Opium Wars

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The "Opium Wars" were two wars that were the climax of a long dispute between Britain and China. In the second, France fought alongside the British. This dispute was around the Opium trade which was seen from two different sides. The Chinese Emperor had banned opium in China due to its negative effects on the population; The British, however, saw opium as an ideal good to trade, as it would help to balance the huge trade deficit with China. The Opium Wars and the many treaties signed afterward led in part to the downfall of the Chinese economy, as many countries followed Britain and forced more treaties to increase trade within China. The Opium War is regarded as the first war on drugs.<ref>[1]</ref>

1 The Growth of the Opium Trade (1650–1773)
2 The East India Company (1773–1833)
3 From the Napier Affair through the First Opium War (1834–1843)
4 Second Opium War
5 Further reading
6 Notes and references
7 External links

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The Growth of the Opium Trade (1650–1773)

The Qing dynasty of China, beset by increasingly aggressive foreign powers that clamoured for two-way trade with China, entered a long decline in the early 1800s. Europeans bought porcelain, silk, spices and tea from China, but were unable to sell goods in return. Instead, they were forced to trade directly in silver, which further strained finances already squeezed by European wars.

Opium itself had been manufactured in China since the 15th century. It was mixed with tobacco in a process invented by the Spanish, but was dominated by the Dutch by the 18th century. Faced with the health and social problems associated with opium use, the Chinese imperial government prohibited the smoking of opium in 1729.

The British began manufacturing opium in India in significant quantities starting in the mid-18th century, learning the art from the Mughal state, which had traded in opium since at least the reign of Akbar (1556-1605), and began a trade of opium for silver in southern China. The British saw the great potential profit in the opium trade (previously dominated by the Dutch-controlled Jakarta) when they conquered Bengal in 1764. Profits approached 400 percent, and poppies grew almost anywhere. America profited as well from this illegal trade of opium.

British exports of opium skyrocketed from an estimated 15 tons in 1730, to 75 tons in 1773, shipped in over two thousand "chests", each containing 140 pounds (~67 kg) of opium.

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The East India Company (1773–1833)

In 1773, the Governor-General of Bengal was granted a monopoly on the sale of opium, and abolished the old opium syndicate at Patna. For the next 50 years, opium would be key to the British East India Company's hold on India. Since importation of opium into China was illegal (China already produced a small quantity domestically), the British East India Company would buy tea in Canton on credit, carrying no opium, but would instead sell opium at auction in Calcutta on the condition it was smuggled to China. In 1797, the company ended the role of local Bengal purchasing agents and instituted the direct sale of opium to the company by farmers.

In 1799, the Chinese Empire reaffirmed its ban on opium imports, and in 1810 the following decree was issued:

Opium has a very violent effect. When an addict smokes it, it rapidly makes him extremely excited and capable of doing anything he pleases. But before long, it kills him. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited by law. Now the commoner, Yang, dares to bring it into the Forbidden City. Indeed, he flouts the law!

However, recently the purchases and eaters of opium have become numerous. Deceitful merchants buy and sell it to gain profit. The customs house at the Ch'ung-wen Gate was originally set up to supervise the collection of imports (it had no responsibility with regard to opium smuggling). If we confine our search for opium to the seaports, we fear the search will not be sufficiently thorough. We should also order the general commandant of the police and police- censors at the five gates to prohibit opium and to search for it at all gates. If they capture any violators, they should immediately punish them and should destroy the opium at once. As to Kwangtung and Fukien, the provinces from which opium comes, we order their viceroys, governors, and superintendents of the maritime customs to conduct a thorough search for opium, and cut off its supply. They should in no ways consider this order a dead letter and allow opium to be smuggled out!

(Lo-shu Fu, A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Vol. 1 (1966), page 380)

The decree had little effect; The Manchu Chinese government was located in Beijing, in the north, too far away to control the merchants who smuggled opium into China from the south. The lack of governmental action, the addictive properties of the drug, the greed for more profit by the British East India Company and merchants, and the British government's hunger for silver (see gold standard) combined to further the illegal opium trade. In the 1820s, illegal opium trade averaged 900tons per year from Bengal to China.

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From the Napier Affair through the First Opium War (1834–1843)

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In 1834, to accommodate the revocation of the East India Company's monopoly, the British sent Lord Napier to Macao. He attempted to circumvent the restrictive Canton Trade laws, which forbade direct contact with Chinese officials, and was turned away by the governor of Macao, who promptly closed trade starting on September 2nd of that year. The British were not yet ready to force the matter, and agreed to resume trade under the old restrictions, even though Lord Napier, who was dying of illness, implored them to force open the port.

Within the Chinese mandarinate, there was a debate on legalizing opium trade itself, but this was rejected in favor of continued restrictions. In 1838, the death penalty was imposed for native drug traffickers; by this time the British were selling 1,400 tons annually to China. In March of 1839, a new commissioner, Lin Zexu was appointed by the emperor to control the opium trade at the port of Canton. He immediately enforced the imperial demand that there be a permanent halt to drug shipments into China. When the British refused to end the trade, Lin imposed a trade embargo on the British. On March 27th, 1839, Charles Elliot, British Superintendent of Trade, demanded that all British subjects turn over opium to him, to be confiscated by Commissioner Lin Zexu, amounting to nearly a year's supply of the drug. After the opium was surrendered, trade was restarted on the condition that no more drugs were smuggled into China. Lin demanded that British merchants had to sign a bond promising not to deal in opium. <ref>Coleman, Anthony (ed., 1999). Millennium, pp. 243, 244. Transworld Publishers. ISBN 0593-044789.</ref> He then disposed of the opium, by dissolving it with water, salt and lime and flushing it out into the ocean. He then apologised to the spirit of the Southern Sea in a special prayer.

Both Lin and the Chinese Emperor had not realised the implications involved in this action; The British government and merchants regarded the action as a destruction of their private property, roughly 3 million pounds of opium, as well as a notable revenue source. The British responded by sending warships and soldiers, along with a large army from British India, which arrived in June of 1840.<ref>Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China 2nd ed., pp. 153-155. Maple-Vail, Binghamton.</ref>

British miliary superiority was evident during the armed conflict. British warships attacked coastal towns at will, and their troops, armed with modern muskets and cannons, were able to easily defeat the Qing forces. The British took Canton and then sailed up the Yangtze and took the tax barges, slashing the revenue of the imperial court in Beijing to just a small fraction.

In 1842, the Qing authorities sued for peace, which concluded with the Treaty of Nanjing negotiated in August of that year and accepted in 1843.

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