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The opium war influence of opium
Impact of colonialism on economy
The opium war influence of opium
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For All the Tea in China Response
Sara Rose begins her story For All the Tea in China by saying, “There was a time when maps of the world were redrawn in the name of plants, when two empires, Britain and China, went to war over two flowers: the poppy and the camellia.”(Prologue). The purpose of this book is to explain the growing tensions between Britain and China and how that tension then shaped the world. Sarah Rose stresses the importance of the opium and tea trade to the British Empire in this story. When the Chinese began the process to stop the sale of the opium to its citizens and closed the port of Canton to the India Tea Company, the British reacted with anger. They then decided it might would be a smart business move to create a source
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Indirectly, tea had a devastating social impact on China, as it led to the huge trade of Opium. As much as ten percent of the Chinese population (over forty million) were regular users of opium. China consumed ninety five percent of the world’s Opium supply. This had a devastating social impact on them because majority of the citizens there were addicted to it. Economically, because of the huge amounts of Opium that were imported into China, they could not export enough goods to equalize, causing the outflow of silver from China to Europe. The political impact in China included government attempts to stop the illegal trade of Opium (due to the social use of it) resulted in the blockading of European trading areas there. Britain retaliated, causing the Opium wars, through which, because of the British victory, Britain gained far greater access to the Chinese market and increased trading privileges. This also lead to Chinese workers being taken to the new world. Doing this introduced cheap labor to the new world. The Company’s need for tea in Europe, and the lack of Chinese interest in other British goods, led to the production of Opium in Bengal (by the British). This Opium was then traded with China in return for tea. By 1750, the East India Company established control over India's opium cultivation. The British exported the opium to China, which
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 East India Company enjoyed the exclusive legal right – a privilege granted by the British government – to import products from the Far East into Britain. Chinese tea, which was said to be more valuable than gold, was the company’s most lucrative commodity, accounting for over 90 percent of its commercial profits.
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.
In the first few months of 1773 the British East India Company found it was sitting on large stocks of tea that it could not sell in England. It was on the verge of bankruptcy, and many members of Parliament owned stock in this company. (USA, 1) The Tea Act in 1773 was an effort to save it. The Tea Act gave the company the right to export its merchandise without paying taxes. Thus, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. By October, the Sons of Liberty in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston threatened tea imports and pledged a tea boycott.
In order to save Britain's largest business, the East India Company, from going bankrupt, Parliament passed the Tea Act in May 1773 (Chapter 5). Although the Act lowered the prices, the Americans preferred the cheaper leaves that were illegally brought in from Holland (Chapter 5). Parliament allowed the East India Company to sell directly to American retailers, which cut out “middlemen” and it also eliminated duties that were paid in England (Chapter 5). Like all the other acts, the Tea Act was none other than a scheme for Parliament's support to tax colonists without any representation (Chapter 5). Another problem that occurred was that the act threatened to place powerful colonial merchants who smuggled Dutch tea, out of business (Chapter 5). This of course would not settle down well with the Americans considering their love for cheap Dutch tea. In the colonies, the colonists turned back the tea ships before any problems occured (Chapter 5). However, in Boston, Governor Hutchinson would not allow the ships carrying East India Company’s tea back to England (Chapter 5). The ships remained in Boston Harbor until a drastic event occurred. On December 16, 1773 a group of colonists men, dressed up as indians and dumped the tea over the Boston Harbor (Chapter 5). It was a reckless idea considering they were dumping tea worth than thousand euros (Chapter
Because of this, foreigners had to pay for their things in silver. Therefore, in 1793, Britain sent the Macartney mission which was a plan to send their men to talk to China about purchasing their goods which did not go in their favor. There were two things that Britain had over China, machines and weapons and opium. Opium was an illegal drug that people were addicted too but China didn’t have much of it so, In response to the rejection from China, the opium trade took place. British smuggled it into China from India and sold it to the Chinese people and the value of opium “eventually exceeded that of all Chinese goods sold to British, shifting the trade balance in Britain’s favor and causing silver to flow out of China” (Judge and Landon pg.
“Who am I? I am Chinese. If so, why don’t I think like one? I’m Canadian. But I don’t look like one.
In the beginning of 1773, the East India Company saw that they had large amount of tea in stock and could not get it to move or sell at all in England; they were on the track to bankruptcy. With the Tea Act, it was here to save this from happening. The Tea ...
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.
It seemed as if tea was a drug for the Europeans because for them it was just so addicting, to the point they would do anything just to get more and more. The only things that were worthy of trading with the Chinese were gingko (type of plant), shark fin, a soft type of wood (used for incense) and silver. As the demand for tea rose, Britain gradually ran out of silver to trade with, and was desperate to find what China wanted. Then, the British resorted to trading in opium. China was very picky about their opium.
Throughout the years Britain had always tried to use the Chinese markets to their advantage. This is what was seen as the biggest and only cause towards starting the First Opium War. Although the British were gaining a profit from selling their own goods to Chinese consumers, they were not making enough to counter the massive amount of spending they were doing on Chines...
Amitav Ghosh’s novel Sea of Poppies is a description of colonialism and its effect on the environment. The novel deals with the cultivation of opium and its harmful effect on the life of the people and the environment. In my paper, I will be dealing with the changes that occur due to the cultivation of opium and how its addiction leads to the death of Hukum Singh. People are compelled by the British to grow opium in their fields. Opium affects the normal behavior of birds, animals and insects in the novel.
Fay, Peter Ward. 1997. Opium War, 1840-1842 : Barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the Early Part of the Nineteenth Century and the War By Which They Forced Her Gates Ajar. University of North Carolina Press, 1997. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed December 4, 2011).