Britains First Opium Wars

It was the British Crown s categorical opposition to and hatred for scientific and technological progress that led it to adopt an Opium War policy during the last decade of the 18th century. Having stifled the development of domestic manufacturing 

In a very direct sense, the Founding Fathers of the United States fought the American Revolution against the British Crown s opium policy. 

Britain s Opium War infrastructure — fostered an epidemic-scale increase in opium trafficking into China. By 1830-31, the number of chests of opium brought into China increased fourfold to 18,956 chests. In 1836, the figure exceeded 30,000 chests. In financial terms, trade figures made available by both the British and Chinese governments showed that between 1829-1840, a total of 7 million silver dollars entered China, while 56 million silver dollars were sucked out by the soaring opium trade. (4) 

When the Chinese Emperor, confronted by a galloping drug addiction crisis, tried to crack down on the British trading companies and their dope smugglers, the British Crown went to war. 

The British Crown had its casus belli. Matheson of the opium house Jardine Matheson joyously wrote his partner Jardine — then in London, conferring with Prime Minister Palmerston on how to pursue the pending war with China  

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In the first Opium War, Britain forces China to continue to allow British companies to sell the highly profitable drug to millions of addicts in Asia. In addition to the British legal monopoly, there soon develops a flourishing illegal trade controlled by powerful criminal groups. 

First Opium War begins between Britain and China. The conflict lasts until 1842. Imperial Chinese commissioner Lin Tse-Hsu seized or destroyed vast amounts of opium, including stocks owned by British traders. The result was a Chinese payment of an indemnity of more than 21 million silver dollars, and Hong Kong was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Nanking. 

The description is familiar, but we are not writing of America in 1978, but China in 1838, on the eve of the first Opium War, when Great Britain landed troops to compel China to ingest the poison distributed by British merchants. 

It is appropriate to conclude this summary profile of Britain s first Opium War by quoting from the 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1977. What the brief biographical sketch of Lin Tse-hsu — the leader of the Chinese Emperor s fight to defeat British drugging of the Chinese... 

In the years 1919 and 1920, two events of critical strategic importance for Britain s opium war against the United States occurred. First, the Royal Institute of International Affairs was founded. 

In the United States, the Hospice, Inc. is financed by the Kaiser Foundation, which includes on its board Kingman Brewster, current U.S. Ambassador to the Court of St. James and also a member of the Order of St. John. The Kaiser Foundation s participation in Britain s Opium War dates back to at least 1958, when Dr. Timothy Leary conducted his first experiments with LSD at the Foundation s Kaiser Experimental Hospital in San Francisco. 

First "Opium War" trade dispute between China and Britain... 

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