Asian Studies

Opium is the extract from the seedpods of opium poppy which is scientifically known as Papaver somniferu. This plant was cultured in the ancient civilization of Egypt, Persia and Mesopotamia. Opium is well known in the Chinese antiquity. In China, opium was used mainly for tobacco-smoking in pipes during 17th century which was introduced by Dutch. Indians ate opium and the Chinese smoked it. The opium smoking in China started in the 19th century and it lasted only for two centuries. The Chinese had a very good thought to mix Indian opium with tobacco and these two products were traded by Dutch. Pipe smoking became very famous and was adopted through out China. This resulted in opium smoking either with or without tobacco in China. Old smoking pipes were also relatively valuable because they contained raw opium which is called as dross. This material is recycled with tobacco and sold to the poor. In 1700s, the British East India Company managed prime Indian poppy growing areas between Benares and Patna. Asian opium trade was dominated by the East India Company. It had controlled supply, prices and virtual monopoly.

    Opium is the chief source through which China has developed in social, economical and political institutions of the west. During nineteenth and twentieth century, China and opium seemed to be synonymous for the people who are non-Chinese. Opium is bonded with China in all of its major pathologies. Opium came to China with the British but later British withdrew from the trade of opium in China. In 1920s, Japan started selling drugs like morphine, heroin and opium in China. By that time British has returned to the forefront in trading opium. The important features of the Chinese politics were the militarists who were profited highly due to opium trade. Chinas economic backwardness was explained by the influence of the opium on nations finances and effect of opium was connected to the health of the people. Chinas overall status was considered as Sick Man of Asia. To deal with the problems of opium, strong political leadership was seen during the twentieth century.

Opium Wars
The beginning of modern Chinese history is marked with the opium wars. The opium wars weakened the emperors authority and led to series of events resulting in the Qing Dynastys collapse. Opium was used highly by China as recreational drug. Large amounts of opium were smuggled in to the country though the Imperial Chinese court has prohibited its importation and use. The Qing emperor, Tao Kwang ordered his minister to take action against the smuggled opium in 1839. Some of the foreign traders were detained with confiscation of 20,000 barrels of opium. Due to this the British attacked the port city of Canton. This was the beginning of the First opium war which was the richest, biggest and most violent drug cartel in the world. The Chinese were defeated by the British Empire during the first opium war. In 1842, Chinese were forced to sign a treaty known as Treaty of Nanjing. The British wanted to continue the opium trade and compelled China to give five new ports and large settlement to foreign trade. Along with this, China surrendered Hong Kong to Britain. But the peace did not last for long time. Again it gave rise to second opium war which started and ended in 1856 on the western demand that the opium markets should be expanded. In 1858, China was again defeated by the British. The trade of opium was formally legalized by the treaty of Tientsin. With the legalization of Opium drug, it was heavily exported in to China and by half of the nineteenth century, over quarter of the male Chinese population was addicted to opium.

China, National Humiliation and Foreigners
    During 19th and 20th century, humiliation and suffering in the hands of foreigners was theme of the Chinese history. Britain restrained the Chinese population with Indian opium during the opium wars era. Britain conquered Chinese territories with unequal treaties and made tons of money. To exploit Chinas resources and labor, the European nations started treaty ports on the Chinese coast and the Japanese and Russians occupied industrial north. Before and during the World War II, Japan raped and plundered China like medieval invaders. The Chinese portrayed their feelings with the word guochi which means the National Humiliation. Orville Schell, Chinas expert wrote that the most significant element in the construction of Chinas modern identity began with the defeat in the opium wars in the 19th century and dishonorable treatment of Chinese immigrants in America. This is the beginning of the inheritance of the countrys humiliation in the hands of the foreigners. This process got exacerbated during World War II by Tokyos invasion, occupation of mainland and through Japans successful industrialization. This was more psychologically humiliating than western interventions in many ways because Japan succeeded in modernizing though it was Asian power where the China had failed. In 1924, a China leader Sun Yat-sen described China as a heap of loose sand which had undergone economic oppression for many decades.


Opium as a medium of exchange
Opium was used for pain killing medicinal purposes in China. Opium is technically considered as a depressant which contains alkaloids like codeine and morphine. Over the course of hundred years, opiums place in China has deepened, expanded and changed a lot. As opium changed from medicine to mass drug, the demand for opium increased, consumption altered and value of opium has raised very high. The evil effects of opium came to notice during the eighteenth century. Consequently foreign trade with European merchants increased rapidly. The adverse balance of trade between the British and China and resentment over Chinas restrictive trade practices are the two main factors which led to the opium war. To pay off its huge debt for silk, tea and lacquer ware, opium which was grown mostly in India was introduced in to China as a medium of exchange. Opium was considered as an ideal commodity for trading because it was easy to transport and store. Moreover, Opium does not get spoil or rot. It produced its own market and was highly profitable. The Chinese refer opium as black smoke or foreign mud.

Western powers in China and unequal treaties
    China does not require any imported cotton fabrics or any other item from the west as it is a country with increased manufacturing industry. The East India Company, with an idea that it would be benefited with the import of opium in China, started Opium trade. As opium was banned already in China during 18th century, the only way to import opium was smuggling. The British merchants systematically developed their opium business and were successful in meeting huge demands of Chinese opium customers and addicted people. Opium has a deep impact on public moral and it is the symbol of danger for health. The export of silk, Chinaware and tea did not meet the costs for opium imports and by this Chinese trade has undergone drastic change and the trade started to become negative. The silver money started to leave the country and caused deflation of the copper coins. There has been a critical development in the rich merchants and also in the lower classes of population in the Yangtze area. The court in Beijing was partitioned according to the supply of opium for Chinese products and allowing the opium import. But the state imposed high taxes on it. In 1839, canton was the chief import harbor of south. The commissioner in Canton, Lin Zexu tried to banish British merchants. This led to the war and China was forced to sign a treaty known as Nanjing treaty. This is the first shameful treaty for the Qing government. This treaty was illustrated as an unequal treaty. In the Nanjing treaty, Qing government has granted British free opium trade in five harbors namely Shangai, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Guangzhou abolishing the Chinese merchant guilds. Very low import tax was imposed on the British goods and they were permitted to move freely. Qing government has recognized Great Britain as a foreign power with equal rights and it was allowed to set up special consideration settlement territories. Following this, France and the minor European states forced treaties with the Qing government to allow free trade in the above mentioned harbors. France attained authorization to transmit missionaries to China. The British merchants claimed residential rights in China with the Nanjing treaty. In 1856, French missionary was killed when the Chinese police took possession of the Chinese ship under British flag which is named as Arrow. Meanwhile France and British got a chance to revise Nanjing treaty. British and France unified their armies and occupied Guangzhou and compelled the Qing government to sign Tianjin Treaty. The French army invaded Beijing and plundered Qing emperors summer residence. These military actions took place in second opium war. The Beijing treaty was signed in 1860 and permitted French and British to have free trade, mission and travel in all places of China. French and British were diplomatically identified by the Qing government and formed the first foreign ministry. Many foreign countries imported the goods without taxes. The Qing government lost the sovereignty over the import taxes. In this way opium trade was detrimental to the Qing dynasty.


Chinese opium and the international market

    Opium poppies were grown in ancient China. Even though China has grown opium, they did not face much problem due to opium. But the serious narcotics problem started when the large amounts of Opium was imported from India to China during the late 18th century. By 1870, the native opium was competing with the foreign opium in national market. By 1880, 13 million pounds of opium was consumed in China every year. On the other hand, in 1900, local Chinese production reached 45 million pounds. Soon the home grown opium in China started entering the world market. China stood in a top position that it can produce unlimited supplies of home-grown opium. The land under poppy cultivation paid its land tax to the state and rent to the landlord. The opium paid export duty of about eight millions to the state. By 1905-1906, China cultivated opium over seven-eights of the total world production by providing huge profits to merchants, farmers and officials. The reason for the increase in the home grown opium in last decades of 19th century included both patriotic and economic factors. Importation of opium from India was disrupted and soon Chinese farmers reached the supply side of opium. This acted as a predominant force to re-build the economy of China. When China was extremely overwhelmed by the western powers, Chinese grown opium seemed to be a strike back to the foreign devil. Development of organized drug traffic took place when China reached to a position to export opium and its other forms like morphine and heroin from China to other foreign countries. The structure of the worlds narcotic drugs transformed with the Chinas emergence in the twentieth century as the worlds leading opium producer. China began producing more than 12,000 tons annually which is relatively higher when compared with other countries. The minute fraction of Chinese opium which entered into international market hit the consumption of opium of other countries like a flood. China was a net exporter of opium by 1920 and it replaced the Near East as the worlds opium smuggling center. Very soon, China started exporting opium and heroin to U.S market by mid 1930s. Large amount of opium was seized by the officials of U.S. in 1931 and the amount was doubled in 1932. Bureau of Narcotics explained that the seized opium was produced in China and the production of opium in China is on rise.

Political economy and the opium
    Opium is important in the development of both Asian and European capitalism. The opium trade created major accumulations of capital for the European merchants in Asia. The Great British benefited a lot with the opium trade they created their merchant houses, insurance companies, and banks and started their roots in Asian trade with the opium. This drug played a very significant role in the process of commercialization. With the help of opium, factors like land, fiscal relations, labor and even the state was commercialized. Not only the Europeans and British, but several groups of Asian merchants and Chinese grew wealthy through opium. Capitalist modes of production in Asia were possible with the help of opium. There exist three hypotheses in relation to the opium economy. The first hypothesis is expansion of British Empire during the late eighteenth and nineteenth century without which there would not have been any empire. The second hypothesis is that the opium trade placed the foundation of global capitalist structure and also for the development of indigenous capitalist groups in South East Asia, China and India. The third hypothesis deals with the creation of class of consumers and the market. The economy of all the states which were involved in the opium trade flourished well.

    The blame for bringing opium in to China was on the foreigners. But by 1900, it has become a domestic problem rather than an international trouble. In the 19th and 20th century, China faced a serious drug problem. Only after a long process of intellectual development, identification of opium use as a drug took place. The Chinese led campaigns against opium in 1840s. As they were interested to eliminate opium use, they wanted to aim at controlling Chinas coast to prevent the depletion of silver. Opium was considered as dangerous evil to the society. The Chinese began to consider that there was an international fight for supremacy and that they were not taken into consideration. But the modern ideas about the drugs first began in China at the end of nineteenth century. Thus, opium was a threat not only to the nation but also to the individual and no nation or individual could be considered modern till they flush out this evil. A true series of far reaching reforms took place by the Qing government before the revolution of 1911 and it laid the foundation for the Chinas modern state. Opium suppression was one of the most successful reforms which changed the lives of ordinary people. These reforms were designed in a way to mobilize and control peoples behavior at high level which was not even tried before. The republican and the Qing government succeeded in reducing the amount of opium smoked and produced in China and it also tried to convince British to stop legal imports of Indian opium. Sir John Jordan, The British ambassador, was individually opposed the opium trade and he encouraged the Chinese to lead their obligations under the treaty. Even then, the financial lure of opium did not disappear. No Chinese state had completely banned opium because of its profits. The states regarded this as entirely technocratic problem. There were people who resisted opium suppression in several ways but they were backward peasants, rickshaw pullers, warlords and Japanese drug smugglers. The state would eliminate or reform them. But most important people and the national figures supported the opium suppression to purify Chinese race and nation and they tried to make China as a truly modern society. Opium trade was mainstay for the economic development of the states all over Asia. The inconsistency between the situation in China, imported vision of the drug problem and nature and capacity of the Chinese state generated problems for the scholars and reformers. These policies were also linked to the current reality of the opium control. The state has introduced many reforms to control poppy cultivation and opium smoking. Farmers were regulated so as to plant other crops and the smokers need a smoking license from the state for the allowance of the drug. The state could bring control over the opium trade by establishing a degree of control to co-opt the poppy growers, poppy merchants, opium smokers by introducing them in to a system which would benefit them while putting their activities to the end of the opium trade.

    In the modern Chinese history, opium played an important role in most of the themes. Themes include Chinas international position, local versus central control, imperialism in both nineteenth and twentieth century inculcate new ideas of citizenship and state attempts to regulate individual behavior, attempts of public sphere and private individuals to control behavior of the state, attempts to modern economic development. All these factors were connected with the opium trade. Many historical changes have taken place with the opium trade. Opium led to the unequal treaty system, free trade regime in China. Price integration, impact on income distribution took place in the mid of 19th century. (Thomas Rawski, 2008)