Just Finished Reading: The Opium War by Julia Lovell (FP: 2011) [360pp]

It wasn’t just a profitable trade – it was a VERY profitable trade. Opium produced in India and transported to China raised a significant percentage of India’s running costs to the British Empire. Any restriction of that, admittedly illicit, trade not only threatened Indian revenue but arguably threated the Imperial project itself. At least that was what some of the actors in this drama told themselves and others back home. The Chinese had a long history of restricting access and trade opportunities to outsiders and after many decades of grumbling and smuggling the Europeans and especially the British had had enough. Whilst trade in opium was illegal the profits from its sale – initially to the wealthy and well placed – were enormous even with the middle men and bribes to everyone in the distribution chain. If the trade was made legal then profits would sky rocket. The opportunity arose during a periodic Chinese crackdown on the trade when a large consignment of opium was confiscated and burnt. Complaints from British traders fell on deaf ears and the local English language press had a field day in decrying how the European ‘race’ had been humiliated. The demand that ‘something be done’ was growing. Tired of the constant complaints the British government sent a representative to ‘sort things’. Siding with the traders he attempted to meet with officials, claim compensation and regularise the trade on a firmer foundation. This is when the misunderstandings and very different cultural world views came into deadly conflict.

The Chinese, often with very good reason, regarded the rest of the world as barbarians – no matter their technological prowess. The British, naturally to them, regarded the Chinese as a failed, backward and corrupt empire on the verge of collapse. Along with the slightly distasteful trade in opium they were bringing all of the benefits of European civilisation and, for some inexplicable reason, they were meeting resistance. A lesson, it seemed, needed to be taught. So they awaited an inevitable incident to arise that they could use as a wedge to finally breach Chinese trade restrictions once and for all. They didn’t have long to wait. Made into something far worse than it actually was the British envoy accused Chinese forces of an unprovoked attack on a British ship going about its lawful business (neither of which was strictly true) and demanded reparations. When none were forthcoming the British did what the British did back then – they called for military support. Back in those days (the late 1830’s) before widespread use of the telegraph it took weeks for messages to go back and forth from the edge of the Empire’s reach back to London and weeks more for a reply to be received on agreed action. None of this was in any way practical for efficient administration so envoys had a great deal of latitude to act on their own. Even with a latitude as wide as he no doubt had the British envoy overstepped his remit – and then some. Almost before they had begun to understand the situation the British government found themselves embroiled in what turned out to be the First Opium War.

Yet again (which seems to be a constant refrain here) the Opium War(s) was something I knew of but knew very little about (at least in detail). I know the fact that the British essentially used Royal Naval power to ENFORCE an illegal drug trade on another country but I wasn’t fully aware at how we first bumbled our way into it and then bumbled our way through it. Naturally with our technological superiority the war, if you can really call it that, didn’t last long or cost many European lives – though it cost a great number of Chinese ones. The subsequent treaty was flawed (mostly because of cultural misunderstandings and a Chinese ‘understanding’ that its provisions could be gradually ‘forgotten’) which led to the Second Opium War in 1856-60 which both opened up the Chinese mainland to a lot more trade – not just in opium – as well as full access for Christian missionaries. This, again naturally, became a casus belli for the subsequent Boxer Rebellion (more later!). From all of this you can see why the Chinese distrust and (arguably) hate Europeans almost as much as they despise the Japanese (more later!). In the last section of this fascinating book the author goes into the echoes of these conflicts – mostly long forgotten in the West but still fairly fresh in Chinese memory – both with the recurrent idea of a ‘Yellow Peril’ so often portrayed in popular culture since the mid-19^th century to the present day and the deep-seated mistrust of any Western attempt to restrict or limit the Chinese taking what they see as their rightful place in the world. Not just a history of a war long ago in a place far away, this is I think an important contribution to understanding the Chinese world view and our place in creating it. With China rising in world power and the West arguably in relative decline misunderstandings of the kind that led to the Opium Wars will have much larger consequences for all involved. Hopefully works like this can reduce the changes of that happening. Most definitely recommended to anyone who wishes to understand China.