China lagged behind the rest of the world during that period because she isolated herself for hundreds of years before that period. Whilst the rest of the world (especially European countries) were open to foreign ideas, new inventions, different styles of governance from the time of the Reformation, China locked herself in, aloof, ethnocentrically smirking in her advanced culture while snubbing the rest of the world as barbarians without a culture. Because of this widely held attitude, the rest of the world surged ahead in technology and social interaction. When the Poms arrived in China, the Celestial Kingdom was still a medieval society with lord/serf styles of governance over her provinces. whereas England was already an industrialized nation with democratic parliament. China was still mired in their "kowtow" ways of treating foreign vassal states and their visitors, England was current with the rest of the advanced nations who practice exchange of foreign embassies and consulates. English companies used banks to transact foreign currencies for international trade, China was still using taels of silver and her banks did not have any idea in foreign currency exchange. Stop blaming foreigners for weaknesses and shortcomings borne from domestic inadequacies. The Chinese loved opium and desired it highly. The Brits (and a handful of foreign devils) just were able to ship in cheaper opium from India, and flooded the market with "affordable" Ah piang, to be enjoyed by the masses!
Cheers!
wait u are telling me the civilisation that created the Silk Road,the one road one belt to bring them all together and in the darkness bind them had no idea about foreign currency?or foreigners?or foreign embassies?or trade or innovation or technology or goods or foreign cultures?China was the center of the world trade with the other great civilisations of the world,the persians,arabs,turkish,indians,greeks,syrians,romans,armenians etc etc.which created one of the most prosperous eras in ancient civilisations and cities with over 2 million population which were gigantic by ancient standards and the limited technology at that time which were not capable of sustaining massive populations.
Chinese loves opium and desired it highly?u might as well say the ang mohs love crack cocaine,meth and lsd and China should do them a favour by flooding the west with lots of cheap mass produced coke and meth from thailand,laos and myanmar.and if the western authorities resist cause drugs are killing their people claim they are obstructing trade and launch a couple of nukes at them?
CHINESE was the first civilisation in history to invent money u fucking fool.all the other cultures including the west were followers.who gives a rats ass about foreign currency?the west had nothing of value to trade,while China had every luxury imaginable,thats why they had to force open borders with guns and ships and make use of drug trade to cripple and bankrupt other countries.
NOW UR ANG MOH MASTERS ARE CRYING ABOUT GLOBALISATION CAUSE THEY CANT TAKE THE COMPETITION AND HEAT NO MORE AND WANT TO ISOLATE THEMSELVES AND CURL UP INTO A BALL AND DIE WHILE THE REST OF THE WORLD ADVANCE STEADILY AND INEXORABLY.