Opium Wars

The Opium Wars (simplified Chinese: 鸦片战争; traditional Chinese: 鴉片戰爭; pinyin: Yāpiàn Zhànzhēng), or the Anglo-Chinese Wars were two wars fought around the middle of the 19th century (1840-1843 and 1856-1860 respectively) that were the climax of a long dispute between China and Britain. In the second war, France fought alongside Britain. Britain was smuggling opium from British India into China, and when China attempted to enforce her laws against the trade, the conflict erupted.

China succumbed in both wars and was forced to tolerate the opium trade and sign Unequal Treaties opening several ports to foreign trade and yielding Hong Kong to Britain. Several countries followed Britain and forced unequal terms of trade onto China. This humiliation at the hand of foreign powers contributed to the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), to the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) and to the eventual downfall of the Qing Dynasty (1911).

Background

Direct maritime trade between Europe and China (without Arabic intermediaries) started in the 16th century, after Portuguese settlement of Goa in India, shortly followed by Macau in southern China. After Spanish acquisition of the Philippines, the pace of exchange between China and the West accelerated dramatically. Manila galleons brought in far more silver to China than the ancient land route in interior Asia (the Silk Road). The Qing government attempted to limit contact with the outside world to a minimum for reasons of internal control. Qing only allowed trade through the port of Canton (now Guangzhou). Severe red-tape and licensed monopolies were set up to restrict the trade flow. The result were high retail prices for imported goods and limited demand for imported goods. In order to prevent a trade deficit, Spain began to sell opium to the Chinese, along with New World products such as tobacco and corn.

As a result of high demand for tea, silk and porcelain in Britain and the low demand for British commodities in China, Britain had a large trade deficit with China and had to pay for these goods with silver. In an attempt to balance its trade deficit Britain began illegally exporting opium to China from British India in the 18th century. The opium trade took off rapidly, and the silver flow began to reverse. The sale and smoking of opium had been prohibited in 1729 by the Yongzheng Emperor because of the large number of addicts.

The growth of the opium trade

After Britain had conquered Bengal in the Battle of Plassey (1757), the British East India Company pursued a monopoly on production and export of opium in India.

In 1773, the Governor-General of Bengal pursued the monopoly on the sale of opium in earnest, and abolished the old opium syndicate at Patna. For the next 50 years, opium would be key to the East India Company's hold on India. Importation of opium into China was against Chinese law (although China did produce a small quantity domestically). Thus, the British East India Company would buy tea in Canton on credit, carrying no opium, but would instead sell opium at the auctions in Calcutta. Eventually, the opium would be 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.

British exports of opium to China skyrocketed from an estimated 15 tons in 1730, to 75 tons in 1773, shipped in over two thousand "chests", each containing 140 pounds (64 kg) of opium.

Thus, in 1799, the Chinese Empire again banned opium imports. Shortly after, in 1810, the Empire issued an official decree:

Opium has a harm. 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!

However, recently the purchases, eaters, and consumers 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 since the Qing government was located in Beijing, in the north. However, the merchants smuggled opium into China from the south. This, along with the addictive properties of the drug, the desire for more profit by the British East India Company and merchants, and the fact that Britain wanted silver (see gold standard) only further developed the opium trade. By the 1820s, 900 tons of opium per year came into China from Bengal.

From the Napier Affair through the First Opium War (1834–1843)

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 2 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 implored them to force open the port.

Within the Chinese mandarinate, there was an ongoing debate over legalizing the opium trade itself. However, this idea was repeatedly rejected and instead, in 1838, the government decided to sentence native drug traffickers to death. Around this time, the British were selling roughly 1,400 tons per year to China. In March of 1839, the Emperor appointed a new strict Confucianist commissioner, Lin Zexu to control the opium trade at the port of Canton. His first course of action was 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 27, 1839, Charles Elliot, British 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 strict condition that no more drugs would be smuggled into China. Lin demanded that British merchants had to sign a bond promising not to deal in opium under penalty of death.^[1] The British officially opposed signing of the bond but some British merchants that did not deal in opium were willing to sign. Lin then disposed of the opium, by dissolving it with water, salt and lime and dumping it into the ocean.

In 1839, Lin (who was still of the opinion the the "real" British were capable of moral excellence and virtuous conduct) too the extraordinary step of presenting a "memorial" (摺奏) directly to Queen Victoria questioning the moral reasoning of the royal government. Citing the strict prohibition of the opium trade within England, Ireland, and Scotland, Lin questioned how Britain could then profit from the drug in China. He also wrote:"Your Majesty has not before been thus officially notified, and you may plead ignorance of the severity of our laws. But I now give my assurance that we mean to cut this harmful drug forever.". Contrary to the accepted Chinese bureaucratic etiquette, though which such missives directly engaged the Emperor, Lin's memorial was never accorded a response.^[2]

To their eternal shame, the British government and merchants offered no response to Lin's moral questions. Instead, they accused Lin of destroying their private property. The British then responded by sending a large British Indian army, which arrived in June of 1840.^[3]

British military superiority was clearly evident during the armed conflict. British warships reaped havoc on coastal towns. In addition, the British troops, armed with modern muskets and cannons, greatly outpowered the Qing forces. After the British took Canton, they sailed up the Yangtze and took the tax barges. This was a devastating blow to the Empire since it slashed 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. In the treaty, China agreed to open several low-tariff trade ports to Britain, yielded Hong Kong to Britain, and allowed British missionaries to work in China.

Second Opium War (1856-1860)

Notes and references

^ Coleman, Anthony (ed., 1999). Millennium, pp. 243, 244. Transworld Publishers. ISBN 0-593-04478-9.
^ Modern History Sourcebook:Commissioner Lin:Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839
^ Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China 2nd ed., pp. 153-155. Maple-Vail, Binghamton.

External links

Ch'ing China: The Opium Wars

[1] Coleman, Anthony (ed., 1999). Millennium, pp. 243, 244. Transworld Publishers. ISBN 0-593-04478-9.

[2] Modern History Sourcebook:Commissioner Lin:Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839

[3] Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China 2nd ed., pp. 153-155. Maple-Vail, Binghamton.

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