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How Britain Got China Hooked on Opium
When I say “large scale drug dealing syndicate”, most people think of Pablo Escobar and his cartels, but Pablo is nothing compared to the British Empire.
The Gateway:
In the mid-1700s, the British were buying lots of Chinese goods such as tea, silk and porcelain. However, they didn’t have anything the Chinese wanted, so English silver kept pouring into China. To combat this, the British began trading opium (grown in India) to the Chinese. It worked, opium consumption in China skyrocketed, as did their profits. Basically, the British became opium drug dealers to fuel their own “tea addiction”.
The Addiction:
At the height of the narcotics trade, approximately 12 million Chinese were addicted to opium. In India, farmers were killed if they refused to farm poppy flowers for opium production.
The Withdrawal:
Commissioner Lin ZeXu saw the damage and banned opium trading. However, the British continued smuggling it into the country. Lin then seized and destroyed 2.6 million pounds of opium into the ocean. This angered the Brits and prompted the First Opium War. The Chinese army was weak due to the addiction and outdated weaponry, they lost, leading to the lease of Hong Kong. The British, with France, gained even more from China by starting and winning the Second Opium War.
The Relapse:
The Rehab:
In the state they were in, it’s astonishing to see China’s growth as a major superpower today. The same, unfortunately, can’t be said about India, who often still reels from its colonial past.
Opium has heavily financed the British (and the West) in their imperial endeavours. Many wealthy families today (ie. Forbes and Roosevelts) got their opulence from opium. As always, this is a major simplification, but knowing this part of history makes me think that England’s national flower – the Red Tudor Rose looks more like poppies 🥀
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