1839 – 1860

Great Britain began to trade with China in the eighteenth century. As one of the world’s largest tea consumers, the demand for Chinese tea and other products had far outweighed China’s demand for Britain’s thick, woolen fabrics. Soon, Britain found themselves at a disadvantage—they increasingly had to pay for Chinese luxuries with silver. Britain began to offer Indian goods, particularly Bengal opium, to China. They resorted to many schemes to reverse the balance of trade, including distributing samples to unsuspecting victims, bribing officials, smuggling opium.

The consequences were vast and detrimental: not only did enormous amounts of silver begin to flow out of China, many people had succumbed to drug abuse and addiction. Beyond China’s coast, the opium trade had impacted millions of India’s peasant households that harvested poppy, the cash crop from which opium is extracted. Many of the peasants were unable to escape contractual obligations of growing opium, and the income failed to cover farm maintenance, such as rent and manure.

When China attempted to suppress the opium trade, the first Opium War broke out between China and Great Britain from 1839 to 1842. It ended with Chinese official signing the Treaty of Nanjing at gunpoint. However, the treaty did not satisfy British—and French—aspirations of commercial privileges in China, resulting in a second war between 1856 and 1860 that China also lost. The shadow of the opium trade and wars eventually led China to adopt a strict culture of abstinence and legislation, in which any illegal drug use was severely punished.