Dec. 19, 2025

Her Majesty's Drug Cartel

Her Majesty's Drug Cartel
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That time China declared a war on drugs, and found themselves pitted against the narco traffickers of the 19th century - the British Empire. Welcome to the first Opium War.


Image 

Commissioner Lin and the Destruction of the Opium in 1839.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Destruction_of_opium_in_1839.jpg


Sources

Chang, Hsin Pao.  Commissioner Lin and the Opium War.  The Norton Library.  W.W. Norton and Company, inc.  New York, 1970.

Cree, Dr. Edward H.  Naval Surgeon: The Voyages of Dr. Edward H. Cree, Royal Navy, as Related in his Private Journals, 1837-1856.  Dutton Adult, 1982.

Fu, Lo-shu (1966). A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Volume 1. p. 380

Fairbank, John King. Trade and Diplomacy on the Chinese Coast, Vol. 1. The Opening of the Treaty Ports, 1842-1854.  Harvard University Press, 1953.

Farooqui, Amar.  Smuggling as Subversion: Colonialism, Indian Merchants, and the Politics of Opium, Lexington, 2005.

Fu, Lo-shu (1966). A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Volume 1. p. 380

Haijian, Mao.  The Qing Empire and the Opium War: The Collapse of the Heavenly Dynasty.  English text edited by Joseph Lawson.  Cambridge Univeristy Press, 2016.

Letter to Queen Victoria. Chinese Repository, vol. VIII, no 10 (February 1940): 497-503.  Internet Archive

Levanthes, Louise.  When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-1433.  Oxford University Press, 1994.

Lovell, Julia.  The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China. Picador, 2011.

Morse, Hosea Ballou.  The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire.  London and New York, 1908. 

Morse. International Relations of the Chinese Empire, Vol. 1, Appendix A

https://web.archive.org/web/20160502205830/http://chinaforeignrelations.net/node/247

The Times (London).  August 19, 1840, p. 3. [An account of the 1839 confinement of the foreign shipping at Whampoa by the surgeon of a detained ship, taken from The Times (London), August 19, 1840, pg. 3] in Hsin-pao Chang.  Commissioner Lin and the Opium War.  The Norton Library.  W.W. Norton and Company, inc.  New York, 1964.

“Treaty of Nanking” https://worldjpn.net/documents/texts/pw/18420829.T1E.html

Waley, Arthyr.  The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. Stanford University Press, 1958.

Lin Zezu, Letter to Queen Victoria (1839) https://media.bloomsbury.com/rep/files/Primary%20Source%2013.0%20-%20Lin.pdf

WEBVTT

00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:11.359
The poor old Chinese admiral replied that although he was not prepared for our reception, he must fight, or he should lose his head by the laws of his country.

00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:14.640
So he returned to his junk to make preparation.

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Today you told me we got to learn about drugs.

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I am very excited.

00:00:36.719 --> 00:00:38.320
Well, it's not really about drugs.

00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:47.119
It's more of like a trade war between two countries, and it sounds very dry and economic and super boring.

00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.520
This sounds less less exciting than drugs.

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I know.

00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.159
It's very much less exciting than drugs.

00:00:52.479 --> 00:00:54.240
But it's the opium wars.

00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:55.119
I know, right?

00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:56.560
Opium is drugs, right?

00:00:56.719 --> 00:00:57.759
Yeah, but you know what?

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We can make opium interesting.

00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:00.640
Okay.

00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:03.359
So so tell me about tell me about drugs.

00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.079
I mean, I'm sorry, economic trade wars.

00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:13.200
Well, in order to talk about the opium wars, we have to go back like hundreds and hundreds of years.

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Because I know it could take a long time.

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Um, because trade doesn't just happen like in a vacuum.

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Um and, you know, opi so we need to start with opium because it's the opium wars, right?

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All right, right into it.

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Opium came into China during the uh the Han Dynasty, which for those of you who not are not fluent in the different um dynasties of China.

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Which I am not.

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I know, and I I really, you know, most people aren't.

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Not my forte either.

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The Han Dynasty ran from around 200 BCE to 200 CE, which would be before the Common Era and Common Era, or if you grew up in the 90s like I did, that would be B C and A D.

00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:05.680
Okay, so this was a while back then.

00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:10.319
Yeah, so that's about that's about when the Silk Road started.

00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:18.639
And uh well now people don't really want to call it the Silk Road, they want to call it like the Silk Roots because it went into a bunch of different places.

00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:22.159
But initially, what we learned in school was the Silk Road.

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It started then probably by around 900s or so, it had got opium, came from India up through the Silk Road into China.

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They used it for medicinal purposes, but it but it was already there.

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And that was during the Tong Dynasty, yeah, it was around that time.

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And so, yeah, it was it had been there.

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It was not something new that the British brought.

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Okay, so the first instance we have of the Chinese going out and exploring and coming into contact with other cultures and stuff was with their treasure fleet, which is talked a lot about in the book when China ruled the seas.

00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:27.599
But it was a fleet of ships between 250 and over 300 ships that were the largest ships ever, they were wooden ever, that would go out and travel in the early 1400s, 1405 to 1433, which is interesting because in 1433 they either A decided to burn all of them or B just left them to rot.

00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:30.319
Um they didn't treasure their treasure fleet?

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No, they didn't.

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It was actually it's very interesting.

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It was a cost saving method.

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So this treasure okay, listen.

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What?

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I never so the fleet, you would think, oh well, wow, this fleet's going out to explore early 1400s, right?

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But like the captain of it, Zen Zing He, and I just want to apologize to everyone now about my Chinese because like because I I'm from Texas and it's not gonna come out right.

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And then in some of the So we this is a formal apology to our Chinese listeners.

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We are sorry for slaughtering these names.

00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:08.639
You know what?

00:04:08.639 --> 00:04:11.919
I was gonna say butchering, but then I thought that'd be really inappropriate.

00:04:11.919 --> 00:04:23.279
So uh but but it's because not only that I'm Texan, but in the primary sources and things I read, they're written with the way people used to say things.

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I'm not sure when like the shift happened, but but you know, it used to be like Peking, and now it's Beijing, and you had Mumbai and for India now, which used to be Bombay, and there's instances like that, you know, throughout the globe that we've changed.

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And so in the sources I'm reading, you know, it's gonna say different things than you know, maybe what we're accustomed to hearing.

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But but regardless of any of those things, there's there's a Texas draw involved.

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So you just kind of have to like extract that out of it and kind of pretend.

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Right.

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So they burned the fleet in 1433.

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But they went out not for stuff, you know, to bring back goods, because the Chinese felt that all their things were superior and they didn't need anybody else's trash.

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The original made in China, like it was quality marks.

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Right.

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The reason they went out, which was incidentally not unlike uh Teddy Roosevelt's great white fleet in America in the early 1900s, was to go demonstrate their power throughout the world.

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So they would take around probably 300 of these massive wooden ships that were the biggest in the world.

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This was 1400s.

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So let's put this in perspective here.

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Vasco da Gama, you know, we learned the thing in school.

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Well, I did Vasco da Gama, he's our man, sail around Africa if you can.

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Well, that was later.

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And this was before Vasco da Gama, and they were going around Africa.

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We know they were going around Africa because they would bring back things like zebras, and they brought back an elephant and a giraffe.

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It's like, so they would go out there, do diplomatic things, but we're basically trying to be like, look how amazing we are.

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And bring back novelties.

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So when I think of the king at the time in China, the emperor at the time, I like to think of him as the king from the Earth Kingdom in Avatar the Last Airbender that had Bosco the Bear.

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And to me, it's like that's the guy because Bosco, you know, he would he would ask Bosco's opinion on things, you know.

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Um, but it was the having something unique and interesting.

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And, you know, they brought back a giraffe for him once.

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It was a big deal.

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But you can read the accounts of all the places they went in when China rolled the seas.

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It's very interesting.

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Complete detour from what I'm here to talk about.

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They treasured their treasure fleet and it was cool.

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No, they didn't treasure it, they burned it, remember?

00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:10.560
Well, yeah, but they treasured it for a little while while they were showing off, and then eventually they got tired of showing off, and they had they had enough, they had enough novelties, they were done.

00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:15.600
Well, it was super expensive to send this fleet around just to show people how amazing they were.

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I mean, and the emperor at the time, Zinghee died in um 1433.

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They I think at C.

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No, so wait, wait, wait.

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So the Emperor who was super excited by the treasure fleet died in immediately.

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No, he died like before then.

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Zing He was the captain.

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Oh, okay, right.

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He died.

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But I think actually the last one that went out came like was the grandson of the first guy that sent it out.

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But they moved to much more isolationist China, kind of like we know today.

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You know, staying more towards the south.

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Didn't see they didn't see the need of a huge navy going out and just flaunting being China to everyone.

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I gotcha.

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All right.

00:07:57.839 --> 00:08:00.639
So that's what was going on in China.

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Britain, building up to where they met China, which the first instance where we really read that they met each other was in 1784.

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But the British before that, they had the East India Company, which was a company that went out and explored, they managed the colonies and stuff, would get things from the colonies, um, specifically in this case uh the Indies, and they would take them to China.

00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:36.799
So the British were kind of obsessed, as they still are, with tea, and they appreciated China's tea.

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And since the Chinese were like, yeah, y'all don't really have anything we want, they had to pay in silver, a lot of silver, to get the tea.

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So the British were like, huh, what can we do to make the Chinese pay us?

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What would be worth it to the Chinese?

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So they started to use their colonies in Bengal and India to grow opium.

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And then they began to take the opium to China, where yeah, it it makes absolute sense.

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And so then the Chinese started became addicted to opium, and then the trade imbalance it shifted, and the Chinese were the ones having to pay silver for opium.

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So China had had opium before.

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Yeah.

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But was it now that the British had just come along and made it so much more efficient to get a lot of opium in?

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Yes.

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That instead of just having it for medicine, they were now starting to experiment with it recreationally.

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Oh yeah.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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And it was becoming enough of a problem that n people in government were worried that they weren't going to have workers that actually did anything because they were addicted to drugs.

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Gotcha.

00:09:50.639 --> 00:09:58.000
So even though opium had been around for hundreds of years, it just was now very much around and very cheap.

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It was it was cheaper and easier to get a hold of it.

00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:00.720
Right.

00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:11.840
So anyway, the British were acknowledging a Norwegian ship that was nearby by um shooting off guns to, I guess, announce their presence.

00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:16.960
Well, it accidentally hit a Chinese ship and two Chinese people died.

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They should be careful what they're feeding their gun salute.

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You know, one would think, which is what the let the lesson was learned.

00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:32.320
But, you know, the Chinese were like, they killed our guys, and the British were like, yeah, we don't know.

00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:43.919
It's it's actually still up for legal debate because the British were in Chinese waters, but then they may have been in international waters, and it's, you know, they st I mean I'm sure it's murky.

00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:45.519
Yeah, it's it's it's murky.

00:10:45.519 --> 00:10:56.159
Um so they would that was in 1784, and they would refer back to that as, you know, both sides, like, well, you know, this is you know like a major issue that we had.

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So we get up till 1800.

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Around this time, we're in Qing, China, and they have what was called the Canton system.

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And the Canton is a region in like southern China where they had all the foreign ports go.

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So they all went to the same area.

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Everything foreign that was trading would come in through there.

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So it was the Canton system.

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It's no no longer a thing, but it was at the time.

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And uh and so they had the system where all the other countries would come and trade goods, and they decided to, they being the emperor in China's government, that they were going to do a prohibition on opium.

00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:44.559
Okay.

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It was getting out of hand.

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So so the emperor said, yeah, look, the opium, it was great, but now it's just too much, so we we've gotta we've gotta we've gotta put the brakes on.

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Right, right.

00:11:56.159 --> 00:12:03.679
So in 1800, they banned production and importing opium.

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Across the board?

00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:06.639
Yeah, like across the board.

00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:09.039
So there wasn't just like a limitation on it.

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They were like, nah, we're not even gonna use it for medicine anymore.

00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:15.279
This was a right, so this was this was like the OG war on drugs.

00:12:15.679 --> 00:12:20.320
Yeah, or like the like cutting off of alcohol in the United States.

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The, you know, prohibition and then the bootlegging came up.

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Right.

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We're going cold turkey.

00:12:25.120 --> 00:12:25.600
Yeah.

00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:26.080
Okay.

00:12:26.080 --> 00:12:40.240
Um, well, he gave there was a time, yeah, that they had, you know, so ships anyway, would be able to come in and still have some, you know, that there was like warning so that you wouldn't just show up the next day with opium.

00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:40.399
Right.

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And then in 1813, it was outright outlawed.

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Okay.

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Completely outlawed.

00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:50.879
And if you were caught smoking, then you would get beaten a hundred times.

00:12:50.879 --> 00:12:51.919
Oh wow.

00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:52.879
Right.

00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:54.960
So smuggling happened.

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The British East East India Company ended up turning to smugglers would come, and I think at one point there was over a hundred different ships of Chinese smugglers that would bring the opium in, and it's so it was a whole underground.

00:13:09.519 --> 00:13:17.519
So it became outlawed, and the British East India Company decided, well, okay, it may not be technically legal anymore.

00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:28.399
So instead of just pulling into port and and selling it, as they had been doing, they turned to smugglers that they would meet somewhere else, and the smugglers would bring it in.

00:13:28.639 --> 00:13:30.879
Yeah, they would use um they would use chips.

00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:35.519
So it was still kind of them, but it was under the radar.

00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:36.639
They had to have a middleman.

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And enough so that in from 1810 to 1838, it went from 4,500 chests being like taken to China to over 40,000.

00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:56.720
Wait, so so it got outlawed, and they 10x multiplied how much was going in?

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Yeah.

00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:01.200
So it doesn't seem like their war on drugs was doing very much at this point.

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No, it wasn't so.

00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:05.600
And I think it was 1836.

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The emperor met with a lot of officials and governments to see what are we going to do about this?

00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:12.240
Right?

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This is this is crazy, it can't continue.

00:14:14.720 --> 00:14:16.799
And so there were two schools of thought.

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There was the group that said, hey, we should totally legalize this, maybe grow it, and then just tax it a lot.

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And we can use the money from the taxes to help the government, and it should be legalized.

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Legalize your opium.

00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:35.440
Yeah.

00:14:35.679 --> 00:14:36.000
Okay.

00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:42.240
The thinking was a lot of people wouldn't be able to pay the taxes and it would even out that way.

00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:42.799
Gotcha.

00:14:43.279 --> 00:15:02.639
Then the other side, which ended up winning out, was that it was a moral issue and that like it's completely wrong for people to be enabling for foreign um, well, and domestic people to enable the opium trade and keep it going.

00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:06.080
So their strategy was to go after the enablers.

00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:06.720
Okay.

00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:32.000
So the emperor passed a decree in March of 1838 and said that any foreigner or foreigners bringing opium to the central land with design to sell the same, the principles be decapitated, the sorcery strangled, and all property found on board the same ship shall be confiscated.

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The space of a year and a half is granted within the which, if anyone bringing opium by mistake shall voluntarily step forward and deliver it up, he shall be absolved from all consequences of his crime.

00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:48.000
Well, that's intense.

00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:51.840
And so he sent that out in 1838.

00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:59.679
And to make sure everything got done, the emperor sent out a government official named Lin Se Shu.

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Lin came from a family who had been well off, but had been losing money over time, spending money on the civil service exams, which is an exam that everyone in China who could take tried to take to get a government position.

00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:21.840
The exams had been in place for hundreds of years by this time.

00:16:21.840 --> 00:16:27.279
And it was basically like the way to improve yourself, get better standing in society.

00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:34.720
In Europe, you had the nobles and the clergy and uh royalty, different places like that.

00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:43.440
In China, what you could do to move up in society was to become a government official and pass civil service exams.

00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:48.320
So it was kind of like a meritocratic type uh pass this test and you can move up.

00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:49.120
Exactly.

00:16:49.120 --> 00:16:50.320
So no.

00:16:50.320 --> 00:17:03.679
So I read some about this guy, and it uh said he started studying the classics, which I don't know what the classics were in the 1700s in China, but that he started studying the classics at age three.

00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:04.400
Wow.

00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:22.799
Passed the county exams at age 12, provincial exams at 19, and then when he was 26, on his third try, he passed the Metropolitan exam and then was finally accepted with the Imperial examination to an academy to learn more.

00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:30.400
So he was a guy who had studied a whole lot, um, devoted his whole life to civil service and studying.

00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:35.839
I read that his dad almost wrecked his eyesight and went blind because he studied so hard for the exams.

00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:42.559
And so he was trying to push Sinhu was the second oldest son in the family.

00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:48.880
And so he passed the imperial exam and became pretty well known.

00:17:48.880 --> 00:17:55.359
He went after pirates, helped rebuild in China when there was a massive flood.

00:17:55.359 --> 00:18:02.319
He was basically the thing you knew him by was his intolerance of corruption.

00:18:02.319 --> 00:18:10.240
And they called him, not sure what it is in Chinese, it's translated to clear as the heavens, Lin Clear as the Heavens.

00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:16.160
When I think of this guy, I think of like Javert from Le Miz.

00:18:16.160 --> 00:18:22.640
The you know, very much to the letter of the law, wanted to do what was right.

00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:24.480
Everyone believed he knew it was right.

00:18:24.480 --> 00:18:31.680
So basically, he went in to this Canton region where trade was happening, the opium trade.

00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:39.359
And his account, so he had a diary that he kind of wrote, he wrote in not like regularly.

00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:44.480
Um, and it's like in different places, it's kind of hard.

00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:48.960
You have to read between the lines to get the best view of the overall what was going on.

00:18:48.960 --> 00:19:13.279
He talks about, you know, going and his experience where they had he arrested 1600 people and confiscated and destroyed tens of thousands of opium pipes, which when I think of that, I just picture that scene from like Sleeping Beauty, the animated one in my head of all the spinning wheels, you know, where they didn't burn them and then she pricked her finger later.

00:19:13.279 --> 00:19:25.599
But but anyway, he destroyed tens of thousands of opium pipes and told the British, you know, hey, if you give us your opium, we'll trade you opium for tea, which was a good thought.

00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:27.119
Um wait, wait, wait.

00:19:27.200 --> 00:19:28.240
If you give us your opium.

00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:29.759
Yeah, they would they would do a trade.

00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:31.039
Opium for tea.

00:19:31.279 --> 00:19:34.559
Wait, wait, so he was he was getting legal opium?

00:19:34.880 --> 00:19:36.319
No, he was gonna destroy it.

00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:37.359
Oh, oh, oh.

00:19:37.359 --> 00:19:42.240
So this was like surrender your opium, we'll give you tea, and we're just gonna burn this opium?

00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:42.880
Yeah.

00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:45.200
Which he did, actually.

00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:52.400
Um well first he quarantined the area, and then it only you wouldn't want the people hanging out for the opium supplier.

00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:53.839
But that only lasted six weeks.

00:19:53.839 --> 00:19:59.440
But in that six weeks, he got two point six million pounds of opium plus.

00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:02.000
The opium that was on British ships.

00:20:02.319 --> 00:20:04.880
Literally, guys, holy smokes.

00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:06.880
And and he destroyed it.

00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:08.640
And it was a public event.

00:20:09.200 --> 00:20:10.079
Well, I bet it was.

00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:16.160
He hired 500 Chinese guys and they mixed opium with lime and salt.

00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:20.240
So if you ever need to destroy opium, lime and salt does it.

00:20:20.240 --> 00:20:22.079
And then dumped it in the ocean.

00:20:22.480 --> 00:20:23.759
That's the worst.

00:20:23.759 --> 00:20:24.640
He didn't burn it?

00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:25.039
No.

00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:32.240
No, but see what when I think of this, all I think of is like the tea party at the American Revolution, except with opium.

00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:32.880
Wow.

00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:37.359
Well, he tried to get that.

00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:38.880
It didn't work out well.

00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:45.200
But he made some comment like, Well, the British are as addicted to tea as we are to opium.

00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:46.319
That's amazing.

00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:49.920
So he's like, hey guys, bring us your bring us your marijuana.

00:20:49.920 --> 00:20:51.359
We'll give you some tea instead.

00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:52.640
I guess it didn't work out.

00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:53.200
I don't know.

00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:54.160
Can't imagine why.

00:20:54.480 --> 00:21:01.359
And he convinced the Portuguese that were there to uh expel the British from the island the Portuguese were on to Hong Kong.

00:21:01.359 --> 00:21:04.079
So the British were forced onto Hong Kong.

00:21:04.079 --> 00:21:06.319
And at the same time he was doing this.

00:21:06.559 --> 00:21:10.799
So So were they completely kicking the British out of China at this point?

00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:12.000
Yeah.

00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:16.400
Because the British weren't following Chinese mic.

00:21:16.400 --> 00:21:24.559
The regulations this guy, my dude, wrote a letter to Queen Victoria.

00:21:24.559 --> 00:21:36.160
And he, yeah, this was around the same time, this letter somehow never made it to Queen Victoria, but made it to the front page of the London Times.

00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:40.160
So in this first part, he's addressing Queen Victoria.

00:21:40.160 --> 00:22:16.880
And he says, quote, It is our high and mighty emperor who alike supports and cherishes those of the inner land, that would be China, and those from beyond the sea, who looks upon all mankind with equal benevolence, who, if a source of profit exists anywhere, diffuses it over the whole world, who, if the tree of evil takes root anywhere, plucks it up for the benefit of all nations, who, in a word, hath implanted in his breast that heart, governs the heavens and the earth.

00:22:16.880 --> 00:22:20.480
He was very into the Emperor of China there.

00:22:20.480 --> 00:22:33.759
So can you, the queen of your honorable nation, sit upon a throne occupied through successive generations by predecessors, all of whom have been styled respectable and obedient.

00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:58.000
Looking over the public documents accompanying the tribute sent by your predecessors on various occasions, we find the following All the people of my country arriving at the central land for purposes of trade, have to feel grateful to the great emperor for his most perfect justice, for the kindest treatment, and to other words to that effect.

00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:09.680
Delighted did we feel that the kings of your honorable nation so clearly understood the principles of our propriety and were so deeply grateful for the heavenly goodness of our emperor.

00:23:09.680 --> 00:23:21.119
Therefore, it was that we of the heavenly dynasty nourished and cherished your people from afar, and bestowed upon them redoubled proofs of our abundantity and kindness.

00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:35.759
It is merely from these circumstances that your country, deriving immense advantage from its commercial intercourse with us, which has endured now two hundred years, has become the rich and flourishing kingdom that it is said to be.

00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:57.519
But during the commercial intercourse which has existed so long among the numerous foreign merchants resorting hither, are wheat and tares good and bad, and of those latter are some who, by means of introducing opium by stealth, have seduced our Chinese people and caused every province of the land to overflow with that poison.

00:23:57.519 --> 00:24:01.680
These then know merely how to advantage themselves.

00:24:01.680 --> 00:24:03.839
They care not about injuring others.

00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:12.400
This is the principle which heaven's providence repugnates, which in which mankind conjointly look upon with abhorrence.

00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:28.160
Moreover, the great emperor, hearing of it, actually quivered with indignation and especially dispatched me, the commissioner, to Canton, that in conjunction with the viceroy and lieutenant governor of the province, means might be taken for its suppression.

00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:46.240
We find that your country is about sixty or seventy thousand miles, that's um twenty to twenty three thousand British miles, that your foreign ships come hither striving the one and with the other for our trade, and for the simple reason of their strong desire to reap profit.

00:24:46.240 --> 00:25:00.799
Now out of the wealth of our inner nation, if we take apart to bestow upon foreigners from afar, it follows that the immense wealth which the said foreigners amass ought properly to speak to be in proportion of our own native Chinese people.

00:25:00.799 --> 00:25:06.880
We have heard that in your own country opium is prohibited with the utmost strictness and severity.

00:25:06.880 --> 00:25:11.920
This is strong proof that you know full well how hurtful it is to mankind.

00:25:11.920 --> 00:25:23.519
Since then you do not permit it to injure your own country, you ought not to have this injurious drug transferred to another country, and above all others, how much less to the inner land?

00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:32.160
Of the products which China exports to your foreign countries, there is not one which is not beneficial to mankind in some shape or another.

00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:40.079
There are those which serve for food, those which are useful, and those which are calculated for resale, but all are beneficial.

00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:44.720
Has China ever sent forth a noxious article from its soil?

00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:50.960
Not to speak of our tea and rhubarb, things which your country could not exist a single day without.

00:25:50.960 --> 00:26:01.599
If we of the central land were to grudge you what is beneficial and not to compassionate your wants, then wherewithal could your foreigners manage to exist?

00:26:01.599 --> 00:26:11.920
And further, as regards your woolens, camlets, and longwills, were it not that you get supplied with our native raw silk, you could not get those manufactured?

00:26:11.920 --> 00:26:19.519
If China were to grudge you those things which yield a profit, how could you foreigners scheme after any profit at all?

00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:34.720
Our other articles of food, such as sugar, ginger, cinnamon, etc., and our other articles for use, such as silk peace goods, chinaware, etc., are also many necessaries of life to you.

00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:36.880
How can we reckon up their number?

00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:45.519
On the other hand, the things that come from your foreign countries are only calculated to make presents of or serve for mere amusement.

00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:49.839
It is quite the same to us if we have them, or if we have them not.

00:26:49.839 --> 00:26:59.440
If then these are of no material consequence to us of the inner land, what difficulty would there be in prohibiting and shutting our markets against them?

00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:00.480
End quote.

00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:13.759
Okay, I just have to say here that uh the Chinese did try to grow their own opium, and it it it just wasn't as pure as the uh the the stuff from the British uh colonies, uh Bengal and stuff.

00:27:13.759 --> 00:27:14.240
So yeah.

00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:16.480
It was like crack to cocaine.

00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:18.640
Okay, so wow.

00:27:18.640 --> 00:27:25.440
So um so okay, so you're saying that they at what point did they try to grow their own?

00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:28.240
Um this was uh a couple decades earlier.

00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:32.160
Okay, so it wasn't a huge as huge a problem yet at this point.

00:27:32.480 --> 00:27:33.599
And it wasn't nearly as good.

00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:34.880
So they all wanted the British.

00:27:35.200 --> 00:27:35.759
I gotcha.

00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:38.400
So the British were basically just better drug dealers.

00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:38.960
Yes.

00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:43.200
And I like how I like how that he he puts the British on notice.

00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:46.480
He's like, look, we've got the tea.

00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:50.799
And uh without that, you're pretty much like what are you?

00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:52.559
Yeah, like what what have you even got?

00:27:52.799 --> 00:27:54.720
What what is a British person without tea?

00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:55.599
Right.

00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:56.079
Come on.

00:27:56.079 --> 00:28:02.079
He he sounds like uh Lynn sounds like the kind of guy that knows when he's got the uh the ace hand.

00:28:02.400 --> 00:28:03.279
Oh, it gets better.

00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:04.079
Okay, okay.

00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:04.480
Okay.

00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:26.559
So he continues, quote, it is only that our heavenly dynasty most freely permits you to take off her tea, silk, and other commodities, and convey them for consumption everywhere, without the slightest stint or grudge for no other reason but that where a prophet exists, we wish that it be diffused abroad for the benefit of all the earth.

00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:38.000
Moreover, we've heard that in London, the metropolis where you dwell, as also in Scotland, Ireland, and other places, no opium whatsoever is produced.

00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:55.039
It's only in the sundry parts of your colonial kingdom of Hindustan such as Bengal, Madras, Bombay, Patwa, Malwa, Benares, Malacca, and other places where the very hills are covered with the opium plant, where tanks are made for the preparing of the drug.

00:28:55.039 --> 00:29:07.759
Month by month and year by year, the volume of the poison increases, its unclean stench ascends upwards until heaven itself grows angry and the very gods thereat get indignant.

00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:28.880
You, the queen of said honorable nation, Queen Victoria, ought immediately to have this plant in those parts plucked up by the very root, because the land there to be hoed up afresh, sowed in its stead the five grains, and if any man dare again to plant these grounds a single poppy, visit his crime with the most severe punishment.

00:29:28.880 --> 00:29:37.119
By a truly beneficial system of government such as this, will you indeed reap advantage and do away with the source of evil?

00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:41.119
Heaven must support you, and the gods will crown you with felicity.

00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:48.079
This will get for yourself the blessing of a long life, and from this will proceed the security and stability of your descendants.

00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:52.240
So that that was part of his letter to uh to Queen Victoria.

00:29:52.559 --> 00:29:57.359
So that that letter didn't make it to her, but it did make it to the press page.

00:29:57.359 --> 00:29:58.480
Yeah, at least.

00:29:59.119 --> 00:30:10.079
Yeah, and and I read in in a lot of places, and you know, there there really is no no one is able to say, well, this is how the press got it, and this is why she didn't get it.

00:30:10.319 --> 00:30:10.480
Right.

00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:13.200
Um Well, I'm sure she was able to read it in the newspaper, right?

00:30:13.440 --> 00:30:19.200
Well, yes, but you know, it wasn't like as she was able to read it, change things, you know, under the radar or anything.

00:30:19.200 --> 00:30:19.920
Gotcha.

00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:26.960
So it sounds like he was pretty clear with how he and and China felt.

00:30:26.960 --> 00:30:28.480
What what did the British say?

00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:36.960
Well, so it's very interesting because life, as we're gonna see, is just very much about people.

00:30:36.960 --> 00:30:49.119
This one guy doing this letter to Queen Victoria, which, as we've seen in other episodes, when you do an open letter to a king of the country like George Washington Williams did with the King of Belgium, stuff just gets out.

00:30:49.119 --> 00:31:01.440
Okay, so I I found the diary of a naval surgeon who was part of the British Navy from 1837 to 1856.

00:31:01.440 --> 00:31:02.559
His name was Dr.

00:31:02.559 --> 00:31:03.359
Edward H.

00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:06.720
Cree, um, from the from the Royal Navy.

00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:10.400
Only a small segment of the diary took place in China.

00:31:10.400 --> 00:31:13.200
He traveled in a lot of other places and wrote about it.

00:31:13.200 --> 00:31:20.400
But I just I want to walk you through his account of getting to uh She Shan, China.

00:31:20.400 --> 00:31:25.440
So this is as the war was going on, it lasted for a couple of years, the Opium War.

00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:29.759
Um, and there were just minor battles here and there.

00:31:29.759 --> 00:31:32.160
So he's talking about one that he was part of.

00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:36.640
So when you said the Opium War, like what was that?

00:31:36.720 --> 00:31:46.160
I mean, and it's basically an economic the British were upset when our guy um kicked them out and told them that they couldn't just sell opium anywhere.

00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:50.079
And so they brought over a fleet of British ships.

00:31:50.079 --> 00:31:57.039
And I mean, if we're all gonna be honest, most of them were like chartered opium ships from a private company.

00:31:57.039 --> 00:31:58.720
But the British Navy came.

00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:05.279
And this guy was a naval surgeon on one of those ships that was already out there in the ocean and was coming.

00:32:05.279 --> 00:32:19.839
So he says that uh on the night of Thursday the second, I think August, but this was 1840, he said, quote, at daylight we weighed and proceeded towards Chuchan, but the wind fell light.

00:32:19.839 --> 00:32:22.400
The steamers took the big ships in tow.

00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:25.039
A lot of junks followed us at a distance.

00:32:25.039 --> 00:32:32.079
The scenery is pretty amongst the islands which are very numerous and hilly, dotted all about and well cultivated.

00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:36.960
In the afternoon the wind fell light and we anchored in the Chushan Channel.

00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:41.519
The tides are very strong and the eddy sometimes turned around.

00:32:41.519 --> 00:32:44.880
The population seems very large and industrious.

00:32:44.880 --> 00:32:47.839
The next day, the weather very hot.

00:32:47.839 --> 00:32:51.519
We were visited by some boats filled with natives who came on board.

00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:53.119
They were poor fishermen.

00:32:53.119 --> 00:33:01.440
We brought them into the gun room while we were at dinner and gave them some ale and rum and water, which they seemed to like, and also the pea soup.

00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:07.680
I was taking the likeness of one of the fellows, who immediately dropped his soup and ran out as fast as he could.

00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:09.920
The rum makes them very talkative.

00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:14.400
A pinch of strong snuff, setting them sneezing and we all laughed.

00:33:14.400 --> 00:33:20.319
They brought us a present of some common looking tea grown on some islands, but we did not like it.

00:33:20.319 --> 00:33:22.000
It was too smoky in flavor.

00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:29.519
The city was surrounded by a thick wall about twenty feet high, and a well cultivated plain at the foot of a range of high hills.

00:33:29.519 --> 00:33:37.359
We anchored in front of the suburb abreast of one of the war junks, and the other men of war and flagship took up their positions along the shore.

00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:39.599
The transports were left outside.

00:33:39.599 --> 00:33:56.079
Crowds of natives were to be seen on the beach and on Schoss House Hill, with some to summon the governor, who returned a contemptuous answer to say the outer barbarians, that would be the British, must go away immediately and not dare insult this celestial empire.

00:33:56.079 --> 00:33:57.599
That would be China.

00:33:57.599 --> 00:34:09.840
The Commodore was also sent to the Chinese Admiral of the War Junks, but he declined to answer till they were preparing to tow his vessel out to the flagship when he made the appearance with some followers.

00:34:09.840 --> 00:34:19.519
The Commodore explained to him through Mr Guslav, the interpreter, what he should do if there was any resistance to our occupation of the place.

00:34:19.519 --> 00:34:34.559
The poor old Chinese admiral replied that although he was not prepared for our reception, he must fight, and he had one man behind his beside himself, or he should lose his head by the laws of his country.

00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:37.840
So he returned to his junk to make preparation.

00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:42.159
All that night there was great noise of gongs and excitement on shore.

00:34:42.159 --> 00:34:50.559
Thousands of lights appeared, moving about, and the Chinese were evidently preparing to give us a warm reception as they could.

00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:51.760
Um end quote.

00:34:51.760 --> 00:34:55.679
So basically, Chinese didn't really want to fight.

00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:57.679
They had some on board and it was fun.

00:34:57.679 --> 00:35:11.519
They had a fun night, you know, dinner and stuff, and then the admiral came on the next on the boat the next day, and they were like, Yeah, you know, so we have to fight you, and he's just, you know, well, basically, yeah, I have to or or I'm gonna get killed.

00:35:11.519 --> 00:35:16.639
So the next day, Sunday, the fifth, quote, and then and I'm continuing this thing.

00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:22.239
He said, The day broke cloudly and lowering, with every prospect of rain.

00:35:22.239 --> 00:35:25.679
The Chinese appeared to have made the best of their use of time during the night.

00:35:25.679 --> 00:35:29.440
Troshouse Hill was covered with armed men and flags and banners.

00:35:29.440 --> 00:35:38.000
The junks were placed in a line before the beach, each having one or two guns in the gangway, and small swivels and wall pieces above the bulwark.

00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:42.239
Two or three batteries had been constructed on the hill and mounted with old guns.

00:35:42.239 --> 00:35:52.159
We could see through our glasses that the arms of the Chinese soldiers were a motley description, consisted of bows and arrows, spears and swords, matchlocks and gingles on tripods.

00:35:52.159 --> 00:36:02.480
A big red flag was mounted on one of the batteries, and large boards with ugly black faces painted on them were suspended on the sides of the junk between the shields to frighten us away.

00:36:02.480 --> 00:36:06.639
The flagship hoisted the signal, prepare to land troops.

00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:18.000
The boats with their complement of soldiers assembled under the lee of the flagship, and a final message was dispatched to the Chinese admiral, who was given till one o'clock for his answer, and our men went to dinner.

00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:21.039
He said, At one PM, no answer.

00:36:21.039 --> 00:36:32.079
So a shot was fired from the Wellesley, which was their ship, um, and it curiously hit the staff of a big red flag, which brought it down and threw up a cloud of dust behind it.

00:36:32.079 --> 00:36:36.639
The plucky old Chinese admiral promptly answered with a shot from his junk.

00:36:36.639 --> 00:36:45.119
Up went the blue flag in the Wesley with the broadside, and all the ships opened fire, and the fight became general, and all noise and smoke.

00:36:45.119 --> 00:36:50.480
A signal was hoisted, cease firing, which had only lasted about five minutes.

00:36:50.480 --> 00:36:58.960
On the smoke clearing, the Chinese army were to be seen running in all directions and disappearing over a hill as fast as their legs would carry them.

00:36:58.960 --> 00:37:11.199
However, they had not all gone, for in about five minutes after we ceased firing, bang bang, came shots again from the junks, and we recommended sending our shots through and through the old junks abreast of us.

00:37:11.199 --> 00:37:16.159
Away hissed a shell from the Queen steamer and burst into the city beyond.

00:37:16.159 --> 00:37:24.880
Again, firing ceased, and when the smoke cleared, not a living siestul, the Chinese, were to be seen except in the distance running.

00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:30.320
The junks and houses along the beach presented a woeful sight, with shot holes pretty thick.

00:37:30.320 --> 00:37:34.079
The former soon became waterlogged and settled in the mud.

00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:42.559
Three cheers were given from all the ships and the soldiers in the boats, were landed in the Joss House, which, with the hill, was soon occupied by them.

00:37:42.559 --> 00:37:50.400
The boats were soon decorated with trophies and the shapes of Chinese flags and banners, and laden with the arms the Chinese had thrown away in their flight.

00:37:50.400 --> 00:37:53.440
Bows and arrows, spears and swords were plentiful.

00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:57.199
A good many killed and some wounded Chinamen lay on the beach.

00:37:57.199 --> 00:38:00.800
The latter were taken on board the flagship to be attended to.

00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:08.159
There were some shocking sights, a poor fellow with both legs carried away, and another with half his head and still living.

00:38:08.159 --> 00:38:17.039
I hear that the Chinese had eighty four pieces of ordinance, such as they are, mounted and pointed at ships, not half of which had gone off.

00:38:17.039 --> 00:38:30.960
The Chinese still held out in the city, and we could see the walls covered with flags, and they kept up the fire from the walls, but our artillery soon got a couple of pieces and threw a few shells amongst them, and they were quiet enough before dark.

00:38:30.960 --> 00:38:36.480
A few of our sappers crept to the place to blow up the gates, but found the place deserted.

00:38:36.480 --> 00:38:39.280
The natives, taking what they could, had fled.

00:38:39.280 --> 00:38:49.039
A quantity of plunder was found in the suburb, and many of our men got drunk on santho, a spirit filled with rice, which they found in the houses.

00:38:49.039 --> 00:38:51.360
So he went on shore the next afternoon.

00:38:51.360 --> 00:38:59.119
He said we went on shore with Commodore Brody and landed on the islands where they got fresh water and went to a farmhouse.

00:38:59.119 --> 00:39:15.119
They found the owner and the family who hadn't fled, and they had confidence in the barbarians, which is what you know the British were called, and were very civil to us and sold us some ducks, for which we paid a dollar for six, and they appeared well satisfied.

00:39:15.119 --> 00:39:17.039
We visited other farms.

00:39:17.039 --> 00:39:22.480
The houses seemed well built and roomy, all on the ground, but not very sweet smelling.

00:39:22.480 --> 00:39:27.199
We saw plenty of pigs about, also bullocks, fowls, and ducks with some goats.

00:39:27.199 --> 00:39:34.000
In one house we encountered three or four young women with thin, very little feet, and broad flat faces.

00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:47.039
They were sitting down to drink tea, of which we took some, very hot and very weak, no milk or sugar, and of a very fishy flavor, for I find that they dry their tea on the same mats which we dry our fish.

00:39:47.039 --> 00:39:54.880
We got a few pumpkins and gourds, and the gardens were kept well kept and fertile, but stink of s stink of sewage.

00:39:54.880 --> 00:39:59.519
So the last diary entry from Cree um was on Saturday the 11th.

00:39:59.519 --> 00:40:10.639
After the um the battle, that's in quotation marks, where basically they went into the city and had tea with people and it was, you know, very British.

00:40:10.639 --> 00:40:20.719
He said that uh quote, and this is very mundane, I remained on board skinning two birds I procured yesterday, a pied and a green woodpecker.

00:40:20.719 --> 00:40:27.679
The Chinese have it that a great Mandarin is coming with an army to retake this place or lose his head.

00:40:27.679 --> 00:40:30.719
I think the latter is most likely to happen.

00:40:30.719 --> 00:40:31.840
End quote.

00:40:32.639 --> 00:40:33.039
Coach.

00:40:33.440 --> 00:40:35.519
Well, you know, he's just being honest.

00:40:35.519 --> 00:40:53.119
He saw this whole thing take place and uh and and like he said, and what i historians say now is that the Chinese lost because the British had better weapons, and that's exactly what he was saying when he was using all those words that were convoluted and complicated and stuff.

00:40:53.119 --> 00:40:57.360
But basically what he was saying is a lot of their weapons didn't go off.

00:40:57.360 --> 00:41:05.679
They didn't have as good weapons as we did, they didn't have everything that we brought to it to um technologically.

00:41:05.679 --> 00:41:07.840
So they overpowered them.

00:41:08.239 --> 00:41:13.840
So all right, so they they they busted in there, overpowered these guys, shot them all up.

00:41:13.840 --> 00:41:15.679
What what were they trying to do?

00:41:15.679 --> 00:41:17.679
What was the what was the objective?

00:41:18.159 --> 00:41:21.280
Um to be able to win back the rights to sell opium.

00:41:21.280 --> 00:41:32.400
So you have to look at so look at this from the British perspective, okay, which is they are all about economy, free trade.

00:41:32.400 --> 00:41:33.599
Free trade, yeah.

00:41:33.599 --> 00:41:35.920
Yeah, you know, open borders.

00:41:35.920 --> 00:41:44.000
Um and so that's that was their argument is China is uncivilized, backwards.

00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:48.320
Look at their weapons, look at the way that they make tea.

00:41:48.320 --> 00:41:49.920
It doesn't even taste good.

00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:54.079
We get the tea from these people, and it doesn't even taste right.

00:41:54.079 --> 00:41:54.960
They're like doing it.

00:41:55.119 --> 00:41:56.639
They don't they don't know milk and sugar.

00:41:56.639 --> 00:41:57.280
I mean, come on.

00:41:57.599 --> 00:41:58.559
Milk and sugar.

00:41:58.559 --> 00:42:05.840
But that's what's so interesting about this guy's report is that, you know, they went and hung out with the Chinese.

00:42:05.840 --> 00:42:09.440
They invited them on their ship the night before for rum and smoking.

00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:11.199
I mean, it's a very British thing to do.

00:42:11.199 --> 00:42:12.960
Hide the civilization.

00:42:13.199 --> 00:42:14.639
Yes, and it's and manners.

00:42:14.639 --> 00:42:25.519
It's that they call it this whole opium war, but it's like nobody that we read on the ground was very invested at all in this war part.

00:42:25.519 --> 00:42:32.239
You hear them talking to the Chinese admiral who's like, yeah, they're they're gonna cut off my head if I don't fight you.

00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:38.239
So, okay, so this wasn't-I mean, i I don't get the impression that this was a full-scale invasion of China.

00:42:38.239 --> 00:42:41.760
All right, so they were they were they were fighting, they landed.

00:42:41.760 --> 00:42:44.400
What was their did they have a military objective?

00:42:44.480 --> 00:42:47.199
Or No, they just they just wanted to open their trade again.

00:42:47.199 --> 00:42:50.480
And you have to remember, this is just the first opium war.

00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:54.079
There was a whole nother opium war a decade and a half later.

00:42:54.079 --> 00:43:10.239
Um but so basically, and I'll get to it in a minute, but this the first opium war ended with the Treaty of Nanking, where basically the Chinese said they'd pay for all the opium they dumped in the water, and it was actually done at gunpoint.

00:43:10.239 --> 00:43:16.400
And they gave the British um Hong Kong, which the British then kept until 1997.

00:43:16.880 --> 00:43:20.079
But I want to read Wait, wait, so this is when the British got Hong Kong.

00:43:20.079 --> 00:43:21.199
Yeah, this is when they got Hong Kong.

00:43:21.199 --> 00:43:27.280
So, all right, wait, wait, wait, hold on.

00:43:27.280 --> 00:43:29.840
I need to make sure I understand this correctly.

00:43:29.840 --> 00:43:35.360
The British wanted to deal drugs to the Chinese.

00:43:35.360 --> 00:43:42.320
Yes, the Chinese were like, We actually don't like you being our drug dealers, we we want to stop that.

00:43:42.320 --> 00:43:48.400
And the British were like, no, we want to deal drugs so much that we're gonna fight you for it.

00:43:48.400 --> 00:43:58.400
And when they beat them, not only did they they gained the ability to sell drugs to the Chinese again, but they also took Hong Kong, and that's how they got Hong Kong.

00:43:58.400 --> 00:43:59.360
Yeah.

00:43:59.360 --> 00:44:04.559
Hong Kong went to the British in a drug deal.

00:44:04.960 --> 00:44:05.760
Yeah, pretty much.

00:44:05.760 --> 00:44:08.079
And they kept it till 1997.

00:44:08.480 --> 00:44:08.880
Yep.

00:44:08.880 --> 00:44:10.719
That's that's amazing.

00:44:10.719 --> 00:44:11.199
All right.

00:44:11.440 --> 00:44:23.039
Okay, well, I just want to read you this account of um a British officer, another surgeon, because I guess surgeons write more than other people, because those were the only accounts I could find from this time period.

00:44:23.039 --> 00:44:26.800
But uh it was uh an incarcerated British in China.

00:44:26.800 --> 00:44:33.920
So um this was published in the Times in London in 1890 and written the previous year.

00:44:33.920 --> 00:44:36.400
The guy in prison was Mr.

00:44:36.400 --> 00:44:37.119
Patterson.

00:44:37.119 --> 00:45:07.119
He said, From the discussion regarding the expedition now on its way to China, which lately took place in the House of Commons, I observed that in one or two very important circumstances connected with the late unfortunate circ transactions in this country, they created ignorance and misconception and appear to prevail amongst many of the members of the House, not accepting Her Majesty's ministers, our debate, and being also entirely unconnected with opium or any other kind of traffic.

00:45:07.119 --> 00:45:36.079
One of those, in short, when Commissioner Lin in his edicts uniformly designated in the most marked and considerate manner the good neighbor, perhaps you will regard the testimony I now beg to submit to you in reference to my own condition and treatment while under incarceration in China as calculated to disabuse the public mind of the prejudices attempted to be excited against the Chinese by misrepresentation of the facts and therefore deserving a place in columns of your journal.

00:45:36.079 --> 00:45:37.039
End quote.

00:45:37.039 --> 00:46:26.639
And he said, quote, a day or two after the embargo was raised, I visited Canton, which was the trading area, and from the top a British merchant pointed out to me a spot about a hundred yards distance where there was a large stock of pigs of the finest Chinese breed, as well as an abundance of poultry of every description, which had been offered during the embargo to us as a present from Commissioner Lynn.

00:46:26.639 --> 00:46:35.119
But it was refused by Her Majesty's representative from an apprehension that their acceptance might compromise his peculiar situation.

00:46:35.119 --> 00:46:46.960
And he was basically just like, yeah, there was all this really good stuff that we could have had, but yeah, Britain was just like, nah, guys, uh, peace out.

00:46:46.960 --> 00:46:52.800
You know, he but it's like the other things we've read from different people.

00:46:52.800 --> 00:46:56.639
It's like this was just very much a people story.

00:46:56.639 --> 00:47:15.760
It's you know, you hear about the opium wars, and you hear, you know, we hear the war in general, and yeah, this was more of a commerce war, but when you look at it, it's like, yeah, so a Chinese guy was trying to talk to Queen Victoria in a letter to get her to understand the whole moral part of it.

00:47:15.760 --> 00:47:38.880
And you have a surgeon on a boat who's was there describing what was going on in the actual war, which wasn't, you know, a bunch of people invading land and fighting, and like you would think of today, it was more like, you know, we don't really want to fight each other, but we have to, and nobody really actually was invested very much in it.

00:47:38.880 --> 00:47:43.760
And so they were basically both sides just being forced by their governments into this.

00:47:43.760 --> 00:47:57.440
And yeah, it ended with the uh the Treaty of Nanking, which gave the British Hong Kong, and the Chinese had to pay um for the opium that they got rid of, and British got trading rights in China.

00:47:57.440 --> 00:48:15.440
But like I said, this was just the first opium war, and the Chinese see it as like the beginning of the century of I think they call it the unequal treaties, where the Westerners just came in and took over a bunch and won a bunch of battles and things with them, and that's when they saw their power decline.

00:48:15.840 --> 00:48:16.960
And told them what to do.

00:48:17.119 --> 00:48:17.760
Yeah.

00:48:18.400 --> 00:48:21.920
So what happened next with um Lin's issue?

00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:23.039
Oh yeah.

00:48:23.039 --> 00:48:27.360
So he was scapegoated as uh getting the blame for the war.

00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:31.840
In his diaries, it's basically like he didn't even know it was gonna happen.

00:48:31.840 --> 00:48:37.360
He knew that like he was gonna get a letter or something that would tell him what was happening next, but he was exiled.

00:48:38.159 --> 00:48:38.719
Because he failed.

00:48:39.199 --> 00:48:39.840
Because he failed.

00:48:39.840 --> 00:48:46.960
And you know, eventually he was brought back to government service, but not nearly to the position that he was.

00:48:46.960 --> 00:48:50.320
But that happened after the treaty was signed.

00:48:50.320 --> 00:48:56.480
It was like, well, this guy went and he didn't fulfill anything he said he was going to do for our government, so he's exiled.

00:48:56.960 --> 00:48:57.280
Wow.

00:48:57.280 --> 00:49:05.360
So when we when we look back, I mean, on on the Opium War or the Opium Wars, like how do we how do you see that in the context of history?

00:49:06.239 --> 00:49:22.079
Um just that when people talk about it today, they see it as more of a clash of civilizations, a clash of the open economic um like capitalism um theories, and then the Chinese is the backward way.

00:49:22.079 --> 00:49:31.119
But it's really a lot more complicated than that because if you look at it from the Chinese point of view, they're just like, yeah, we've always been this way.

00:49:31.119 --> 00:49:34.400
It's worked out for a couple millennia so far.

00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:39.599
Yeah, and the British were coming in with the new trade policies and stuff.

00:49:39.599 --> 00:49:43.280
And so the British have better technology from the Chinese.

00:49:43.280 --> 00:49:51.199
It was like an imbalance like that, but a lot of people see it as, oh, it was a clash of civilizations, but they see the Chinese as the lesser civilization in it.

00:49:51.840 --> 00:49:53.920
Because of their technology, right?

00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:54.960
Their their firepower.

00:49:54.960 --> 00:49:55.360
Right.

00:49:55.360 --> 00:50:01.519
So basically, it would be as if uh, you know, for example, the the United States has a war on drugs.

00:50:01.519 --> 00:50:17.599
It would be as if the uh the the nations producing the drugs that they're importing showed up with nuclear weapons and said, Hey, by the way, um you're going to let us sell our drugs, you know, on the market here, and you're not going this war on drugs, no, no, forget about it.

00:50:17.599 --> 00:50:18.719
Or we're just gonna nuke you.

00:50:18.719 --> 00:50:19.039
Yes.

00:50:19.039 --> 00:50:20.159
For example, okay.

00:50:20.159 --> 00:50:22.800
That's um that's an interesting perspective.