The sinologist George Thomas Staunton (1781–1859) learned Chinese as a child and accompanied his father on a trip to China in 1792 where, though the Ambassador's page, he was the only member of the delegation who could speak to the Emperor in Chinese. A career in the East India Company's Canton factory followed, and he translated many texts between Chinese and English. Upon his return to Britain in 1817, he spent many years as a Tory MP and often spoke about China and its trade with Britain. He also continued to write about these issues, and this collection of translations and essays, published in 1822, reflects Staunton's varied interests - ranging from a translation of the Chinese history, Tung-wha-loo to his own writings on the Company's trade disputes with the Emperor - making this work a unique and valuable source of information on British cultural, economic, and diplomatic relations with China in the early nineteenth-century.
