Part of a thread on the electronic list, H-World. Begin forwarded message: > From: "Eric L. Martin" <[log in to unmask]> > Date: February 27, 2006 11:57:51 AM EST > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: War(s) on Drugs > Reply-To: H-NET List for World History <[log in to unmask]> > > Marion Diamond > University of Queensland, Australia > [log in to unmask] > > Hello everyone. I've been lurking for some time, but finally feel > I've > something to offer here, as I'm writing the biography of an early > 19C opium > trader in Canton. > > I would argue that the Chinese first banned opium imports because > of the > shift in the balance of trade. Too much bullion was leaving the > country to > pay for opium, whereas before opium became so important, tea > traders had to > pay for their goods with silver. No doubt the addictive nature of > opium > was a consideration, but only one of a number. > > Addictive goods are ideal trade items, if you think about it in a > purely > commercial sense, since demand for the product is constantly > renewed, and > liable to increase over time. Other products - tobacco, alcohol, > sugar? > coffee? tea? - have served the same role in other global trading > networks. But I wouldn't call the initial Chinese ban on opium a > 'war on > drugs', even though a hatred of 'foreign mud' later became > something of a > nationalist rallying cry. Commissioner Lin's burning of British opium > before the 1839-42 Anglo-Chinese War was a very theatrical act of > defiance > against foreign exploitation, and he is deservedly a hero as a result. > > The Chinese imported small amounts of opium during the 18C, but in the > early 19C they made it illegal. The East India Company stopped > trading > *directly* in opium from about 1811 or 1812, after which it was > handled > through private traders. The trade expanded particularly after > about 1825, > and when the EIC lost its monopoly on the China trade in 1833, it > spun out > of control. > > By 'high levels' of opium use, does Johnson mean 'many people used > it', or > 'a large quantity was imported'? There's a difference. The > Chinese smoked > opium resin. In this form it was consumed in large quantities, > since it > was pretty cheap. It therefore became a 'drug of labour' - > something to > get a labourer through his long working day, in the same way that > other > societies consume coca leaves or gin or coffee. This means it was > very > visible, since the working class tend to consume their drug of > choice in > public rather than private. > > When opium is smoked, it is apparently only a mild narcotic, whereas > European addicts like Samuel Taylor Coleridge would have taken > laudanum > drops of opium dissolved in alcohol, which was much more potent. > Chinese > labourers took the habit of opium smoking with them wherever they > migrated, > so that opium dens became symbolic of Chinese expansion. > > Did other governments try to ban addictive substances from their > people? Another 19C example is the attempt by some Pacific islands > to stop > the importation of alcohol. The American missionary-supported > government > in Hawaii tried to keep out French brandy imports in the 1830s, but > without > success.