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In 1797 the EIC further tightened its grip on the opium trade by enforcing direct trade between opium farmers and the British, and ending the role of Bengali purchasing agents. British exports of opium to China grew from an estimated 15 long tons (15,000 kg) in 1730 to 75 long tons (76,000 kg) in 1773 shipped in over two thousand chests. [18]
The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow the opium trade. [1] The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860, and consequently resulted in China being forced to legalise opium.
The opium trade faced intense enmity from later British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. [227] As a member of Parliament, Gladstone called it "most infamous and atrocious" referring to the opium trade between China and British India in particular. [228]
The British demands included opening all of China to British merchant companies, the legalising of the opium trade, the exemption of foreign imports from internal transit duties, the suppression of piracy, the regulation of the coolie trade, permission for a British ambassador to reside in Beijing, and that the English-language version of all ...
In British India, opium was grown on plantations and auctioned to merchants, who then sold it to Chinese who smuggled it into China (Chinese law forbade the importation and sale of opium). [2] When Lin Zexu seized this privately owned opium and ordered the destruction of opium at Humen , Britain first demanded reparations, then declared what ...
Opium imports into China, 1650-1880. The Humen Smoke Suppression was an anti-smoking operation during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty in China, which took place in June 1839 under the auspices of Lin Zexu, then Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.With British traders importing large quantities of opium into China, the Qing government was forced to take strong measures to deal with the ...
Trade with China, especially in the illegal opium, grew, and so did the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., which was already known as the Princely Hong for being the largest British trading firm in East Asia. By 1841, Jardine had 19 intercontinental clipper ships, compared to close rival Dent and Company with 13.
The number of people using the drug in China grew rapidly, to the point that the trade imbalance shifted in the foreign countries' favor. In 1839 matters came to a head when Chinese official Lin Zexu tried to end the opium trade altogether by destroying a large amount of opium in Canton, thereby triggering the First Opium War.