What system of trade did the Chinese empire establish to deal with Westerners?
Why did the British and Americans want to sell opium to the Chinese?
How did the opium trade affect China?
Hong merchants (est. in 1720)
Howqua (Wu Bingjian), 1769-1843
Factories ("Barbarian Houses")
20,000 pounds, 1700
5,000,000 pounds, 1760
23,000,000 pounds, 1800
50% of British China trade
£20 million British trade deficit, 1710-1760
British Tea Drinking in 1786 and 1825
Cultivation
Transporting Tea in Wicker Casks to Canton, ca. 1800
Tea pickers
Weighing tea for export
1800-1820: 4,500 chests/year av.
1820-30: 10,000 chests/year av.
1838-39 40,000 chests/year av.
Opium poppy
Bengal cultivation
East India Co. Opium Warehouse
Calcutta to Canton
Opium Den
*"Commissioner Lin" or Lin Zexu, 1785-1850
Confiscation and destruction of opium
Population in 1800
Britain, 10.5 million
China, 300 million
Area (today)
Britain, 244,820 sq. km. (ranked 86th)
China, 9,596,960 sq. km. (ranked 4th)
Capture of Zhoushan, 1841
*Nemesis
$21 million silver dollars indemnity
Abolition of the Hong trading system
5 treaty ports
Cession of Hong Kong
Extraterritoriality for British subjects
Most-favored-nation clause
Zongli Yamen, 1861
Jiangnan Arsenal, Shanghai, 1865
Fuzhou Arsenal, 1866
*Sino-Japanese War, 1894-95
*“Scramble for Concessions,” 1897-8
1. Explain the connections among Chinese tea production, British tea drinking, East India Company opium production in India, and Chinese opium smoking.
2. What were the causes of the British attack on China during the Opium War? Why did the British win the war in 1842?
3. What reforms did China try to implement to catch up with the West in the late 19th century? Why did the reforms fail to meet expectations?
1. How did the Chinese empire expand under the Qing dynasty up to the year 1800?
2. Britain could not force China to open to more ports to trade in 1792, but succeeded after winning the Opium War in 1842. What caused the balance of power to shift?
1. What arguments does Lin Zexu use to try to persuade Queen Victoria of England to end the opium trade?
2. Why do you think that the letter never was delivered to Victoria?
1. Explain the connection between Chinese tea production and British tea drinking.
2. According to Pomeranz, how was British tea drinking connected to New World sugar plantations and the work requirements of the industrial revolution?
1. Explain the connections between the Chinese and British trade in tea and opium.
2. Why did the British economy rely on the opium trade throughout the nineteenth century?