Opium and Trade Essay

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

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 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,

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

By 1839, war was imminent. The opium trade had caused the reversal of the silver deficit, now putting an economic strain on China, while Britain’s economy flourished from the profit they were making off the drug. Because it was being illegally imported, all of the money was going directly to Britain instead of to the Chinese government in the form of taxes. This caused a severe economic decline in China as unemployment rose, agriculture declined, and funding for public improvements diminished.

As a result of Britain’s presence in India, Britain “introduced Western education. This has brought an ancient and civilized nation in touch with modern thought, modern sciences, and modern life. [Britain] built an administration that is strong and efficient. [Britain] framed wise laws and have established courts of justice.” (Doc 12) Although India experienced many improvements in education and technology, China was left in a poor state. Doc 14 states that “[A chinese woman’s] husband sold everything [they] had.”, and this was the case for many Chinese people. Since many citizens were addicts, they were willing to sell everything they owned for money. As a result of opium, China had a growing poor rural population. There was also inflation and heavy taxes which didn’t help

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.

In the letter Lin Zexu sent to Queen Victoria, we can say that the Chinese feel that foreign relations are only good if each country benefits from it and is not harmed. He states in the first paragraph, “If there is profit, then he shares it with the peoples of the world; if there is harm, then he removes it on behalf of the world.” This could be a strategy he uses to persuade the Queen to prohibit the sale of Opium to China. The reason for this request is because it is causing addiction problems and death due to overdosing. This is considered harmful which is why he believes the Queen should prohibit the sale of opium. The decision to end this trade only occurred after the emperors own son died after overdosing. It took an important individual

Documen F is a collection of excerpts from the Treaty of Nanking, which is the document that ended the first Opium War. This document contains various benefits for the British such as the ceding of Hong Kong and the payment of six million dollars for the deaths of British soldiers during the war. This document expresses the actions of the British to extend further control over China by acquiring from them a major port and a significant sum of money. The Treaty of Nanking is one of many “unequal treaties” that the British employed to provide favorable conditions for themselves. Document G is written by Feng Kuei-Fen and articulates his discontent of British power over China.

The British citizens had started buying lots of Chinese tea, which the British government needed to find a way to balance because they were buying more resources than selling. To solve their deficit, Britain, attempted trading with China, however the Chinese were very cautious about trading with Western Countries. The Emperor felt that trading with the British could be destabilizing to the country, so he set aside certain ports for foreign trade only. At the time, China had a self-sustaining economy and did not need to trade with other countries, however, Britain did have one thing that the Chinese people wanted, opium. The demand for opium in China began to increase and so did the piracy and smuggling, so the Emperor prohibited opium in 1729. These restrictions angered the British and they demanded that they were changed, however, the Emperor stood firm. To get around the restrictions the British began selling opium in Calcutta, India, which is the closest part of India to China. The opium proved to be very good quality, so it was very high in demand and most people bought it. The use of opium among Chinese people had become very common and many people became addicts even though it was still illegal. In 1839, 5.639 million lbs./year of opium was being imported in, the Emperor order Commissioner Lin Zexu, to end the opium trade. Commissioner Zexu was very successful and retrieved 3 million lbs. Of opium, which took about 23 days to destroy. The British government was outraged by Commissioner Zexu’s actions and immediately sent in military

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

Nowadays, when someone thinks of Colombia, they unfortunately almost always think of two things, coffee and cocaine (with its associated guerilla warfare). It is true that during the last 50 years these two products, one legal, and the other not, have been great monetary contributors to the Colombian economy. Coffee is Colombia’s principal agricultural product, and it is also the country’s second largest export. The production of coffee uses 300,000 farms and employs almost one million people (Steiner 6). Conversely, cocaine is a completely illegal product, but it earns almost twice as much money as coffee (Steiner 6). Also, in contrast with the production of coffee, cocaine uses fewer employees but earns

There were many problems with the system of trade in China; even before opium trading began. China, believing herself to be the most civilized and advanced country, did not feel the need to satisfy Britain, a “barbarian” country’s request for freer trade and were concerned the British wanted land. Britain however,

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