“Coffee, Tea, or Opium?”
In “Coffee, Tea, or Opium,” the authors main point is that even at this point in history some rulers felt that drug importation throughout other countries was immoral for their economic and social status. China’s commissioner for foreign trade, Lin Zexu wanted to stop the illegal importation of opium into his country. Lin saw that the opium trade was damaging the publics health and was bleeding China of its wealth. The emperor of Manchu had given Lin extensive power and ordered him to control the demand of China’s people for opium and force the barbarian merchants to cut off the supply.
Throughout this article Wilson shows that as the years past the opium use in China grew substantially:
“During the trading season of 1816-17, about forty-six hundred 150-pound chests of opium entered China. This number rose to 22, 000 by 1831-32 and 35,000 by 1837-38.. That was more than 5.25 million pounds of opium, the carefully collected and dried sap extruded from 4.8 trillion opium poppies” (Wilson pg 38).
Not only was the did it spread rapidly into China, but other countries found that highly addictive substances made great profits in exportation. The traders were not the only men making a quick dollar, but the middlemen, and the farmers as well. The people that fell short we the addicts themselves and the importing countries, due to the fact that the opium ran up uncontrollable trade deficits.
England and other countries profited by exporting opium into China because these countries were receiving goods like tea and silk while China was getting opium. This meant that the other countries were getting items they could sell and receive items that were reusable or they could use for resell in their country for higher prices than what they had spent in China. Not only that but they could sell small amounts of opium for a large sum of money.
Lin wrote a letter to Queen Victoria to explain his troubles about the effects opium was having on his country, but to no avail. All he wanted was someone who understood his desire to stop the selling of opium in China. Hoping that the Queen would respond and agree with him never happened. Unfortunately the British were determined to keep the sales going even if it meant by force. They wanted to keep the profits in by taking some of China’s main ports.
The English accomplished this in several ways. Some of the “Unfair Treaties” forced the Chinese to allow the English ships into their ports and to allow them to have a major role in the trade market. The English wanted tea, porcelain, and silk from China. The Chinese, however, didn’t want the goods the English offered in return. The English began trading opium in return for the goods.
The Chinese would run the opium trade; cocaine would come from South America. The impact of this conspiracy, she asserted, could as of now been seen in the city of Edmonton, where Murphy was a police court officer (Mark Bourrie, 2015). In her book through various illustrations she mentioned about the “The Ring Victims.” Through her book “The Black Candle” she likewise specified that how the white race especially white girls and women were trapped by Chinamen in order to secure their services administration as sellers of opiates (Kulba, 85). She further discussed that it is not true that girls go to Chinamen because of the drug habit they learnt and request to satisfy their drug needs (Kulba, 85). Yet, “they are trapped and hunted like a game stalked to windwand and trapped by the Chinamen in order that she may be bent to his criminal purpose such as Libidinous desire” (233). Emily Murphy, in her book “the Black Candle” opposite to page 30 there is a photo of a white woman with an opium pipe; the caption stated as “An open-eyed insensate in the dread Valley of the Shadow of the Drug,” (Murphy, 1922). Below, another picture demonstrates the natural progression of The Ring’s victims: a completely dressed white lady leans back with shirtless black man (Kalunta-Crumpton, 333). The subtitle pursues: "When she procures the propensity, she doesn 't comprehend what lies before her; later she couldn 't care less." Opposite page 49, there’s a picture of a dark-skinned man and white woman, postured together, with opium paraphernalia in front of them. The caption says: “Once a woman has started on the trail of the poppy, the sledding is very easy and downgrade all the way.” The Ring was said to have its claws into Saskatoon, Calgary, Montreal and other Canadian cities where young women —
Ancient world civilizations always had, or still have, a tendency to place themselves at the center, or superior position. One of the biggest civilizations to do so is China, being the biggest trading post in the world at one time. One country that wanted to trade with China more than anyone else was Great Britain. British men wanted one thing, tea. But unfortunately the British didn’t have anything in return worth trading, so the idea of selling opium to Chinese men for silver and then giving the silver back to China as a trade deal came alive. The opium started to cause a social problem in China, causing Commissioner Lin (Lin Zexu) to write a letter to Queen Victoria in 1839, to fix the issue. In this letter, it is present that Commissioner Lin is sinophilic, and proves that China believes they are the center of every. Context clues of the words, “the Central land” being used multiple times in ways that put China on top of the world.
At the end of the eighteenth century, China’s goods were much desired by Britain. However, the Chinese saw Europeans as savages and did not want to trade with them. During trade, there was an imbalance in China’s favor, because the Europeans were forced to buy Chinese goods using silver. The Western Imperialists began to grow opium poppies from in India, and then smuggle them into China. China soon became addicted to the drug and spent most of it’s money on the purchase of it from the Europeans and Americans. This shifted the balance of power to be in Europe’s favor.
In the early 1950’s in Southeast Asia, the CIA organized the Nationalist Chinese army to start a war against Communist China. This Chinese army became the opium distributors of the “Golden Triangle” (parts of Burma, Thailand and Laos). The “Golden Triangle” has the most abundance of opium and heroin in the world. In order to smuggle drugs, the CIA’s main airline, Air America, flew drugs all over Southeast Asia. (Robbins 154)
The Opium Wars were a series of three wars between the Chinese and the British; primarily fought in regard to the illegal trade of opium in China during the 19th century. They manifested the conflicting natures of both nations and demonstrated China’s misconceptions of its own superiority. The Opium Wars resulted in the humiliating defeat of the Chinese to a country they considered to be “barbarians”.
Brecher, E. (n.d.). Opium Smoking Is Outlawed. Licit and Illicit Drugs. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/cu/cu6.htm
Heroin was originally synthesized in 1874 by a man named C.R Alder Wright. Created as a solution to opium, a drug that had plagued many American households. It was originally produced for medical purposes evidently becoming highly addictive. Heroin “... was originally marketed as a non-addictive substance” (“History of Addiction”) which inevitably increased its popularity. It became especially popular in places of poverty. Heroin became a solution to struggle. So common it was almost as if heroin was a prescribed medicine for hardship. Known as “[a] treatment of many illnesses and pain” (“A brief history of addiction”) but later revealed that it caused more harm than good. Being so easily accessible it became immensely common among musicians.
Hanes, William Travis, and Frank Sanello. Opium Wars: the Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Naperville, IL: Source, 2002. Print.
Allingham,, Philip V. "England and China: The Opium Wars, 1839-60." The Victorian Web: An Overview. 24 June 2006. Web. 06 Apr. 2011.
During this period, Qing officials overlooked the foreign brokers. By the early 1800’s, however, Great Britain began bartering for Chinese goods in non-monetary funds, opium.... ... middle of paper ... ... The Chinese culture witnessed poverty, social unrest, drug addictions, and government bankruptcy when foreign exploitation emerged.
Opium, the first opioid, is derived from the sap of opium poppies, whose growth and cultivation dates back to the ancient civilization of Mesopotamia around 3400 BC. Egyptians and Persians initially used opium. Eventually spreading to various parts of Europe, India, China, and the Middle East. During the 18th century, physicians in the U.S. used opium as a therapeutic agent for multiple purposes, including relieving pain in cancer, spasms from tetanus, and pain attendant to menstruation and childbirth. It was merely towards the end of the 18th century that some physicians came to recognize the addictive quality of opium.
Christian organizations had a meeting with congress and made a claim that drug abusers were hazardous, wicked individuals. These groups thought that the drug use among foreign individuals like the Chinamen and corrupt Mexicans were a threat for the American born individuals. These groups convinced Congress to criminalize drugs. One-hundred years ago some drugs was legal to possess and even children could buy drugs like morphine, opium, marijuana, and cocaine. These drugs if got caught with them today could result in a life sentence it today’s society.
The China today – powerful and ever-growing wasn’t always like this. One major event in history around the mid 1800s that we all have seemed to have forgotten was the Opium Wars. What really caused the opium war was when China wanted to halt all trades about opium with the British.
Opium was introduced to America when Chinese immigrants came to California in the 1850’s to work in the gold mines and on the railroads (DEA Museum). It didn’t take long for American’s to become addicted to opium. Opium dens became common in communities and women and young people started to take pleasure in the far off land of euphoria that opium provided. Due to the overgrowing popularity and concern of the affects this drug had taken on the population, the government tried to implement taxes. “Initially, opium was taxed, then licensed, then discouraged, and ultimately made illegal for most uses under the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914” (Drug Text)....