Emperor Qian Long was one of the greatest rulers in the Qing Dynasty, when the Manchus most successfully assimilated into the Han Chinese culture, revived the imperial examination system, and won the support of many Chinese scholars after the latter's initial resistance against the Manchus at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. As such, Emperor Qianlong upheld previous policies established by the Ming Dynasty, when China was closed off to overseas trade. A predominantly rural society, China practiced a self-sufficient economy, and limited foreigners' presence in China, both to control trade with the outside in order to maintain a better state control over the economy, and to curtail the influence of foreign religions, such as Christianity, that was proliferating outside of Europe thanks to Catholic missionaries such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, and later the Jesuits.

The Canton System: To contain Chinese contact with the outside world, from 1759 on, only Canton in southern China was open for trade with the outside world, hence it was called the Canton System.(regulations of foreign trade). A whole class of Chinese merchants who served as the go-between of foreign merchants and Chinese merchants outside of Canton arose, called the compradors. Foreigners were not allowed to reside in China, and foreign visits to China needed approval. Foreigners were not even allowed to study the Chinese language to avoid cultural assimilation into China.

1. Background of King George III’s Britain:

The first European state to undergo the Industrial Revolution.
Need for open markets and free trade around the world.

Lord Macartney's visit to China was to persuade China to open up more trade to Britain. Unlike other countries that traded with China, or businesses done by Britain and other European countries with China before, now the need for trade had become really urgent, and Britain felt stronger than ever before.

2. Emperor Qian Long's China:

A self-sufficient economy that did not expect to trade; continued to treat any foreign state as a tributary state. Unlike Britain that conducted free trade and was open to knowledge of the outside world, the emperor was content with knowledge of his immediate realm. An excellent scholar of classical Chinese learning and a fierce warrior in territorial acquisitions in northwestern China, among other places, Qian Long had almost no knowledge of Britain, nor did he care to. His remained a self-centered world.