The History of Opium in China

Also, citizens became addicted, and the drug eventually killed thousands of people. China’s actions angered Britain politicians even though opium was illegal in Britain as well. But was a result, war started between the two countries. In 1842, the treaty of Nanking ended the war. It was the first unequal treaty with Britain and it said that Chinese had to give up Hong Kong to Britain for ninty-nine years, the British would live in China by extraterritoriality at four ports, distribution of opium would continue and Christain missionaries will be set up throughout China. When China couldn’t meet the ridiculous requirements of the treaty, the second Opium War began in 1956. As a result, Britain won again by the Treaty of Tientsin. The treaty asked to open more ports to outer nations, let foreign leaders into the capital Beijing, and legalized the distribution and use of opium. Their situation was dangerously bad.

Opium is dangerous, and it will ruin people’s life once people get addicted to it. Smoking opium made most of the Chinese

The long-term effects of the opium trade were economically harmful to the Chinese. In “An Argument for Legalization,” senior official and advisor to Emperor Daoguang,

Opium came from opium poppy seeds, which were grown and sold under British ruling in India. The British East India Company developed a monopoly which took place in effectively growing opium and making profits and/or trading it with the Chinese in exchange for their premium good such as silk, porcelain, and tea. According to Memorials on the Legalization and Elimination of Opium by Xu Naiji and Yuan Yulin, they explained how the rise of opium prompted many debts and death around China. Opium became an addiction for many, from the poor to officials in government positions. Cutting off all access of trading opium would’ve started issues in the trading network, not just with Britain but with the Western countries as well. Instead of passing laws to completely ban opium, they reverted to only permitting the barbarian merchants to import opium to pay duty as a medication. This made it unacceptable for money to be involved with the product. According to Xu Naiji, smokers of opium were lazy, with no purpose in life and if they were caught smoking it, the only punishment was getting the opium confiscated. However, if any officer, scholar, or soldier were found smoking opium, the would be immediately dismissed from public employ. Yuan Yulin, a minister, believes that the expansion of opium is the government’s fault, being that they cannot decipher right from wrong; he thought it was unfair that prohibition of smoking opium only applied to the officers of the government, scholars, and military but not the common people. The British capitalized on the effects of opium, because many of China’s population were going to put forth their money, goods, etc. for

In conclusion, the 1839 “Letter to Queen Victoria” by Lin Zexu argued that Opium is a source of evil and pain and appealed to the Queen of Great Britain to abolish sale and smuggling of opium in China. Zexu did this through exemplifying the past trading relationship of China and Great Britain, also by moral persuasion, and last by means of warnings and

China and British perspectives on the opium trade were contradistinctive and ultimately became the foundations of the Opium Wars in 1839-42 and 1856-60. The clash of opinions were not based around the narcotic opium itself but stemmed from a misunderstanding of cultures, conflicting economic behaviours and different ethical ideologies.

Moreover, another dangerous substance that is consumer is opium. Opium is an addictive drug that is taken from a poppy plant. At first, this drug is used as a narcotic in medicine as an anesthetic as the dangers associated with it are outweighed from the medicinal properties. The prohibition of opium originated from foreign disputes. Professor David F. Musto wrote that “Americans had quickly associated smoking opium with Chinese immigrants who arrive after the Civil War to work on railroad construction. This association was of the earliest examples of a powerful theme in American perception of

After the ban of Tobacco in 1644 by the last Ming emperor Huaizhun the already addicted Chinese people had to find something new to smoke and as opium was already smoked mixed together with tobacco before the ban, many of the smokers changed to opium smoking itself or also Arsenic, that is also a drug. So as the Opium smoking was already widely spread across China, it was already slowly destroying the health and the cohesion of the nation, but it was still a problem only within China. Even though Chinese-European trade already existed in the seventeenth century a law for the trade was made 1757 and it was called the “Canton-System” and the trade between China and all European countries got reduced to only Canton or as it is today called

The East India Company hired and farmed opium out to “country farmers”, Chinese citizens who farmed Britain opium, because the ban restricted the trade. The country traders sold the opium to smugglers along the Chinese coast. In China, the company used the gold and silver it received from the country farmers to purchase goods that could be sold profitably in England. A network of opium distribution had formed throughout China, often with the connivance of corrupt officials. Levels of opium addiction grew so high that it began to affect the imperial troops and the official classes, in the early 1830’s7,8. The majority of Chinese officials responsible to enforce the prohibition of the opium network were addicted to the drug themselves. In 1835, it was assumed that close to 90 percent of the government staffed positions were filled with opium users. The drugs gave potential to allow officials to meet taxation quotas, so many officials approved of the cultivation while the central government remained ignorant. Because of this, most local magistrates did not frown on the drugs cultivation and allowed the black market of opium to become the economy. Since the central government remained blind to the actions in the countryside, the throne was unaware of the gravity of the peoples’ addiction.7

To contextualize relevant to the political, social, and economic causes and effects of the first and second opium wars during the modern period 1750-1900 CE, the rate of interconnectedness, industrialization and global integration was rapidly increasing in the western hemisphere while the eastern hemisphere, specifically China, was experiencing great misfortune. At this time there was a significantly high demand for Chinese goods in Europe such as porcelain and chinese silk, but the Chinese did not have a demand for goods in Europe. Since China accumulated most of the silver from Europe there was an unbalanced distribution of silver, which caused the Europeans to start selling opium to the Chinese in order to restore the flow of silver out of China. This resulted in the first opium war in 1839- 1842, the major Civil war in 1850-1864, and second opium war in 1856-1860 which horrendously affected China’s economy, government, and social relations.

Drug use has surrounded us as a species since the stone age. The first references of alcohol were found within ancient Chinese civilizations, which date to roughly 9,000 years ago (McGovern, et al.). The original sources for these alcohols were rice and millet. One of the first surgical anesthetics used was opium. It is believed that some of the first Sumerian clay tablets contained basic prescriptions of opium for pain relief. Many Arabic cultures also used opium for diseases and issues relating to gastrointestinal issues and eye abnormalities (McGovern, et al.). Whether drugs were used for recreational purposes or for medicinal uses is left in the history.

Xu’s memorandum advocates for the government allowing opium to be brought into China by foreign traders as a taxable good as the best way to combat the opium problem. Xu views strict laws against opium as ineffectual for tackling the drug problem in China, noting in the first paragraph that, “the more severe the interdicts against [opium] are made, the more widely do the evils arising therefrom spread” (Xu page 1). While he acknowledges the addictive and destructive effects of opium on those who use it, Xu believes that the stricter the laws proscribing the dissemination and use of opium, the more widely used the drug becomes. Xu argues that the prohibitions against the opium trade led to increased smuggling by foreign traders and increased use of the drug across China. Conversely, when the state’s policy towards opium was one of leniency, in which opium was allowed into China and taxed as a medicine, the issues involving opium were

The Opium Wars Student- Rebecca Courte Teacher – Mrs O’Connor Prior to the Opium Wars in the 1800’s the Qing Dynasty had conquered more land than ever for China, its jurisdiction was nearly 10 million square kilometres but this cost them dearly and regardless of their prodigious feats, soon begun a slow decline. After following the example of Genghis Kahn and his nucleus of universal culture, the overthrow of the Ming dynasty was slightly less barbaric than previous dynasty collapses. But as the country became more peaceful the population boomed, trebling what it had been during the last century, this lead to famines, disease and overcrowding. Although their people were starving and living in poverty the country remained rich in resources such

During the 18th century, the British began trading opium to the Chinese. They had finally found a commodity the Chinese were willing to buy. Opium was an illicit drug with addictive properties. As demand on opium increased, the British traders made huge profits and the trade imbalance was reversed. There was now a steady flow of silver leaving China. In 1796, the Ch’ing government banned the importation of opium. This did not stop the British, who continued the trade illegally. As well, extensive corruption amongst Chinese officials allowed the opium trade to flourish.

Opium- an addictive drug originally used as a painkiller. It is obtained from the unripe seeds of the opium poppy and can be made into substances that a person can smoke causing relaxation, alleviated anxiety, and a state of euphoria. Continued use of the drug also induces deterioration to the mind and body of a person eventually causing death. The substance was therefore stated illegal in China during the late 18th Century yet consistently smuggled into the country via British merchant ships. As the Chinese placed more restrictions on trade in an effort to abolish the importation of opium, the battle against the drug raged on until war was unavoidable between England and China. It is this war that lasted from 1839-1842