During the history of Chinese modern foreign trade, the relationship between Chinese merchants and western merchants was changing along with the development of political ,economic and scientific situations. At the first stage which is from 1840s to 1850s, both of Chinese merchants and western merchants had their own advantages respectively, so they needed to cooperate with each other to do business. Their relation should be called “the relationship of attachment and symbiosis”. At the second stage that is from 1860s to 1870s, Treaty System had been established, and Chinese merchants became stronger than before, the relationship between them should be called “cooperative and competitive relationship”. At the third stage that is from 1880s to 1900, because the concept of “commercial war” was becoming popular among the Chinese merchants, scholars and officials, as well as mode of trade changing, “the relationship of market competition” between Chinese and western merchants gradually formed.