On This Day: China tries to stop Britain from forcing Chinese to get hooked on opium - June 3, 1839
(edited from Wikipedia)
"
[Britain turns toward dealing narcotics]
In the 18th century, the demand for Chinese luxury goods (particularly silk, porcelain, and tea) created a trade imbalance between China and Britain. European silver flowed into China through the Canton System, which confined incoming foreign trade to the southern port city of Guangzhou. To counter this imbalance, the British East India Company began to grow opium in Bengal and allowed private British merchants to sell opium to Chinese smugglers for illegal sale in China. The influx of narcotics reversed the Chinese trade surplus, drained the economy of silver, and increased the numbers of opium addicts inside the country, outcomes that seriously worried Chinese officials.
In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor, rejecting proposals to legalise and tax opium, appointed Viceroy of Huguang Lin Zexu to go to Canton to halt the opium trade completely.
[Moral appeal to Queen Victoria to stop]
Lin wrote an open letter to Queen Victoria appealing to her moral responsibility to stop the opium trade, although she never received it.
Soon after his arrival in Guangdong in the middle of 1839, Lin wrote a memorial to the "Ruler of England" in the form of an open letter published in Canton, urging England to end the opium trade.
["Poison in return"]
He argued that China was providing Britain with valuable commodities such as tea, porcelain, spices and silk, with Britain sending only "poison" in return. He accused the foreigner traders of coveting profit and lacking morality. His memorial expressed a desire that the ruler would act "in accordance with decent feeling" and support his efforts. Since he believed that opium was banned in the United Kingdom, he thought it was wrong for Queen Victoria to support it in China. He wrote:
We find that your country is sixty or seventy thousand li from China. The purpose of your ships in coming to China is to realize a large profit. Since this profit is realized in China and is in fact taken away from the Chinese people, how can foreigners return injury for the benefit they have received by sending this poison to harm their benefactors?
They may not intend to harm others on purpose, but the fact remains that they are so obsessed with material gain that they have no concern whatever for the harm they can cause to others. Have they no conscience? I have heard that you strictly prohibit opium in your own country, indicating unmistakably that you know how harmful opium is. You do not wish opium to harm your own country, but you choose to bring that harm to other countries such as China. Why?
The products that originate from China are all useful items. They are good for food and other purposes and are easy to sell. Has China produced one item that is harmful to foreign countries? For instance, tea and rhubarb are so important to foreigners' livelihood that they have to consume them every day. Were China to concern herself only with her own advantage without showing any regard for other people's welfare, how could foreigners continue to live?
I have heard that the areas under your direct jurisdiction such as London, Scotland, and Ireland do not produce opium; it is produced instead in your Indian possessions such as Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Patna, and Malwa. In these possessions the English people not only plant opium poppies that stretch from one mountain to another but also open factories to manufacture this terrible drug.
As months accumulate and years pass by, the poison they have produced increases in its wicked intensity, and its repugnant odor reaches as high as the sky. Heaven is furious with anger, and all the gods are moaning with pain! It is hereby suggested that you destroy and plow under all of these opium plants and grow food crops instead, while issuing an order to punish severely anyone who dares to plant opium poppies again.
A murderer of one person is subject to the death sentence; just imagine how many people opium has killed! This is the rationale behind the new law which says that any foreigner who brings opium to China will be sentenced to death by hanging or beheading. Our purpose is to eliminate this poison once and for all and to the benefit of all mankind.
Lin Zexu
The letter elicited no response (sources suggest that it was lost in transit), but it was later reprinted in the London Times as a direct appeal to the British public.
[Dumping of 2.37 million pounds of opium into the sea begins Chinese modern era]
Lin then resorted to using force in the western merchants enclave.
In March 1839, Lin started to take measures that would eliminate the opium trade. He was a formidable bureaucrat known for his competence and high moral standards, with an imperial commission from the Daoguang Emperor to halt the illegal importation of opium by the British. He made changes within a matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700 Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000 opium pipes. He initially attempted to get foreign companies to forfeit their opium stores in exchange for tea, but this ultimately failed.
Wanting [to] stamp down on the illegal trade, senior government officials within the country had been shown to be colluding against the imperial ban due to stocks of opium in European warehouses in clear view being ignored. He arrived in Canton at the end of January and organized a coastal defense.
In March, British opium dealers were forced to hand over 2.37 million pounds of opium. On 3 June, Lin ordered the opium to be destroyed in public on Humen Beach to show the Government's determination to ban smoking.
[Lin apologizes to the gods]
Beginning 3 June 1839, 500 workers laboured for 23 days to destroy it, mixing the opium with lime and salt and throwing it into the sea outside of Humen Town. Lin composed an elegy apologising to the gods of the sea for polluting their realm.
All other supplies were confiscated and a blockade of foreign ships on the Pearl River was ordered.
[Royal navy crushes China]
Tensions escalated in July after British sailors killed a Chinese villager and the British government refused to hand the accused men over to Chinese authorities. Fighting later broke out, with the British navy destroying the Chinese naval blockade, and launching an offensive. In the ensuing conflict, the Royal Navy used its superior naval and gunnery power to inflict a series of decisive defeats on the Chinese Empire.
["Unequal treaties"]
In 1842, the Qing dynasty was forced to sign the Treaty of Nankingthe first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treatieswhich granted an indemnity and extraterritoriality to British subjects in China, opened five treaty ports to British merchants, and ceded Hong Kong Island to the British Empire.
["Century of humiliation"]
Consequently, the opium trade continued in China. Twentieth-century nationalists considered 1839 the start of a century of humiliation, and many historians consider it the beginning of modern Chinese history.
The failure of the treaty to satisfy British goals of improved trade and diplomatic relations led to the Second Opium War (185660). The resulting social unrest was the background for the Taiping Rebellion, which further weakened the Qing regime.
[Lin a national hero]
In China, Lin is popularly viewed as a national hero. June 3the day when Lin confiscated the chests of opiumis unofficially celebrated as Opium Suppression Movement Day in Taiwan, whereas June 26 is recognized as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in honour of Lin's work. Monuments to Lin have been constructed in Chinese communities around the world. A statue of Lin stands in Chatham Square in Chinatown, New York City, United States. The base of the statue is inscribed with "Pioneer in the war against drugs" in English and Chinese. A wax statue of Lin also appeared in Madame Tussauds wax museum in London.
Lin is remembered for a couplet he wrote while serving as an imperial envoy in Guangdong:
海納百川,
有容乃大。
壁立千仞,
無欲則剛。
The sea accepts the waters of a hundred rivers,
Its tolerance results in its grandeur.
The cliff towers to a height of a thousand ren,
Its lack of desire gives it its resilience.
In particular, the first half of the couplet was chosen as the motto for Chinese Wikipedia.
"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Zexu
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EYESORE 9001
(27,427 posts)All youve got to do is follow the worms.
magicarpet
(16,126 posts)Your consumer audience and customers who are addicted to the commodities you have to offer.
They don't just call back,.. they come beat down and kick in your door.
With properly trained Rottweilers, Dobermans, and big burly German Shepards you can retain your profit margins and dissuade your clients from ransacking your place and your stash.
Other than that a positive cash flow is pretty much assured when you deal in opium derivatives. The gift of addiction from the poppy seed. Synthetic fentanyl is even better when it comes to a repeat customer base.
Doc Sportello
(7,950 posts)In fact, it helped add to the generational wealth of families like the Astors, Delanos and Forbes.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/american-old-money-opium-trade-fortunes/
https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1038&context=econ_workingpapers
jgo
(982 posts)Doc Sportello
(7,950 posts)The involvement of America's elites and government in the illegal drug trade is a long and hypocritical one.
niyad
(119,152 posts)The US does as well when it comes to deliberately addicting a population.