Brief Summary: The Adventures Of Hurst Castle

“The newly enacted customs regulations have had a most detrimental effect upon business. The original reforms back in 1763 and the Sugar Act of the following year have provided for what seem to me unlawful searches and seizures of ships and cargo. Violators of the law have had their ships and cargo taken by the British who in turn sell the assets. The proceeds are divided into thirds split evenly amongst the English treasury, the governor of the respective colony, and lastly the officers responsible for prosecuting the

To pay for the tea from China, the East India Company grew opium in India and sold it for silver in China. After a Chinese attempt to stop this, the Opium War broke out.

However, as the demand for tea increased, the items the British were exchanging for it, like the Indian cottons, were not enough to meet these demands. They started looking for other items to trade instead, to increase their profits, and found opium to be the best deal. The EIC were already growing opium in India, mainly for medicinal purposes, and although opium was banned in

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

The average price of imported opium was ten times greater than that of Cotton Yarn, the second highest average price import. The combined total value of imported opium alone was over 16 million Spanish dollars, while the total value of exported items was less than 23 million

William Thomas was 36 and the owner of a plantation in Virginia near Norfolk. He had a wife, two daughters, and a son who he intended to pass the plantation on to just as he father had to him. Following the events of Fort Sumter, he elected to join the Confederate army to defend against what he saw as the Union’s invasion.

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

Large quantities of heroin has been found and seized in major metropolitan and Ports of Entry areas.

With technically non-illegal smuggling bringing sugar, molasses, rum, and indigo coming in from smaller French colonies in the surrounding area, the English are forced to buy it wholesale from Monte Christi. The Spanish are obtaining it for almost nothing, and charging the English a greatly inflated price, which can understandably bring a negative connotation onto smuggling. From Richard Tyrell (doc 2), we can see the unfair advantage that smuggling can bring. With the French bringing in goods without tax, they don’t have to price it higher to make a profit, subsequently putting the English out of business. The French are putting the English out of business by underselling them all thanks to smuggling, which means both parties share the hatred of the British Empire and its collective wallet. Roger Elletson (Doc 3) explains how smuggling can not only hurt the British Empire economically but also physically—by reducing its population. By “freeing” slaves and selling them to the Spanish, smugglers had advanced from stealing money to stealing labor from the English, whom were less than happy to say the least. They did attempt to stop these smugglers from stealing money, as can be seen from John Orde’s (Doc 4) orders. The English attempted to stop smugglers from bringing in illicit goods to sell in English colonies in the first place, finally putting the metaphorical boot down. From his point of view, they were simply trying to prevent

About an hour upriver, they nearly ran aground a sandbar that jutted way out in a bend of the river. After another hour and a half, trying to sail upriver, Thomas realized they would not be able to do so… When he came through there previously, they had sailed out of Charleston Harbor, through Elliott’s Cut and then downriver to the Atlantic Ocean without a bit of trouble. This time, he was going in reverse. He told the crew

The economic prosperity of the colonies was primarily dependent on the amount of tobacco produced. The growing of tobacco, needed a large amount of land, with a large stable work force that was affordable, the planters of tobacco however were only receiving “the very scum and off-scouring” from England from the merchants who were supplying the servants

This essay deals with the three shortages of masts and timber in the 1770s, 1803, and 1808, and considers how the navy dealt with these shortages. In the War of American Independence and the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy often faced the risk of the shortages of these goods. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Britain gained the maritime supremacy in the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, and constructed many ships both for the navy and for the merchants. However, as Britain could not produce the sufficient quantity of naval stores in her own country, Britain depended on the import of naval stores from several areas. Masts from Norway, Russia, and New England, pitch and tar from Carolina, iron from Sweden, and hemp from Russia greatly contributed to British naval power in the long eighteenth century. The dependant position

Although many British opposed the bond, they signed. Finally, upon receiving all of the opium, he mixed approximately 20,000 chests of the drug with salt and lime and destroyed it all in the ocean.[9]

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.

It was such threats that prompted Palmerston of England to dispatch a warship to China to protect British property in 1837. Despite this, China still raged on against the narcotic and in March of 1839 convinced the head of the British trade commission at Canton, Captain Charles Elliot, to hand over more than 20,000 chests of opium. However, after the killing of a Chinese by drunken seamen and the lack of punishment put forth on them by the British, Lin suppressed all trade with England and proceeded with other measures as well. Lin ordered that delivery of all rice, tea, meat and fresh vegetables to the anchored ships at Macao to be intercepted and cut off. Freshwater springs that were known to be used by the British at various points along the coast were poisoned. Large banners were posted to warn Chinese villagers not to drink from the streams. Lin then pressured the Portuguese authorities at Macao to evict the British from their harbor, under penalty of severe trade restrictions. These drastic measures forced all of the British ships to retreat from Macao to Hong Kong by the middle of August.