![]() The Emperor petitioned the Company and directly to the Queen Victoria, but to no avail.įurther edicts were issued banning opium completely in 1837, with capital punishment for those involved. It was motivated by needing silver to buy tea from the Chinese who had a net trade surplus with Europe from porcelain, silks and tea.īy the 1830s, the Company was shipping vast amounts of Opium into the free trade region of Canton and then selling to Chinese smugglers. The Company’s opium business in India consequently grew rapidly with the Company able to distance itself from direct involvement and stick its moral head in the sand. The Company issued orders to its own ships’ commanders not to carry it to China, but the edict was largely ignored in China, millions became addicted, with private traders and smugglers profiting. In the 18th Century the Chinese started to use it recreationally, smoking it with tobacco, causing widespread addiction, leading the Chinese Emperor to issue edicts banning the sale of Opium, the first in 1729. The East India Company took that cultivation to India, conditions enabling a higher quality than that available from Turkey and Iran, the primary sources. Used since ancient times for illness and ailments, today opium provides important pain relief drugs such as morphine, but also the illegal, destructive heroin.īecause of its medicinal value it’s no surprise that the English tried to cultivate opium.
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