President Xi Jinping's much lauded state visit to Britain showed the host country has learned the lessons of Lord Macartney's failed trade mission 220 years ago - perhaps too well, in the eyes of some of David Cameron's critics.

An "ultra royal welcome" was afforded President Xi Jinping during his state visit to Britain last month. The considerable attention to etiquette and protocol paid by the hosts doubtless contributed to the success of the trip, and the heralding of a new "golden era" in Sino-British trade relations.

The positive impact of the lavish pageantry and obsequious attention heaped on the visiting Chinese delegation could not have contrasted more acutely with Britain's first diplomatic attempt to establish Sino-British trade relations, in 1793.

Professor John Carroll, of the University of Hong Kong's history department, is researching the Macartney and Amherst missions for his book "Canton Trade", which looks at commercial affairs in Guangzhou before the first opium war (1839-42). He seeks to demonstrate that more than a century of successful Sino-British trading relations with no serious altercations has been overlooked.

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