Opium trade

Merrillees, R.S. (1962). Opium trade in the Bronze Age Levant. Antiquity 36 287-292. 

Over the next 100 years, a struggle ensued between various European powers, including the Dutch, French, and British, over control of the opium trade. By 1715, it was clear that Britain had won when it secured the port of Canton, the only port through which opium could be sold to China. The disheartening and complex relationship between Britain and China involving opium will be explored in much greater detail later. 

During the first centuries of the opium trade, the drug became popular not only in Asia but in the Western world as well. In Britain, especially, opium became an extremely important product, both within the country and for its economic attributes abroad. For much of this time, the British attitude toward opium was much like our modern view of coffee. The English, along with much of the rest of the Western world, viewed opium as a luxury and a pleasantry, albeit a mildly addictive one. Like coffee today, opium was realized to be mildly addictive, but it was not seen as a dangerous narcotic. 

The next major convention on opium occurred in 1911 in the Netherlands. A declaration was made at the 1911 convention which advocated all nations to institute domestic opium laws. However, agreements made at the convention were meaningless because individual nations ultimately ignored the statutes. Time and time again, international efforts to control opium consumption were curbed by vested interests. The opium trade was critical to many countries economies, and the tax revenues were too substantial for many governments to want to effect any change. 

While there were still many disputes between individual nations over the terms of opium production and distribution, international action finally proved effective, achieving an 80 percent reduction in worldwide opium production, from 42,000 tons in 1906 to 16,000 tons by 1934. Over the next several decades, international oversight continued, at times lulling (particularly during World War II), but at other times booming, especially after the creation of the United Nations following World War II. However, total control over opium has never been achieved, and illegal opium trade continues to this day. One reason it is so difficult to control opium production is that its cultivation is necessary to supply the lawful pharmaceutical industry. 

The creation of tougher national and international laws in the late twentieth century has resulted in a slight transformation of the opium trade. Laws have become stricter and limited success has been made in raising public awareness concerning the dangerous nature of opium and its constituents. The trade has not stopped, however it has only changed hands. In the past, the demand for opium created a large and complex distribution chain, complete with opium producers, suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and consumers. Today, that trade, while now primarily in the form of nonmedical pharmaceutical use and heroin, is equally complex and perhaps even more profitable than ever. 

The global opium trade of the last 30 or so years is best described as a seesaw, waxing and waning in the changing... 

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