
The First Opium War (2011) [pdf] - arnie001
http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/opium_wars_01/ow1_essay.pdf
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acqq
For those who don't know, the British were the opium dealers, the Chinese
banned the opium and once confiscated it, and the result was the war in 1839:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Opium_War)

"The British East India Company began to auction opium grown on its
plantations in India to independent foreign traders in exchange for silver.
The opium was then transported to the China coast and sold to Chinese
middlemen who retailed the drug inside China. This reverse flow of silver and
the increasing numbers of opium addicts alarmed Chinese officials."

"In 1839, the Daoguang Emperor" "confiscated around 20,000 chests of opium."
"The British government, although not officially denying China's right to
control imports of the drug, objected to this unexpected seizure and used its
naval and gunnery power to inflict a quick and decisive defeat."

Apparently, the argument for the war was, familiarly, that China "resisted to
the free trade."

Of the opium, peddled by the Brits.

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vetinari
Additional note for those, who don't know:

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (familiar as HSBC) was funded
after the Second Opium War to finance the opium trade. Also other trade, but
the focus was to service the drug dealers and then move profits back to
Britain.

It could be said, that when they were caught servicing Mexican drug cartels,
it was return to the roots.

~~~
acqq
Thanks for the tip. This source is not so explicit:

[http://mondediplo.com/2010/02/04hsbc](http://mondediplo.com/2010/02/04hsbc)

Reading wikipedia, the connection is somewhat clearer:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Bank...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hongkong_and_Shanghai_Banking_Corporation)

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dfc
HTML Version:
[http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/opium_wars_01/ow1_ess...](http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027/opium_wars_01/ow1_essay01.html)
(The pdf is an exercise in html printing gone terrible)

