The
cultural, political, and economic aspects of the opium trade in China were in fact highly
intertwined. Opium was cultivated in Central and South Asia, and marketed in China by the
British East India Company (EIC). Of course, opium is a highly addictive drug, and its use led
to widespread addiction of epidemic proportions in Chinese cities, especially among young men.
Contemporary sources indicate that untold thousands of opium addicts died as a result of the
drug.
The economics of the opium trade were fairly simple. The EIC imported a
variety of goods from China, especially silk, and opium was seen as a way to gain a favorable
balance of trade that would not drain British reserves of hard currency. In many ways, the opium
trade, and the widespread addiction that accompanied it, were seen by the ruling Qing dynasty of
China as symbolic of the ways in which the Chinese were victimized by Western trade,
particularly with the British Empire. Opium was also seen, justifiably, as an example of the
corrupting influence of trade. The trade had long been outlawed by the Qing for this very
reason, and politically, EIC defiance of the ban, which amounted to flagrant, state-backed drug
smuggling, called the authority of the Emperor into question. Matters worsened when the EIC's
monopoly over trade expired, which allowed dozens of independent companies to enter the
lucrative opium trade in the late 1830s. Thus Chinese authorities undertook a program to stamp
out opium use, even confiscating it and threatening to execute those caught selling
it.
Faced with the loss of a lucrative trade, the British government went to
war, with the Royal Navy devastating several Chinese cities. The war ended in defeat for the
Qing, and had the effect of exacerbating the trade, and giving the British even more
control--economic and political--over China. As a direct consequence of the war, British
merchants gained valuable and direct footholds over Chinese coastal cities, particularly Hong
Kong.
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