Review
1793- Lord Macartney brought a letter
from King George III to Chinese emperor
Quian-long
 Britain wanted increased trade with
China.
 China was self-sufficient.
 Traded with Dutch who were willing to
follow their rules: kowtow and port
limitations.
 China retained its policy of isolationism.
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China rejected offers of trade because it was
largely self-sufficient.
 Agriculture: rice, maize, sweet potatoes and
peanuts
 Natural resources: salt, tin, silver, and iron
 Manufacturing: silks, cottons and porcelain
You are a local official in 19th-century China.
You are proud of your country, which
produces everything that its people need.
You discourage contact with foreigners.
People from the West are eager to trade
with China. Most foreign products are
inferior to Chinese goods. Britain determines
to force trade.
The British Answer

Opium: habit-forming narcotic made from
poppy plant.
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Not the California Poppy
Initially, opium was being used for pain
relief.
 British now smuggled opium in for
nonmedical use.
 By 1835, 12 million Chinese were addicted.
 1839, China begged Britain to stop. Pleas
were ignored ad the Opium War broke out.
 China was no match for Britain, and the
Treaty of Nanjing was signed in 1842.
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Two Perspectives
Chinese Official
British Merchant
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Free trade- Britain responding
to demand of Chinese people.
Economy of India and Britain
deeply tied to opium trade.
British demanded reparations
for the insult to British honor
and £2 million loss of
property in opium chests.
Merchants property was being
stolen. The merchants are the
ones being wronged. Violated
property rights.
British did not recognize
Chinese power over them.
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Opium is harmful to the
Chinese people.
British barbarians must stop.
Opium prohibited in China by
Commissioner Lin Zexu.
Blockaded the Canton port,
keeping foreign merchants
under house arrest until they
surrendered their chests of
opium for destruction.
Opium smugglers were
threatened with execution.
Merchants cont’d
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A pamphlet signed by “A British Merchant”
argued that the sale of opium was not immoral
because “the people of China were only too
willing to receive it. Surely, therefore, ‘no morale
will be urged against it.’”
Chinese people were culturally different and
therefore somehow culpable for their addiction.
Merchants not culpable as the opium trade was
sanctioned by the British government.
The government “consulted on every occasion
the wants and needs of Chinese consumers.”
The Chinese were also growing their own opium.
It would be unfair to bar British traders alone from
participating in the lucrative business of selling opium,
while other opium importers such as the Americans
reaped the benefits.
 “opium was probably less harmful than gin and anyway
it was the Chinese who insisted on smoking it...unless
one reduced demand, there was no point in trying to
strangle only one of several sources of supply.”
 Why was it on the shoulders of the British to consider
“preserving the morals of the Chinese people, who
were disposed to buy what other people were
disposed to sell them?”
 “The actions of the Chinese Commissioner had been
‘unjust and no better than robbery’”
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British merchants were paid in silver by the
Chinese. This was then used to buy tea from
the Chinese who now only accept trade
payment with silver.
 It would be for the interest of the Chinese
Government itself to alter the law of China
on this matter, and to legalize, by a regular
duty, a trade which they cannot prevent.
 Can the British merchants use the idea of
cultural Darwinism to support their actions?
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Chinese Officials
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China is not a barbarian country. It is equal to
Britain and should not be looked upon as a
country to be ignored. Rules should be respected
and followed.
It is a case of commercial and imperialist British
greed trying to force opium on the Chinese.
Opium addiction negatively impacts the work of
the Chinese.
Too much silver is leaving China to pay for opium
The Chinese expected foreign British government
officials to keep their merchants in order.
Parliament was unwilling to enforce Chinese laws
against British citizens on Chinese soil.
Officials con’d
China was an innocent victim of foreign
aggression and exploitation.
 Such persons who only care to profit themselves,
and disregard their harm to others, are not
tolerated by the laws of Heaven and are
unanimously hated by human beings.
 By what right do they then in return use the
poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people?
 The wealth of China is used to profit the
barbarians.
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Let us ask, where is your conscience? I have heard
that the smoking of opium is very strictly forbidden
by your country; that is because the harm caused by
opium is clearly understood. Since it is not permitted
to do harm to your own country, then even less
should you let it be passed on to the harm of other
countries—how much less to China!
 Is there a single article from China which has done
any harm to foreign countries? Take tea and rhubarb,
for example; the foreign countries cannot get along
for a single day without them.
 The fact is that the wicked barbarians beguile the
Chinese people into a death trap.

He who sells opium shall receive the
death penalty and he who smokes it also
the death penalty.
 In regard to those barbarians who bring
opium to China, the penalty is fixed at
decapitation or strangulation.
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Assignment
Assigned the position of British merchant or
Chinese official.
 Write a 1 ½ to 2 page persuasive essay,
supporting your position for or against the
opium trade in China.
 Practice persuading the opposition of your
point orally.
 Present your position to the class. Do not
read your paper. Be prepared enough to be
able to truly speak to us.You may use note
cards.
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