S01E07 The Opium Trade

Chinese Revolutions: A History Podcast

The Opium Trade

In this episode, we look at the opium trade into China. It's drug trade, pure and simple. How one of the first multinational corporations was bound up in it partly led to the First Opium War.

This episode draws heavily from Imperial Twilight by Stephen Platt.

Origins of East India Company Involvement

Occupying India drained EIC finances, and the China trade was the last profitable part of EIC operations. The opium trade was too illegal for them to engage in directly, but they got in on the supply side.

The East India Company did not directly engage in the sale of opium into China. They produced it in India, sold it to "country traders" (British and Europeans who traded in the East and not between Britain and the East), and country traders sold it to Chinese distributers.

Chinese Suppression of Opium Trade

Chinese emperors and local officials would ban opium and write against the trade and consumption of opium, but their efforts ultimately never went anywhere until the magnitude of opium coming into China went up in the 1820s.

Chinese officials and scholars debated strictness vs. flexibility and moderation in dealing with opium. Yes, the drug was bad, but they had to deal with a complicated problem in the right way.

In next week's episode, we are going to cover precisely that debate.

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