Opium Trade Case Study

1805 Words8 Pages
Introduction The East India Company was established by the British and then monopolized the trades towards the China. As the trades could not fulfil the ambition of the British, they requested for more benefits. However, the Qing court rejected and the relationship between the two countries came to a rapid deterioration. Unfortunately, after the out broke of the war, China became weaker than before. The following will discuss the relationship between Britain and China by how opium trade appeared and the effects of opium trade. Moreover, the consequences of the First opium war and how it shaped the relationship of Anglo-China will be mentioned. Main body The Qing dynasty forbidden sea trade until the emperor Kangxi unified China from the Ming dynasty in 1684. He then set up eleven ports for trading, including in Guangzhou, Macau, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Nantai, Xiangshanxian, Dinghaixian, Huatingxian in 1685. However, China did not consider the action as equal trade.…show more content…
However, the importation of opium was hard to avoid as the profit was huge. “In 1767, 1,000 chests of opium were imported. A chest of opium valued 500 to 600 Spanish dollars in the 1780s.” The opium even worth 2,000 Spanish dollars a chest in 1837. There were over 30,000 chests of opium exported to China in 1837. In the 1730s, the British discovered that the trade deficit of tea was in a large amount. The Qing court members were bribed to let the company sell opium and the outflow of silver taels caused as the price of opium was expensive. The opium trade could offset the trade deficit, so the British traders could convey the surplus profit back to England. The Britain was fulfilled by the huge profit making and wanted to get more from China the conservatives did not agree to fully prohibit opium as to maintain a peaceful relationship with
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