FOR NJOSH ONLY

"Past History and Political Economy." 

The cultivation of opium and its trade can be traced back to the ancient world and Afghanistan. The ancient Afghans sold it to the rest of present-day Middle East and the far Orient. Over time, opium cultivation spread to other parts of the Orient. In modern times, the story of the opium trade is very interesting.  It was the British through the East Indian Company, in collaboration with the monarch of England that made the trade in opium a subject for great historical discourse. Trade in opium posed high risks and created opportunities for vast profits that raise questions of the morality of traders and the remnants of which remain highly visible in Mumbai today. The trade dramatically altered the fortunes of communities in India and China and relations between the two nations, while also fueling the growth of international trade networks that spread all around the world.

The story of opium trade in India and Mumbai bring to the fore the Parsis of India. The Parsis are the descendants of the Zoroastrians of Iran who settled in India, by Parsi tradition, in the 8th century. The Parsis constitute one of India's smallest communities, numbering less than 80,000 individuals in India during the 19th century. Under imperialism, the Parsis would transition from an insular group to one of India's most prosperous, educated, and influential communities. From among their group emerged great merchant princes and capital elites; not least of all through the opium trade with China. 

The rise of the Parsis to economic preeminence corresponds with the arrival of Europeans in western India. The parameters of mutual cooperation emerged among Parsis and Europeans who both started as fledgling commercial groups. From the 18th century, Parsis functioned as hawkers and traders, interpreters, contractors, and general intermediaries for Europeans. By the 19th century, Parsis functioned as agents for British mercantile houses, guarantee brokers, and shipbuilders. OPIUM WAR

Another major event that made the trade in opium a major historical event is the Opium War fought between Britain and China.

As the habit of smoking opium spread from the idle rich to ninety percent of all Chinese males under the age of forty in the country's coastal regions, business activity was much reduced; the civil service ground to a halt, and the standard of living fell. The Emperor Dao guang's special anti-opium commissioner Lin Ze-xu (1785-1850), modestly estimated the number of his countrymen addicted to the drug to be 4 million, but a British physician practicing in Canton set the figure at 12 million. Equally disturbing for the imperial government was the imbalance of trade with the West. Whereas prior to 1810, Western nations had been spending 350 million Mexican silver dollars on porcelain, cotton, silks, brocades, and various grades of tea, by 1837, opium represented 57 percent of Chinese imports, and for fiscal 1835-36 alone, China exported 4.5 million silver dollars. 

In 1838, the official sent in Emperor Dao guang (1821-1850) of the Qing Dynasty to confiscate and destroy all imports of opium, Lin Ze-xu, calculated that in fiscal 1839, Chinese opium smokers consumed 100 million taels' worth of the drug, while the entire spending by the imperial government that year spent 40 million taels. He reportedly concluded, "If we continue to allow this trade to flourish, in a few dozen years we will find ourselves not only with no soldiers to resist the enemy, but also with no money to equip the army" (quoted by Chesneaux et al., p. 55). 

By the late 1830s, foreign merchant vessels, notably those of Britain and the United States, were landing over 30,000 chests annually. Meantime, corrupt officials in the hoppo (customs office) and ruthless merchants in the port cities, were accumulating wealth beyond "all the tea in China" by defying imperial interdictions that had existed in principle since 1796. The standard rate for an official's turning a blind eye to the importation of a single crate of opium was 80 taels. Between 1821 and 1837, the illegal importation of opium (theoretically a capital offence) increased fivefold.

British merchants were frustrated by Chinese trade laws and refused to cooperate with Chinese legal officials because of their routine use of torture. Upon his arrival in Canton in March, 1839, the Emperor's special emissary, Lin Ze-xu, took swift action against the foreign merchants and their Chinese accomplices, making some 1,600 arrests and confiscating 11,000 pounds of opium. 

Despite attempts by the British superintendent of trade, Charles Elliot, to negotiate a compromise, in June, Lin ordered the seizure another 20,00 crates of opium from foreign-controlled factories; holding all foreign merchants under arrest until they surrendered nine million dollars’ worth of opium, which he then had burned publicly. Finally, he ordered the port of Canton closed to all foreign merchants. In response to these sources of frustration, the British declared war on China. 

Read the attached documents for more information on the Opium War.

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Upon the end of this week, you will be able to: 

1. Describe the origins of the trade in opium; 

2. Describe the trends in the development of trade in opium; and3.  Identify groups that gained from and supported the trade in opium.

Upon the successful completion of Week 7 Module VI, you will be able to:  

1. Analyze the causes and consequences of the Opium War; 

2. Analyze the role of the British East Indian Company in the Opium Trade; 

3. Analyze the role played by the Parsis of India in the Opium Trade and their collaboration colonialists; 

4. Analyze the sociological effects of Opium on Asian, Europeans and Middle East communities; and 

5. Compare and contrast the role of opium in India and China economics, politics, and society.

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Your evaluation will be based on Discussions and Writing Assignment.

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