China – The First Opium War, 1839-42

China and the West – 2000 Years of Trade

 China in the 19th century:
o Period of intense competition between the British and French empires
 Napoleonic wars, colonisation, the growth of South Africa, South
America and South-East Asia
o Spices lure the west into the area of Eastern Asia
 Arab sea trade dominates the trade with the east at first
 Wherever people had the money for silk etc. they spent it – most silk came from
China, known as the ‘silk people’ in Latin
 However, the Portuguese take across this trade in the 16th century – expanding
further into the east, bringing with them opium for trading, which had already been
traded (had been grown on the Anatolian peninsular)
 Spices had been worth more than gold, and were heavily guarded
 17th-18th century the Portuguese establish state monopolies etc. over trading (East
India Companies)
 The most successful East-Indian Company was that of the Dutch (established in order
to trade spices, quickly formed plantations – sometimes enslaving, sometimes not)
 Nutmeg was the most important item being exported back into Europe, sometimes
believed to be the beginning of modern capitalism (along with Tulips)
 Arab trade – Portuguese trade – Dutch trade
 Early 17th century the Dutch open the trade routes all the way to japan
 Most importantly, trade ports (belonging to the Chinese Junk trade, using flat-
bottomed ships to sail into harbours – a trade going on since the 13 th century
o In Southeast – the strait of Malacca etc. – has Chinese trade ports which the
Portuguese and Dutch needed to cooperate with for insight into the local
trade patterns and navigational assistance
th
 Mid 18 century – the Manchu had ruled china for 100 years (1644 the Ming empire
was conquered by a blend of Manchu, North Mongolian and Chinese troops who
become the Ching dynasty)
o This made the rulers foreigners
o This meant the relationship with the westerners was different – two sets of
foreigners vying for control of China
 The Qianlong Emperor was on the throne 60 years (alive 1711-99), and under him
China saw unprecedented growth

Coastal Trade in China in the 17th-18th Centuries

 East India companies beginning to trade in the 17th-18th Centuries
 Myth – China was a closed country which went to lengths in order to stop trade
o Wrong – however there is a grain of truth
o The Chinese authorities (the Qing Government (from 1644)) created a system
of ports for the foreigners to trade through (primarily the Japanese, Korean,
South-eastern territories etc.)
o One of the territories opened up was Taiwan – before it had no relationship
with China
  Changed when the authorities in the Fujian Province created a formal
administrative link with the Island, thereon having a key link to trade
and China
 The Dutch had the first settlement in Taiwan, acting as an intermediatory between
the natives and the Chinese
o They were the only ones allowed to trade with Japan, and Taiwan was an
important stopping point
 Middle of the 18th century there was a huge period of unrest (the three feudatories
uprising)
o Created by warlords keen on seeing the end of centralised power
o Koxinga was a warlord in Taiwan – celebrated as a national hero as he ended
the rule of the Dutch in Western Taiwan
 Significant as he was a Chinese person in charge
 So when the warlord was defeated, the Qing authorities were in
power over Taiwan
 Taiwan was a significant loading bay from the mainland and between the west and
China
 Tabaco and Opium were both significant imports
 Opium had a story of Chinese invention – illegal in mainland china
 China did not restrict trade with the west, but Piracy was extremely common in
areas such as the Pearl River Delta (filled with small islands, primed for Pirates)
 Due to the pirate problem trading had to be concentrated
 The first westerners after the Portuguese were the ‘red hand pirates’ as they began
to flout the trade routes established by the Qing Dynasty (allowed and forbade
certain commodities, including opium (which was not allowed for medicinal
purposes))
o If opium was found on ships, the entire commercial operation for that
company was banned from China, so most countries stuck to the limitations
 This was not contentious
 The first prohibition of opium anywhere was in China, 1729, where the emperor
banned the smoking of opium in tobacco products
 Qianlong emperor in his last year in office realises a new opium is reaching the
borders (by that point western trade had been limited to one port, in Guangzhou)
o The system adopted by the empire was to have the state as a major actor in
commercial transactions in commodities significant to the state
o This meant the western traders could not directly contact their Chinese
counterparts, had to go through a government official
o Both the western and Chinese companies became rich out of this, so banks
were being established (very significant for the western traders)
 Trade worked without access to any payment except silver
 Mexican silver was distributed by the Spaniards, with their Inca silver mines
supplying the world’s trade
 This silver was transported on galleons, key targets for pirates who were a menace
everywhere
The Growth of the Opium Trade: Part 1
  Non-medical opium was first brought into China by the Dutch, who were the most
successful opium traders in southern Asia
o They utilised Indian opium, exporting it to South-East Asia
o It was in South-East Asia that opium in long pipes was first smoked
 India from 18thcentury onwards was a territory in transition, the old empire replaced
by the British (through their commercial power)
o One of the British products was opium – exported to SE Asia
o One attempt to export opium to southern China by the East India company –
commercial flop, the Chinese were disinterested in it as it was too weak and
too cheap
 1780s – East India company plants a new strain of Opium, eliminating the weaker
strains
o Once a strong opium had been created, it was marketed as expensive
o This was the beginning of the British Opium trade
 The Opium which reached Southern China was introduced gradually through Junk
ships, which unloaded into smaller boats, then rowing boats
 In some cases Officials were aware, but little effort was put into stopping it as it was
fairly harmless, easy to bribe officials, and the long border made enforcing any anti-
opium efforts impossible
 Traders traded on behalf of the East India company, in order for the East India
company not to risk its trading rights
The Growth of the Opium Trade: Part 2
 When private traders began to supplant the use of silver with opium a new chapter
began
 Opium had been used medically for many years, but around the turn of the 19 th
century it was the private traders who brought in opium, no longer medically
 Private traders flouted the rules of the Qing Emperors
 Increasingly the Qing authorities worried
o They resorted to a self-destructive policy, relocating British traders outside of
the harbour, then further down the river, and then to an island in the Pearl
river estuary
o This island was very hard to police, and made it easy to hide contraband
 The import of opium started to cause a loss in the Chinese economy – as silver gave
way to opium, silver was reduced dramatically
The Case For and Against Opium
 Once opium smoking was introduced it spread at an exponential rate – far faster
than the Tabaco smoking had
 This was due to the easy recycling of the opium paste – once the original paste was
smoked it could be re-smoked multiple times
o It could then be sold as ashes, or dregs, which could be bought by poorer
clientele
o The poorest people would second-hand smoke it
o Therefore, no-one missed out on the pleasure
 Opium was not awful – it was used medically for 2000 years
 Confucianism
o 16th-19th century
 o Encouraged puritanical convictions, and opium was increasingly targeted by
intellectuals who saw it as a decadent way of living, which had no space in
the elite society
o Chinese intellectuals were the backbone of Chinese administration
 All Chinese admin was trained in Confucianism
 Countermovement in mid 1830s – orchestrated by a group of Confucian scholars
who influence the emperor, see opium smoking as an attack on the purity of the
empire
o Lin Zexu (now a national hero) stood up against the British, entering the
scene when the Dougong emperor gave his full support to efforts of
constraining the entrance of Opium into the country
The Causes of First Opium War
 1834 – the first-time representatives of Britain attempted to break the stalemate of
Chinese obstructions on Opium trading (impasse)
o Lord Napier, arriving 1834, uses the military to attack – setting a precedent,
used five years later in the Opium wars
 This was the first Sino-British war (1839)
 Was it about Trade?
o Traditional interpretation
o If the object had not been opium, would this have happened
 Was it generated by a dynasty undergoing decay?
o The inner-opium theory
o From 1810s onwards – more and more internal uprisings, some classical
peasant ones, other ideological ones
o These saw the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty as a main aim
o This was due to the Chinese dealing with ideological and religious change
o The more violently the Qing Dynasty supressed these, the more violently
these became
o Had a tendency of over-reacting to challenges
o This sees the suppression of the Opium exports as indicative of the internal
problems felt n=in the Qing empire
o Also, a rift between the Manchu and Han admin – but should not be over-
emphasised, as the inter-ethnic strife only begins at the end of the 19 th
century
 Was it Ideological?
o Seeing the purity of Chinese Society as the most important aspect
o Therefore, the fight against opium as evil was the basis of the struggle
o Fight between the Chinese and the western Imperialists? Opium imported to
break the Chinese Spirit
 Charles Eliot repeated Napier’s actions – Opium kept in the harbour, not released
voluntarily, except for the firm promise that they never trade in Opium again, and
that the British should stick to the rules of the Canton trading system
The First Opium War
 The war itself was relatively short, focussing on the issue of what to do with the
opium that had been unloaded in the port during 189
o Needed to be sold or returned to the British traders who had brought it there
  Lord Palmerston was the foreign secretary of British, capable of sending a military
force to China
 Many traders supported the Chinese conditions, whished to trade within the rules
 Lack of a clear line was obvious in Britain – majority in Parliament argued against
military conflict
 The war party had no majority in the public either in 1839
 In the midst of this lack of clarity a group of opium traders advocated a military
solution – reinforcements demanded, with them quickly arriving
 By 1840 there was an undeclared war, many skirmishes, with Chinese war Junks and
coastal defences
 Britain uses gradually more industrial modernity, eventually winning due to their
technological superiority
 The war extended with the sacking of Guangzhou, up the coastline
 Developing diplomacy behind the intensive standoff 1839-41, with warfare
alternating with diplomacy
o An ill-defined event
o On the diplomatic front
 British demand the ‘most favoured nations status’ – that their traders
gained the same rights as the other nationalities, as well as a number
of ports for British trade, leading to a treaty-port-system
 Also demanded the impunity of British subjects involved in criminal
acts, that these people be excluded from Chinese administration and
treated as if in British territory
 This meant any British person was subject only to British law
 These three elements were the demands of the British traders
 Rejected by the Chinese – Lin Zexu writes a letter to Queen Victoria,
emphasising the nature of the Cargo
 Despite this the negotiations eternally rose up
 1841 – the first agreement between Britain and China, taking up the
demands of free trade and extra-territoriality without agreeing to
them
 Leads to the Treaty of Nanking – framework for ending the canton
system and creating the alternative, which went along 5 secluded
ports
 The only port that could be accessed by ocean-going vessels
was Guangzhou
 The Treaty of the Bogue – singed 1843 – was the treaty that gave
shape to the five port system rather than the one port (canton)
system
 Problem – British demanded one place to develop their own harbour
 There was a long line of treaties, gradually the British taking more and more port
rights
The Consequences of the First Opium War
 The diplomatic efforts resulted in a sequence of treaties known as the ‘unequal
treaties’
 China did not receive the Shandong Peninsular back after the Treaty of Versailles – it
was given to Japan
 o This was seen as an act of imperialism by Chinese Imperialism
 Henceforth all national humiliation was traced back to the Opium Wars
 Seen as the beginning of Modernity
 This is not correct – The foreigners played a more minute role than they are played
up to have
 The Qing had copied in their negotiations with the British etc. that territory should
be exchanged for trade
 The early Qing Empire – Nerchinsk and Kyakhta – they consented to the transfer of
land in order to allow trade
 There was discontent, but it was not seen as a national humiliation – there was no
concept of the nation of china
 Why preserve the Opium wars?
o In the minds of the Chinese this was what defined the relationship between
the Chinese and the west, all Chinese learn it in their history books
 Anyone connected to china must remember this
o Leads us to redefine the role of Opium
 From the may 4th movement onwards Opium was seen as demoniacal
substance, leading to the Chinese decline
 This negative interpretation of opium is still present in China
