Foreign Office, Consulate and Legation Files, China: 1830-1939 consists primarily of the correspondence of the British legation and consulates in China during this period.

The legation and consulates were diplomatic outposts serving specific functions. The legation functioned like an embassy, though it was one step below an embassy in the hierarchy of diplomatic importance and was headed by a minister rather than an ambassador. Consulates held the offices of consuls, who were representatives of the British government protecting the interests of British nationals living in China.

British presence in China in the 1830s was relatively limited, with trade ports in Guangzhou (Canton) heavily regulated by the Qing government. Following the conclusion of the First Opium War in 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing established five ‘treaty ports’ which would be under foreign consular jurisdiction. The first British consulate was then established in Guangzhou in 1843, followed by those in Shanghai, Xiamen (Amoy), Fuzhou (Foochow) and Ningbo (Ningpo).

In 1843, a vice-consulate was established at Whampoa, downstream of Guangzhou on the Pearl River. These consulates were intended to protect and police the British citizens establishing themselves at the new treaty ports, as well as the British trading interests there. The consulates were all held under the jurisdiction of the Superintendent of Trade in Hong Kong, which had been handed over to the British as part of the Treaty of Nanjing.

The Treaty of Tientsin, ratified in 1860 following the end of the Second Opium War, opened a further nine treaty ports up to trade and consular presence. These were at Shantou (Swatow), Zhenjiang (Chinkiang), Hankou (Hankow), Jiujiang (Kiukiang), Tianjin (Tientsin), Yantai (Chefoo), Yingkou (Newchwang), Anping and Qiongshan (Kiungchow). In the same year, the Convention of Beijing (Peking) allowed the presence of a legation in the capital, establishing a diplomatic presence there for the first time. A compound was leased for the site of the Beijing legation, and responsibility for the British consulates in China passed to its minister. By 1865, the consulate in Shanghai had also gained particular prominence as the site of the British Supreme Court in China. In 1867, a site at a fort in Tamsui was leased and used as vice-consular offices and accommodation. In 1876, four more treaty ports were opened through the Chefoo Convention, establishing consulates at Wuhu, Yichang (Ichang), Wenzhou (Wenchow) and Beihai (Pakhoi).


This section consists of all FO 228 and associated volumes dating from the period covered.

The mid- and late nineteenth century was a tumultuous time in China. The collection documents tensions over the illegal opium trade and the First and Second Opium Wars against Britain and France. The material also reflects the huge impact of a number of internal rebellions, including the devastating conflict of the Taiping rebellion, when British and other foreign forces allied themselves with the Qing government. Further correspondence also sheds light on British interactions with the French, who were establishing their own presence in Vietnam. Records include reports from British explorers scoping out Chinese land to plan for infrastructure development, such as railways and telegraph lines. These actions shaped the reaction to potential modernisation in Chinese politics, including the Qing government’s Self-Strengthening Movement. Documents recording diplomatic discussions also reveal much about the customs and practices of the Qing government as it approached the final years of its power. Alongside the legation and consulate correspondence, the FO 228 series includes correspondence with Chinese authorities, colonial governments (such as in British India) and foreign ministries.


To be published 2026.


To be published 2026.


To be published 2027.


The FO 228 series

The FO 228 series from The National Archives consists of correspondence from the Peking (Beijing) legation and, in addition, numerous consulates, and is therefore hugely valuable for research into the British presence in China, foreign trade, general foreign relations and the actions of key figures in successive Chinese governments. Files in the FO 228 series are general volumes of correspondence, rather than documents on specific subjects filed together. After the first few years they are often titled by the consular port and whether the correspondence is incoming or outgoing (e.g. To Foochow; From Foochow, 1849 and From Shanghai, 1850), and can be effectively searched through these place names. Other files focus on correspondence to or from the Chinese government and the Foreign Office in London; yet others consist of collections of Chinese-language material (‘Chinese Enclosures’) whose English translations lie in other files.

For more information on the history, organisation and content of the FO 228 series, see Binbin Zheng’s contextual essay ‘Archiving China: The British Foreign Office’s establishments in China and their files’.

 

The FO 231 and FO 232 series

Included alongside the FO 228 collection are FO 231, the registers of the FO 228 correspondence, and FO 232, containing indexes to the correspondence. The FO 231 and FO 232 collections log all the correspondence in the FO 228 collection that were sent and received, so these series will serve as excellent supplementary research aids to the main body of the material.


Consulate and Legation Buildings

Plentiful maps and plans of British diplomatic buildings are included in the FO 228 series, documenting the expansion of the nation’s diplomatic presence in China.

Visit collection of documents relevant to consulate and legation buildings

 

Government of Hong Kong

Hong Kong Island was ceded to Britain preliminarily in 1841 by the Convention of Chuenpi and then in perpetuity in 1842 by the Treaty of Nanking. The mainland territory of Kowloon was added in 1860. As a Crown colony, Hong Kong was to become the British Empire’s pre-eminent Chinese entrepôt. 

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First Opium War

In 1839, Chinese enforecement of its ban on trade in opium met Britain’s determination to continue to sell what was its most profitable export commodity of the era. Chinese defeat in the subsequent war led to the imposition on China of greater foreign trade, including in opium, and the cession of territory.

Visit collection of documents relevant to the First Opium War

 

Second Opium War

In 1856, France joined Britain in fighting China once more over the issue of the opium trade. A second Chinese defeat in 1860, after the capture of Beijing by the European powers, led to more conessions to western traders, a cash indemnity, and cession of 1.5 million square kilometres of territory to Russia. The opening of Beijing to foreigners also saw the establishment of the British legation there.

View collection of documents relevant to the Second Opium War

 

Sino-Japanese War

In the late nineteenth century, China's longstanding suzerainty over Korea stood increasingly at odds with Japan’s expansionist ambitions in the Asian mainland. In 1894, Japan responded to Chinese troop-movements into Korea with an invasion of its own, which, following success in battle, expanded into China. By the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895, the Japanese gained both a prominent position in Korea and the cession of Taiwan (Formosa).

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Taiping and other rebellions

In 1850, an uprising against the Qing government broke out in the valley of the Yangtze River. Led by Hong Xiuquan, a mystic who styled himself as the brother of Christ, it would lead to fourteen years of war and an estimated 20 to 30 million deaths.

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Railway plans

The first Chinese railway was built in 1865 by a British merchant to demonstrate the technology to the Qing court, though rail was slow to spread due to government hostility. Defeat in the Sino-Japanese War spurred the Qings to modernisation, and by the turn of the twentieth century Britain, France and the other treaty powers had built over five thousand miles of railway in eastern China. 

Visit collection of documents relevant to railway plans

 

Telegraph plans

Telegraphy came to China in 1871 when a cable was laid linking Hong Kong and Shanghai to the international telegraphy system, then dominated by British-controlled infrastructure. Chinese characters were transmitted using a set of numerical codes, which became standarised only ten years later.

Visit collection of documents relevant to telegraph plans