Opium Wars
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
There were two so-called Opium Wars between Britain and China. In the second, France fought alongside the British. The Opium Wars and the subsequent signing of various treaties led to the opening of ports in various parts of China.
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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 sold little in return. The drain on Europe's silver 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 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 an illegal trade of opium for silver in southern China. The British saw the potential profit in the opium trade (previously dominated by the Dutch-controlled Jakarta) when they conquered Bengal in 1764. Profits approached 400 per cent, and poppies grew almost anywhere.
British exports of opium skyrocketed from an estimated 15 tons in 1720, to 75 tons in 1773, shipped in over two thousand "chests", each containing 140 pounds (~64 kg) of opium.
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 (the Chinese could manufacture enough opium for medicinal purposes themselves) 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! He should be turned over to the Board of Punishment, and should be tried and severely sentenced.
- 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 addictive properties of the drug, the misery of the population in China, and the British Government's hunger for silver (see gold standard) combined to further the opium trade. In the 1820s opium trade averaged 900 tons per year from Bengal to China.
From the Napier Affair through the First Opium War (1834-1843)
- Main article: First Opium War
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 to control the opium trade at the port of Canton by the emperor. He immediately decided to enforce 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, 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.
Although Charles Elliot refused to allow British vessels to sail to China, a British ship - the Thomas Coutts - ignored Elliot, signed the bond and sailed to Canton. In an effort to prevent more ships doing so Elliot blockaded the Pearl River. When, in November of 1839, another British vessel - the Royal Saxon - attempted to sail to Canton, the Royal Navy fired on her. Chinese patrol boats attempted to protect the British ship but were destroyed by the British ships blockading the river. The British responded by sending more warships and soldiers, which arrived in June of 1840.
The British had superior firepower in their war with the Chinese. British warships attacked coastal towns at will, and British 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.
1843-1860
- Main article: Second Opium War
Further reading
- Jack Beeching, The Chinese Opium Wars (1975), ISBN 0156170949
