Emperor Qianlong and Bitcoin
“Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders. There was therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce.”
Chinese Emperor Qianlong’s 1793 letter to England’s King George III.
Chinese history is fascinating and one of the most instructive periods is the Qing Dynasty. Running from 1636 to 1911 its initial prosperity descended into decadence, corruption, and defeat.
Early on, this dynasty was a force. They ruled over a vast territory, from Mongolia to Tibet to Xinjiang in Central Asia. They doubled their population in the 1800s and produced products, such as tea, that the world wanted. Farmers, artisans, craftspeople, and merchants participated in an international trade network. This wealth, predictably, produced arrogance. The letter quoted above continued, “Tea, silk and porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces, are absolute necessities to European nations and to yourselves.”
Emperor Qianlong could not see that times were changing. Numerous societal ailments, in the century after the letter, bought humiliating military defeats (the opium wars), territory losses (Hong Kong and Macau), and loss of control over its own economy (Britain forced, at the point of a gun, the empire to give control to the China market to East India Company). A new economic system, the industrial revolution, fully utilized by other Britain, but not China, was a big factor in China’s relative decline.
I believe folks like Senator Warren (acting as a proxy for US politicians) are channeling Qianlong when it comes to Bitcoin. They are unaware of the current financial system’s fragility. They scurry about with solemn proclamations, filled with an excess of certitude, about everything under the sun. They judge the vanguards of the new system as Barbarians. They impose untenable regulations on the new system. Just as China refers to itself as the center kingdom (中国, Zhōngguó), the likes of Senator Warren believe that they are the center of everything.
China believed that its embedded dominance in tea production was something that would lead to never-ending prosperity. The US has the same belief in dollar dominance. Just as the British refused to kowtow to the emperor, Bitcoin won’t be deferential to the SEC. Bitcoin just doesn’t care about your beliefs, and it is a better system that will destroy the lazy entitled wealth that the US government holds due to its role as money printer.
The refusal of the Chinese civilization to negotiate with the superior force led to the Opium Wars. It took a while, but the outcome was pre-ordained. The British sent twenty thousand troops, vs. China’s eight hundred thousand troops. However, the Brits had gun-mounted ships that were powered by steam engines vs China’s wooden junket ships. It was hopeless for the Chinese, and again, they could not recognize this till after the ships were on its coast. The Chinese lost some battles in hours. Other fights had a scorecard of 29 Chinese vessels lost vs zero deaths in the British navy.
Just as Qianlong sat on his throne (well he didn’t always sit, he had 12 official concubines and 27 children) and issued silly edicts to the British empire, the US government pretends that they can regulate bitcoin. They can’t. Modern China “banned” Bitcoin mining several years ago, it just drove the mining underground in the country and the entire mining network has experienced vigorous growth since then.
I’m not a fan of any government lobbying of the government when it comes to Bitcoin. Government institutions hate what they can’t control, and Bitcoin is that. Any negotiation isn’t done in good faith, as the end game is that Bitcoin will result in a dramatic loss of influence and control by those government bodies. I say leave officials to scurry around till the battleships of Bitcoin show up on their shores.