THE OPIUM WARS OF CHINA Essays - Economic History Of China

THE OPIUM WARS OF CHINA By: Inaan Damaraju Tuesday May 9, 2016 Mrs. Linda Doolittle The Opium Wars of 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860 marked a new stage in Chinas affiliation with the West. Chinas military failures in these wars forced its rulers to sign treaties opening a great number of ports to foreign trade. The restrictions enforced under the Canton system were nullified. Opium, despite imperial restrictions, now became a regular item of trade. As opium choked the Chinese market, its price dropped, and local consumption of the drug increased swiftly. The drug infiltrated all levels of society, from the peasant to the nobles. In the new treaty ports, foreign traders worked together with a greater variety of Chinese merchants than under the Canton system, and they ventured deeply into the Chinese interior. Missionaries brought Christian values and teachings to villagers; the diplomatic rights obtained under the treaties protected them. Popular hostility to the new foreigners began to rise. The Opium wars are rightly named, as it was not trade, but rather unrestrict ed drug trade, the countries addiction to opium, weakened military and antagonism between the locals and foreigners that brought China down. Under the system enforced by the Qing dynasty to manage and control trade in the 18th century, Western traders were allowed to conduct trade only through the southern port of Canton (Guangzhou). They were restricted, and forced to reside in the city within a limited space, including their warehouses. They were prevented from bringing their family along, and they could not stay there more than a few months of the year. Qing officials closely watched over trading relations, allowing only approved merchants from Western countries to trade through a monopoly guild of Chinese merchants called the Cohong. Western merchants could not contact Qing officials directly, and there were no formal relations between China and Western countries. The Qing emperor regarded trade as a form a tribute, or gifts given to him personally to honor his greatness. Western traders, for their part, conducted trade through licensed monopoly companies, like Britains East India Company and the Dutch VOC. Despite th e great many restrictions, both sides found a way to make the situation favorable by learning how to make profits through cooperation with each other. The Chinese Hong merchants, the key middlemen between the foreign traders and the officials, developed close relations with Westerners, instructing them on how to conduct their business without bothering the Chinese bureaucracy. As the volume of trade grew, however, the British demanded more and more access to Chinas markets. Tea exports from China grew exponentially from 92,000 pounds in 1700 to 2.7 million pounds in 1751. By 1800 the East India Company was purchasing approximately 23 million pounds of tea per year all at a cost of of 3.6 million pounds of silver. Concerned that the China trade was draining England of all its silver, the British searched for a equivalent asset to trade for tea and porcelain. They found it in opium, which they planted in large quantities after they had taken Bengal, in India, in 1757. In 1816, Lord Ge orge Mcartney went on a mission to the court in Beijing in 1793 that was aimed to promote British trade by creating direct ties between the British government and the emperor. After his failure in 1816, the British were convinced that force as to only way to get China to open up its ports. The major Indian source of British opium pledged for China was in Patna, Bengal, where the drug was processed and packed into large 140-pound chests. The annual flow to China was approximately 4,000 chests by 1790, and a little more than double by the early 1820s. Imports began to increase at an astonishing rate in the 1830s, however, as free trade agitation gained strength in Britain and the East India Companys control over the Chinese international trade approached its termination date (in 1834). The Company became more dependent than ever on the revenue generated through opium. While private merchants hurried to increase their stake in the enticing trade. On the eve of the first Opium War, the British were shipping around 40,000 chests to China annually. By this date, it was