.Once the quality of tea is found to be problematic when trading tea,then the Chinese and foreign tea merchants are highly susceptible to disputes as a result.Thirdly,the tea weighing disputes.This is due to uneven scales in the tea trade market,foreign merchants deliberately oppressing Chinese merchants and so on.These three disputes are the most common types of disputes in the late Qing Dynasty Chinese and foreign tea trade market,these disputes and the late Qing Dynasty Chinese and foreign tea trade order is not sound,the establishment of rules can not keep up with the pace of development of the tea trade,resulting in many Chinese and foreign tea merchants in the tea trade,the phenomenon of speculation and untrustworthiness.The way to solve the Chinese and foreign tea trade disputes are mainly the parties involved in their own reconciliation,third-party forces involved in mediation and litigation.The mediation mechanism is further divided into mediation by private forces and mediation by official forces,private forces mediation is mainly carried out through local tea associations and chambers of commerce established in the late Qing Dynasty;official forces mediation refers to the mediation conducted by the local government of the Qing Dynasty and foreign consuls.If the Chinese and foreign tea merchants involved do not accept the mediation opinion,then they can file a lawsuit to the government office or the consular court.The frequent occurrence of Chinese and foreign tea trade disputes revealed the chaotic order of the tea trading market in late Qing Dynasty China and the unsoundness of the regulatory mechanism.In order to solve these problems,the Chinese and foreign tea industry guild and the Chinese and foreign official forces to adopt a cooperative attitude,through the promulgation of tea trade regulations,rectification of tea industry ills,to encourage Chinese merchants to open up independent trade routes and other measures,in order to reduce and avoid the occurrence of Chinese and foreign tea trade disputes.Although there is a certain degree of effectiveness,but not from the fundamental establishment of the tea trading market regulatory system,so the standardization of the tea trade market order still needs a long effort.