Background: Foreign business in China
The 19th century witnessed an explosion of foreign influence in China. (Twitchett, 3) Beforehand, the presence of foreigners was limited to a small Russian colony at Beijing, a few dozen Catholic missionaries scattered throughout the interior, a few hundred Portuguese holed up on the tiny peninsula of Macao, and a handful of merchants at Canton. (Fay, 12)
Trade early in the century proceeded cautiously, under tight regulation, and seemingly only through the indulgence of local rulers who stood to profit from increased tax revenues. China was a target for speculative investment, and it enjoyed a trade surplus with Europe through its exports of textiles and tea. As the nineteenth century progressed, however, this delicate surplus was replaced by a massive deficit.
The turning point in the commercial situation, and perhaps the signature characteristic of 19th-century Chinese economics, was the opium trade.
Where did opium come from?
Opium consumption and the drug itself both originated in India, Britain ’s most important colonial possession. The British East Indian Trading Company established a monopoly on Indian opium in 1773. (Fay, 4)
Opium had been used for centuries in India and the surrounding areas, but it was eaten, not smoked. When ingested, its effects were mild, but in China the method of consumption which emerged was smoking it through a pipe. (Fay, 7) In this form, the drug became mind-numbing in intensity and one of the most addictive in the world. Withdrawal, if it could be endured at all, often meant days of agony before the addiction could finally be conquered. (Fay, 10)
Selling opium to China
The importation of opium had always been illegal under Chinese laws. (Sheng, 34) But since the consumption of opium within China was itself not illegal, smuggling was widespread, and it grew in increasingly flagrant disregard for local laws. The East Indian Trading Company ’s opium monopoly extended to China, and its early trade was about a thousand chests per year. (The standard chest was 100-140 pounds, 80-100 being pure opium, the rest being packing material made of a crushed poppy mixture.) In the early nineteenth century, its trade was about four thousand chests per year. By the late 1830s, its trade had exploded to nearly 40,000 chests per year.
China limits the opium trade
As the opium trade escalated, so did Chinese efforts to restrict its trade. Smugglers who were caught by officials who had not been paid off had their opium confiscated, but the laws were enforced sporadically and with no appreciable success. (Sheng, 43) When the Chinese government proved itself unable to cut off the importation of opium, it declared the drug illegal.
By forcing its consumption as well as its importation underground, its use would be greatly reduced, confined to the shady districts of a few port cities, and almost completely cut off from the interior.
This, of course, was unacceptable interference with the free flow of business, and the result was the first of the Opium Wars.
The First Opium War
Considering the vast size of China, it is reasonable to assume that it would have given the British “one hell of a fight”, but the truth is far less dramatic. Provincial Qing dynasty governments in China were corrupt and disorganized (Sheng, 62) and the central government proved inept at orchestrating defence among the provinces. (Sheng, 54) The result was a one-sided war which might have been over in a few months had the British not sent such a small expeditionary force and proceeded at such a leisurely pace, seeking to minimize costs while establishing the conditions for a peace treaty that would most benefit them.
As usual, Britain explained the war by “nobility and necessity”, claiming to be attacking governments, not people, in an effort to liberate China from feudalism so that it might prosper in free trade. (Sheng, 71)
“In these Concessions the foreigners possessed all the rights of extraterritoriality, were free from the exactions of Chinese officialdom, and ruled the Chinese who took up their residence in them.” (Schiller, 86)
China capitulates
The First Opium War ended in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing), which was in essence a declaration of submission by China to foreign business interests. Five coastal cities, known as “treaty ports”, were “opened up” for trade with Europe, a large indemnity was paid, and the island of Hong Kong was ceded to the British. The Treaty also contained numerous other clauses designed to make it easier for foreigners to do business in China. And, of course, it re-legalized the opium trade. (Sheng, 81)
While Hong Kong was the only territory placed entirely under the control of a foreign power, the five treaty ports were stripped of most of their autonomy and were at the mercy of foreign businessmen. Shanghai, the largest and most industrialized treaty port, was divided into British, French, American and Japanese Concessions, with a “Chinese City” section reserved for the locals. (Schiller, 87)
The British Concession was policed by Indian Sikhs under British officers. These Concessions were in effect the property of the foreign nation to which they had been assigned. The opening of these ports, especially Shanghai, also allowed foreign shipping to penetrate the mainland (Twitchett, 4) and helped establish a trade in labour “coolies” throughout the world. (Epstein, 23)
China after the war
While Hong Kong was the only territory placed entirely under the control of a foreign power, the five treaty ports were stripped of most of their autonomy and were at the mercy of foreign businessmen. Shanghai, the largest and most industrialized treaty port, was divided into British, French, American and Japanese Concessions, with a “Chinese City” section reserved for the locals. (Schiller, 87)
The British Concession was policed by Indian Sikhs under British officers. (Schiller, 88) These Concessions were in effect the property of the foreign nation to which they had been assigned. The opening of these ports, especially Shanghai, also allowed foreign shipping to penetrate the mainland (Twitchett, 4) and helped establish a trade in labour “coolies” throughout the world. (Epstein, 23)
The Second Opium War
The Treaty of Nanking had a 12-year expiration date for renegotiation, after which the British pushed for further access and privileges. By 1856, with the negotiations broken, England declared war on China again, this time with France joining in for a share.
China was quickly defeated and signed a capitulating peace at the Treaty of Tientsin (Tianjin) in 1858. The war was soon restarted, with the destruction continuing until a definitive treaty was signed in 1860. Among other concessions, eleven more treaty ports were opened, the mainland territory of Kowloon was annexed to Hong Kong, the far northeast coast of Manchuria was ceded to Russia, and European business was granted total access to the Chinese interior.
The “Century of Humiliation”
China ’s nineteenth-century experience, centred around the Opium Wars, was “a stark tragedy, an unforeseen decline and fall almost without equal in history”. (Twitchett, 3) China had survived the incursions of the Mongols in the thirteenth century and the Manchus in the seventeenth, but it had never been as dominated, both socially and economically, as it was by European powers in the nineteenth century.
In the West, the Opium Wars, when not forgotten entirely, seem to be considered in the context of “modernization”. China had mistakenly chosen an isolationist policy, attempting to keep free markets artificially closed, and it was painfully but necessarily introduced to the realities of a newly “globalized” world.
In Chinese sources, the Opium Wars mark the inauguration of the nation’s “Century of Humiliation”, and remain in the cultural memory to this day.
Sources
Chesneaux, Jean, Marianne Bastid, and Marie-Claire Bergère. China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution. New York: Pantheon Books, 1976.
Duiker, William J. Cultures in Collision. USA: Presidio Press, 1978.
Epstein, Israel. From Opium War to Liberation. Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1980.
Esherick, Joseph W. The Origins of the Boxer Uprising. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987.
Fay, Peter Ward. The Opium War 1840-1842. University of North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.
Johnson, Theodore. Imperial Britain. London: Imperial Press Limited, 1898.
Schiller, F.C.S. The Future of the British Empire. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1936.
Sheng, Hu. From the Opium War to the May Fourth Movement. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1991.
Twitchett, Dennis, and John K. Fairbank. The Cambridge History of China, Volume 10. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
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