Editing First Opium War (section)

== Background ==

=== Establishment of trade relations ===
[[File: AMH-6145-NA View of Canton.jpg|left|thumb|View of Guangzhou with merchant ship of the [[Dutch East India Company]], c. 1665]]

Direct maritime trade between Europe and China began in 1557 when the [[Portuguese Empire]] leased an outpost from the Ming dynasty in [[Macau]]. Other European nations soon followed the Portuguese lead, inserting themselves into the existing Asian maritime trade network to compete with Arab, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese merchants in intraregional commerce.{{sfn|Gray|2002|pp=22–23}} After the [[Spanish conquest of the Philippines]], the exchange of goods between China and Europe accelerated dramatically. From 1565, the [[Manila Galleon]]s brought silver into the Asian trade network from mines in [[Viceroyalty of Peru|South America]].<ref>Carrera Stampa, Manuel. "La Nao de la China." ''Historia Mexicana'' 9 no. 33 (1959) 97–118.</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} China was a primary destination for the precious metal, as the imperial government mandated that Chinese goods could only be exported in exchange for silver [[bullion]].<ref name="Goldstone-2016">{{Cite book |last=Goldstone |first=Jack A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOu_DQAAQBAJ&q=chinese+european+bullion&pg=PT365 |title=Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World: Population Change and State Breakdown in England, France, Turkey, and China, 1600–1850 |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-315-40860-6 |edition=25th Anniversary}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}}<ref name="Mann-2011">[[Charles C. Mann]] (2011) pp. 123–163.</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}

British ships began to appear sporadically around the coasts of China from 1635 on.<ref>Spence (1999) p. 120.</ref> Without establishing formal relations through the Chinese [[Tributary system of China|tributary system]], by which most Asian nations were able to negotiate with China, British merchants were only allowed to trade at the ports of [[Zhoushan]], [[Xiamen]] (or Amoy), and Guangzhou.{{sfn|Spence|1999|p=120}} Official British trade was conducted through the auspices of the [[British East India Company]], which held a [[royal charter]] for trade with the Far East. The East India Company gradually came to dominate Sino-European trade from its position in India and due to the strength of the [[Royal Navy]].<ref name="Bernstein 286">{{Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=William J. |author-link=William J. Bernstein |title=A splendid exchange: how trade shaped the world |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-87113-979-5 |location=New York |page=286}}</ref>

[[File:View of Canton factories 2.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|View of the [[Thirteen Factories|European factories]] in Guangzhou]]
Trade benefited after the newly risen [[Qing dynasty]] relaxed maritime trade restrictions in the 1680s. [[Formosa]] ([[Taiwan]]) came under Qing control in 1683 and rhetoric regarding the tributary status of Europeans was muted.{{sfn|Spence|1999|p=120}} Guangzhou became the port of preference for incoming foreign trade. Ships did try to call at other ports, but these locations could not match the benefits of Guangzhou's geographic position at the mouth of the Pearl River, nor did they have the city's long experience in balancing the demands of [[Beijing]] with those of Chinese and foreign merchants.<ref name="Van Dyke 6">{{Cite book |last=Van Dyke |first=Paul A. |title=The Canton trade: life and enterprise on the China coast, 1700–1845 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press |year=2005 |isbn=962-209-749-9 |location=Hong Kong |pages=6–9}}</ref> From 1700 onward Guangzhou was the centre of maritime trade with China, and this market process was gradually formulated by Qing authorities into the "[[Canton System]]".<ref name=" Van Dyke 6" /> From the system's inception in 1757, trading in China was extremely lucrative for European and Chinese merchants alike as goods such as tea, porcelain, and silk were valued highly enough in Europe to justify the expenses of travelling to Asia. The system was highly regulated by the Qing government. Foreign traders were only permitted to do business through a body of Chinese merchants known as the [[Cohong]] and were forbidden to learn Chinese. Foreigners could only live in one of the [[Thirteen Factories]] and were not allowed to enter or trade in any other part of China. Only low-level government officials could be dealt with, and the imperial court could not be lobbied for any reason excepting official diplomatic missions.<ref>Hucker, Charles O. (1958). "Governmental Organization of the Ming Dynasty". ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies''. Harvard-Yenching Institute: 38.</ref> The Imperial laws that upheld the system were collectively known as the Prevention Barbarian Ordinances ({{lang|zh|防範外夷規條}}).<ref name="Peyrefitte-1792">Alain Peyrefitte, ''The Immobile Empire – The first great collision of East and West – the astonishing history of Britain's grand, an ill-fated expedition to open China to Western Trade, 1792–94'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992), pp. 520–545</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} The Cohong were particularly powerful in the [[Old China Trade]], as they were tasked with appraising the value of foreign products, purchasing or rebuffing said imports and charged with selling Chinese exports at an appropriate price.<ref name="Fay-2000d">Fay (2000) pp. 38–45, 55–54, 60–68.</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} The Cohong was made up of between (depending on the politics of Guangzhou) 6 to 20 merchant families. Most of the merchant houses these families ruled had been established by low-ranking [[Mandarin (bureaucrat)|mandarins]], but several were Cantonese or Han in origin.<ref>Fay (2000) pp. 62–64.</ref> Another key function of the Cohong was the traditional bond signed between a Cohong member and a foreign merchant. This bond stated that the receiving Cohong member was responsible for the foreign merchant's behavior and cargo while in China.<ref name="Fay-2000h">Fay (2000) p. 65.</ref> In addition to dealing with the Cohong, European merchants were required to pay customs fees, measurement duties, provide gifts, and hire navigators.<ref name="Fay-2000h" />

Despite restrictions, silk and porcelain continued to drive trade through their popularity in Europe, and an insatiable demand for Chinese tea existed in Britain. From the mid-17th century onward around 28 million kilograms/61.6 million pounds of silver were received by China, principally from European powers, in exchange for Chinese products.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A21388322 Early American Trade], BBC</ref>

=== European trade deficits ===
A brisk trade between China and European powers continued for over a century. While this trading heavily favoured the Chinese and resulted in European nations sustaining large [[trade deficit]]s, the demand for Chinese goods continued to drive commerce. In addition, the colonisation and conquest of the Americas resulted in European nations (namely Spain, Great Britain, and France) gaining access to a cheap supply of silver, resulting in European economies remaining relatively stable despite the trade deficit with China. This silver was also shipped across the Pacific Ocean to China directly, notably through the Spanish-controlled Philippines. In stark contrast to the European situation, Qing China sustained a trade surplus. Foreign silver flooded into China in exchange for Chinese goods, expanding the Chinese economy but also causing inflation and forming a Chinese reliance on European silver.<ref name="Fay-2000e" /><ref name="Fay-2000h" />

The continued economic expansion of European economies in 17th and 18th centuries gradually increased the European demand for precious metals, which were used to mint new coins; this increasing need for hard currency to remain in circulation in Europe reduced the supply of bullion available for trade in China, driving up costs and leading to competition between merchants in Europe and European merchants who traded with the Chinese.<ref name="Fay-2000e" /> This market force resulted in a chronic trade deficit for European governments, who were forced to risk silver shortages in their domestic economies to supply the needs of their merchants in Asia (who as private enterprises still turned a profit by selling valuable Chinese goods to consumers in Europe).<ref name="Peyrefitte-1792" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}<ref name="Peyrefitte 1993, p487-503">Peyrefitte 1993, pp. 487–503.</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} This gradual effect was greatly exacerbated by a series of large-scale colonial wars between Great Britain and Spain in the mid 18th century; these conflicts disrupted the international silver market and eventually resulted in the independence of powerful new nations, namely the United States and Mexico.<ref name="China: The First Opium War" /><ref name="Fay-2000d" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} Without cheap silver from the colonies to sustain their trade, European merchants who traded with China began to take silver directly out of circulation in the already-weakened economies of Europe to pay for goods in China.<ref name="Fay-2000e" /> This angered governments, who saw their economies shrink as a result, and fostered a great deal of animosity towards the Chinese for their restriction of European trade.<ref name="Peyrefitte 1993, p487-503" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}<ref name="Hanes 2002">{{Cite book |last=Hanes III |first=W. Travis |url=https://archive.org/details/opiumwarsaddicti00hane |title=The Opium Wars |last2=Sanello |first2=Frank |author-link2=Frank Sanello |publisher=Sourcebooks |year=2002 |location=Naperville, IL |page=[https://archive.org/details/opiumwarsaddicti00hane/page/20 20] |url-access=registration}}</ref> The Chinese economy was unaffected by fluctuations in silver prices, as China was able to [[Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine|import Japanese silver]] to stabilise its money supply.<ref name="Goldstone-2016" />{{page needed|date=September 2021}} European goods remained in low demand in China, ensuring the longstanding trade surplus with the European nations continued.<ref name="China: The First Opium War">{{Cite web |title=China: The First Opium War |url=http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob36.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101201214224/http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob36.html |archive-date=1 December 2010 |access-date=2 December 2010 |publisher=John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York}} Quoting ''British Parliamentary Papers'', 1840, XXXVI (223), p. 374.</ref> Despite these tensions, trade between China and Europe grew by an estimated 4% annually in the years leading up to the start of the opium trade.<ref name="Fay-2000e" /><ref>Meyers, Wang (2003) p. 587.</ref>{{failed verification|date=September 2021}}

[[File:Two poor Chinese opium smokers. Gouache painting on rice-pap Wellcome V0019165.jpg|thumb|Chinese opium smokers]]

=== Opium trade ===
{{see also|History of opium in China}}
[[Opium]] as a medicinal ingredient was documented in Chinese texts as early as the [[Tang dynasty]] (617–907), but the recreational usage of the drug was limited. As with India, opium (then limited by distance to a dried powder, often drunk with tea or water) was introduced to China and Southeast Asia by Arab merchants.<ref name="Fay-2000g">Fay (2000) p. 38.</ref> The [[Ming dynasty]] banned tobacco as a decadent good in 1640, and opium was seen as a similarly minor issue. The first restrictions on opium were passed by the Qing in 1729 when [[Madak]] (a substance made from powdered opium blended with tobacco) was banned.<ref name="Fay-2000l" /> At the time, Madak production used up most of the opium being imported into China, as pure opium was difficult to preserve. Consumption of Javanese opium rose in the 18th century, and after the [[Napoleonic Wars]] resulted in the British occupying [[Java]], British merchants became the primary traders in opium.<ref>Fay (2000) pp. 74–75.</ref> The British realised they could reduce their trade deficit with Chinese manufactories by counter-trading in narcotic opium, and therefore efforts were made to produce more opium in [[Company rule in India|Company-controlled India]]. Limited British sales of Indian opium began in 1781, with exports to China increasing as the East India Company solidified its control over India.<ref name="Mann-2011" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}<ref name="Hanes 2002" />

The British opium was produced in [[Bengal]] and the [[Ganges]] river plain, where the British inherited an existing opium industry from the declining [[Mughal Empire]] and saw the product as a potentially valuable export.<ref name="Fay-2000m">Fay (2000) pp. 13–14, 42.</ref> The East India Company commissioned and managed hundreds of thousands of poppy plantations. It took care of the painstaking lancing of individual pods to obtain the raw gum, drying and forming it into cakes, before coating and packaging them for auction in Calcutta.<ref>Lovell, p. 3.</ref> The company tightly controlled the opium industry, and all opium was considered company property until it was sold.<ref name="Fay-2000e">Fay (2000) pp. 75–81.</ref> From [[Kolkata]], the company's Board of Customs, Salt, and Opium concerned itself with quality control by managing the way opium was packaged and shipped. No poppies could be cultivated without the company's permission, and the company banned private businesses from refining opium. All opium in India was sold to the company at a fixed rate, and the company hosted a series of public opium auctions every year. The difference of the company-set price of raw opium and the sale price of refined opium at auction (minus expenses) was profit made by the East India Company.<ref name="Fay-2000m" /><ref name="Fay-2000d" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} In addition to securing poppies cultivated on lands under its direct control, the company's board issued licences to the independent [[princely states]] of [[Malwa]], where significant quantities of poppies were grown.<ref name="Fay-2000m" /><ref name="Fay-2000e" />
[[File:William John Huggins - The opium ships at Lintin, China, 1824.jpg|thumb|A depiction of opium ships at [[Nei Lingding Island|Lintin]], China by the British artist [[William John Huggins]] in 1824]]

By the late 18th century, company and Malwan farmlands (which were traditionally dependent on cotton growing) had been hard hit by the introduction of factory-produced cotton cloth, which used cotton grown in Egypt or the American South. Opium was considered a lucrative replacement, and was soon being auctioned in ever larger amounts in Calcutta.<ref name="Fay-2000d" /> Private merchants who possessed a company charter (to comply with the British royal charter for Asiatic trade) bid on and acquired goods at the Calcutta auction before sailing to Southern China. British ships brought their cargoes to islands off the coast, especially [[Lintin Island]], where Chinese traders with fast and well-armed small boats took the goods inland for distribution, paying for the opium with silver.<ref name="Fay-2000d" /> The Qing administration initially tolerated opium importation because it created an indirect tax on Chinese subjects, as increasing the silver supply available to foreign merchants through the sale of opium encouraged Europeans to spend more money on Chinese goods. This policy provided the funds British merchants needed to then greatly increase tea exports from China to England, delivering further profits to the Qing monopoly on tea exports held by the imperial treasury and its agents in Guangzhou.<ref>Peyrefitte, 1993 p. 520.</ref><ref name="Fay-2000e" />
[[File:A busy stacking room in the opium factory at Patna, India. L Wellcome V0019154.jpg|thumb|A British [[lithograph]] depicting a storehouse filled with opium at the factory of the British East India Company in [[Patna]], India {{circa|1850}}]]

However, opium usage continued to grow in China, adversely affecting social stability. From Guangzhou, the habit spread outwards to the North and West, affecting members from every class of Chinese society.<ref name="Fay-2000f" /> By the early 19th century, more and more Chinese were smoking British opium as a recreational drug. For many, what started as recreation soon became a punishing addiction: many people who stopped ingesting opium suffered chills, nausea, and cramps, and sometimes died from withdrawal. Once addicted, people would often do almost anything to continue to get access to the drug.<ref>{{Cite web |publisher=Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada|title=The Opium Wars in China |url=https://asiapacificcurriculum.ca/learning-module/opium-wars-china |website=Asia Pacific Curriculum}}</ref> These serious social issues eventually led to the Qing government issuing an edict against the drug in 1780, followed by an outright ban in 1796, and an order from the governor of Guangzhou to stop the trade in 1799.<ref name="Fay-2000f">Fay (2000) pp. 73–74.</ref> To circumvent the increasingly stringent regulations in Guangzhou, foreign merchants bought older ships and converted them into floating warehouses. These ships were anchored off of the Chinese coast at the mouth of the Pearl River in case the Chinese authorities moved against the opium trade, as the ships of the Chinese navy had difficulty operating in open water.<ref name="Fay-2000j">Fay (2000) pp. 41–62.</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} Inbound opium ships would unload a portion of their cargo onto these floating warehouses, where the narcotic was eventually purchased by Chinese opium dealers. By implementing this system of smuggling, foreign merchants could avoid inspection by Chinese officials and prevent retaliation against the trade in legal goods, in which many smugglers also participated.<ref name="Fay-2000f" /><ref name="Fay-2000e" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}

In the early 19th century, [[Old China Trade|American merchants joined the trade]] and began to introduce [[Turkey merchant|opium from Turkey]] into the Chinese market—this supply was of lesser quality but cheaper, and the resulting competition among British and American merchants drove down the price of opium, leading to an increase in the availability of the drug for Chinese consumers.<ref name="China: The First Opium War" /> The demand for opium rose rapidly and was so profitable in China that Chinese opium dealers (who, unlike European merchants, could legally travel to and sell goods in the Chinese interior) began to seek out more suppliers of the drug. The resulting shortage in supply drew more European merchants into the increasingly lucrative opium trade to meet the Chinese demand. In the words of one trading house agent, "[Opium] it is like gold. I can sell it anytime."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Peyrefitte |first=Alain |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iELwe9Klc2sC&q=Opium+is+like+gold%2C+sell+it+at+anytime&pg=PA520 |title=The Immobile Empire |year=2013 |publisher=Vintage |isbn=978-0345803955}}</ref> From 1804 to 1820, a period when the Qing treasury needed to finance the suppression of the [[White Lotus Rebellion]] and other conflicts, the flow of money gradually reversed, and Chinese merchants were soon exporting silver to pay for opium rather than Europeans paying for Chinese goods with the precious metal.<ref>[[History of opium in China#CITEREFLayton1997|Layton 1997]], p. 28.</ref> European and American ships were able to arrive in Guangzhou with their holds filled with opium, sell their cargo, use the proceeds to buy Chinese goods, and turn a profit in the form of silver bullion.<ref name="Goldstone-2016" />{{page needed|date=September 2021}} This silver would then be used to acquire more Chinese goods.<ref name="Peyrefitte-1792" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} While opium remained the most profitable good to trade with China, foreign merchants began to export other cargoes, such as machine-spun cotton cloth, [[rattan]], [[ginseng]], fur, clocks, and steel tools. However, these goods never reached the same level of importance as narcotics, nor were they as lucrative.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Early American Trade with China |url=http://teachingresources.atlas.illinois.edu/chinatrade/introduction04.html |access-date=8 August 2017 |website=teachingresources.atlas.illinois.edu}}</ref><ref name="JEAL">{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=Nancy |date=February 1989 |title=Cargo Manifests and Custom Records from American China Trade Vessels Bound for the Port of Philadelphia 1790–1840 |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jeal/vol1989/iss86/5 |journal=Journal of East Asian Libraries |volume=1989 |issue=86 |pages=17–20 |access-date=23 September 2018}}</ref>
[[File:Opium imports into China 1650-1880 EN.svg|thumb|upright=1.6|Graph showing the increase in Chinese opium imports by year]]

The Qing imperial court debated whether or how to end the opium trade, but their efforts to curtail opium abuse were complicated by local officials and the Cohong, who profited greatly from the bribes and taxes involved in the narcotics trade.<ref name="Fay-2000j" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} Efforts by Qing officials to curb opium imports through regulations on consumption resulted in an increase in drug smuggling by European and Chinese traders, and corruption was rampant.<ref>Fay (2000) pp. 76–80.</ref><ref name="Janin-1999" /> In 1810, the Daoguang Emperor issued an edict concerning the opium crisis, declaring,

{{blockquote|Opium has a harm. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality. Its use is prohibited by law. Now the commoner, Yang, dares to bring it into the [[Forbidden City]]. Indeed, he flouts the law!

However, recently the purchasers, eaters, and consumers of opium have become numerous. Deceitful merchants buy and sell it to gain profit. The customs house at the [[Ch'ung-wen Gate]] was originally set up to supervise the collection of imports (it had no responsibility with regard to opium smuggling). If we confine our search for opium to the seaports, we fear the search will not be sufficiently thorough. We should also order the general commandant of the police and police—censors at the five gates to prohibit opium and to search for it at all gates. If they capture any violators, they should immediately punish them and should destroy the opium at once. As to Kwangtung [Guangdong] and Fukien [Fujian], the provinces from which opium comes, we order their viceroys, governors, and superintendents of the maritime customs to conduct a thorough search for opium, and cut off its supply. They should in no ways consider this order a dead letter and allow opium to be smuggled out!<ref name="fu">{{Cite book |last=Fu |first=Lo-shu |title=A Documentary Chronicle of Sino-Western relations, Volume 1 |year=1966 |page=380}}</ref>}}

Nonetheless, by 1831, the annual opium traffic neared 20,000 chests, each with a net weight of around 140 pounds, compared with just about 4,000 chests per year between 1800 and 1818. After the East India Company's monopoly on tea ended in 1833 and private merchants began to join in, this quantity would go on to double before the close of the decade.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lovell |first=Julia |title=The Opium War: drugs, dreams and the making of China |year=2014 |isbn=978-1468308952 |location=New York |pages=2–3 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams}}</ref>

Bengal and India, under the [[British Raj]], experienced mixed effects from the Britain-China opium trade. On one hand, millions died in Bengal during the famine of 1770 after agricultural land was forcibly converted to poppy cultivation. Small farmers in India's [[Bihar Province]] were compelled to grow poppies without profit. On the other hand, opium became the main driver of capital accumulation for merchants and bankers in western India.<ref name="Conversation">{{cite web |last1=Foster |first1=Kevin |title=Exploitation, brutality and misery: how the opium trade shaped the modern world |url=https://theconversation.com/exploitation-brutality-and-misery-how-the-opium-trade-shaped-the-modern-world-227356 |website=The Conversation |date=6 May 2024}}</ref> The Indian government's revenue from opium trade rose from less than five percent of its total in the early 1800s to nearly 17 percent in 1890.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Opium Trade—Observations |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1880-06-04/debates/b53a59e8-4235-47f9-beec-31da92fdfbf4/TheOpiumTrade%E2%80%94Observations |website=Hansard |date=4 June 1880}}</ref> The income helped British rule and the East India Company expand further in the region.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bhattacharya |first1=Prabir |title=India in the Rise of Britain and Europe: A Contribution to the Convergence and Great Divergence Debates |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics |date=January 2021 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=24–53 |doi=10.1177/0260107920907196 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0260107920907196 |issn=0260-1079}}</ref>

The opium profits of the Royal Dutch Trading Company in the [[Dutch East Indies]] financed several enterprises, such as [[Shell plc|Royal Dutch Shell]]. A few American merchants also made a fortune from the opium trade and invested their proceeds in railroads, hotel chains, and manufacturing in the United States.<ref name="Conversation" />

=== Changing trade policy ===
In addition to the start of the opium trade, economic and social innovations led to a change in the parameters of the wider Sino-European trade.<ref name="Wood-1849">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tqVLAAAAYAAJ&q=great+recoinage+1816+shillings&pg=PA172 Report from the Select Committee on the Royal Mint: together with the minutes of evidence, appendix and index, Volume 2]'' (Great Britain. Committee on Royal Mint, 1849), p. 172.</ref> The formulation of [[classical economics]] by [[Adam Smith]] and other economic theorists caused academic belief in [[mercantilism]] to decline in Britain.<ref name="Seabrooke-2006">L.Seabrooke (2006). "Global Standards of Market Civilization". p. 192. Taylor & Francis 2006</ref> Under the prior system, the Qianlong Emperor restricted trade with foreigners on Chinese soil only for licensed Chinese merchants, while the British government on their part issued a monopoly charter for trade only to the [[British East India Company]]. This arrangement was not challenged until the 19th century when the idea of free trade was popularised in the West.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schirokauer |first=Conrad |title=A Brief History of Chinese Civilization |last2=Brown |first2=Miranda |publisher=Cengage |year=2012 |isbn=978-0495913238 |edition=4th |page=221}}</ref> Fueled by the [[Industrial Revolution]], Britain began to use its growing naval power to spread a broadly liberal economic model, encompassing open markets and relatively barrier free international trade, a policy in line with the credo of [[Smithian economics]].<ref name="Seabrooke-2006" /> This stance on trade was intended to open foreign markets to the resources of Britain's colonies, as well as provide the British public with greater access to consumer goods such as tea.<ref name="Seabrooke-2006" /> In Great Britain, the adoption of the [[gold standard]] in 1821 resulted in the empire [[Great Recoinage of 1816|minting]] standardised silver shillings, further reducing the availability of silver for trade in Asia and spurring the British government to press for more trading rights in China.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Xu |first=Zhongyou |publisher=World Book Publishing Company |year=2008 |isbn=978-7506287128 |language=zh |script-title=zh:中國近代史：1600–2000中国的奋斗 |trans-title=The rise of modern China}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}}<ref name="Wood-1849" />

In contrast to this new economic model, the Qing dynasty continued to employ a [[Confucian]]-Modernist, highly organised economic philosophy that called for strict government intervention in industry for the sake of preserving societal stability.<ref name="Fay-2000d" /> While the Qing government was not explicitly anti-trade, a lack of need for imports and increasingly heavy taxes on luxury goods limited pressure on the government to open further ports to international trade.<ref name="Columbia-2017">{{Cite web |title=Grandeur of the Qing Economy |url=http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/economy/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170512035204/http://www.learn.columbia.edu/nanxuntu/html/economy/ |archive-date=12 May 2017 |access-date=24 May 2017 |website=www.learn.columbia.edu}}</ref> China's rigid merchant hierarchy also blocked efforts to open ports to foreign ships and businesses.<ref name="Gao-2003">Gao, Feng (2003) p. 141.</ref> Chinese merchants operating in inland China wanted to avoid market fluctuations caused by importing foreign goods that would compete with domestic production, while the Cohong families of Guangzhou profited greatly by keeping their city the only entry point for foreign products.<ref name="Columbia-2017" /><ref>''Compilation Group'' for the "History of Modern China" Series. (2000). p. 17.</ref><ref name="Gao-2003" /><ref name="Rowe-2009">T., Rowe, William (2009). ''China's last empire : the great Qing''. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. {{ISBN|978-0674036123}}. {{OCLC|648759723}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}}

At the turn of the 19th century, countries such as Great Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, and the United States began to seek additional trading rights in China.<ref>Downs. pp. 22–24.</ref> Foremost among the concerns of the western nations was the end of the Canton System and the opening of China's vast consumer markets to trade. Britain in particular was keenly increasing its exports to China, as the empire's implementation of the gold standard forced it to purchase silver and gold from continental Europe and Mexico to further fuel its rapidly industrialising economy.<ref>Liu, Henry C. K. (4 September 2008). [https://web.archive.org/web/20081202024102/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/JI04Cb03.html Developing China with sovereign credit]. ''[[Asia Times Online]]''.</ref> Attempts by a British embassy (led by [[Macartney Embassy|Macartney]] in 1793), a Dutch mission (under [[Jacob Pieter van Braam]] in 1794), Russia (headed by [[Yury Golovkin]] in 1805), and the British again ([[William Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst|Earl William Amherst]] in 1816) to negotiate increased access to the Chinese market were all vetoed by successive Qing emperors.<ref name="Peyrefitte 1993, p487-503" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} Upon his meeting the [[Jiaqing Emperor]] in 1816, Amherst refused to perform the traditional [[kowtow]], an act that the Qing saw as a severe breach of etiquette. Amherst and his party were expelled from China, a diplomatic rebuke that angered the British government.<ref>Guo Ting: ''History of Modern China'', Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1979 p. 39.</ref>

One major reason was that British consumers had developed a strong liking for Chinese tea, as well as other goods like porcelain and silk. But Chinese consumers had no similar preference for any goods produced in Britain. Because of this trade imbalance, Britain increasingly had to use silver to pay for its expanding purchases of Chinese goods. Britain suffered from a huge trade deficit during the Sino-British trade. Meanwhile, the high tariff made the British government very dissatisfied with the Qing government. The Chinese only allowed silver in exchange for the products they were offering so a significant amount of this commodity was leaving the British Empire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Opium Wars in China |url=https://asiapacificcurriculum.ca/learning-module/opium-wars-china |access-date=28 November 2021 |website=Asia Pacific Curriculum |language=en}}</ref>

As its merchants gained increasing influence in China, Great Britain bolstered its military strength in Southern China. Britain began sending warships to combat piracy on the Pearl River, and in 1808 established a permanent garrison of British troops in Macau to defend against French attacks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hariharan |first=Shantha |last2=Hariharan |first2=P. S. |date=1 December 2013 |title=The Expedition to Garrison Portuguese Macao with British Troops: Temporary Occupation and Re-embarkation, 1808 |journal=International Journal of Maritime History |language=en |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=85–116 |doi=10.1177/084387141302500209 |issn=0843-8714 |s2cid=161472099}}</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}

=== Foreign merchants in Guangzhou ===
As the opium-fuelled China Trade increased in scope and value, the foreign presence in Guangzhou and Macau grew in size and influence. The Thirteen Factories district of Guangzhou continued to expand, and was labelled the "foreign quarter".<ref name="Fay-2000d" />{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} A small population of merchants began to stay in Guangzhou year round (most merchants lived in Macau for the summer months, then moved to Guangzhou in the winter),<ref>Fay (2000) pp. 72–75.</ref> and a local chamber of commerce was formed. In the first two decades of the 19th century, the increasingly sophisticated (and profitable) trade between Europe and China allowed for a clique of European merchants to rise to positions of great importance in China.<ref>Fay (2000) pp. 72–81.</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}} The most notable of these figures were [[William Jardine (merchant)|William Jardine]] and [[James Matheson]] (who went on to found [[Jardine Matheson]]), British merchants who operated a consignment and shipping business in Guangzhou and Macau, with associates such as [[Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy]], who became their principal supplier in India.<ref name="Pichon2006">{{Cite book |last=Pichon | first=Alain Le |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ql7CqEV6d4C&q=Jejeebhoy |title=China Trade and Empire: Jardine, Matheson & Co. and the Origins of British Rule in Hong Kong, 1827–1843 |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-726337-2 |page=28}}</ref><ref name="Derks2012">{{Cite book |last=Hans Derks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tlqD5SqS8dwC&q=Jejeebhoy |title=History of the Opium Problem: The Assault on the East, ca. 1600–1950 |publisher=Brill |year=2012 |isbn=978-90-04-22158-1 |page=94}}</ref> While all three dealt in legal goods, they also profited greatly from selling opium. Jardine in particular was effective in navigating the political environment of Guangzhou to allow for more narcotics to be smuggled into China.<ref name="Fay-2000e" /> He was also contemptuous of the Chinese legal system, and often used his economic influence to subvert Chinese authorities.<ref name="Fay-2000e" /> This included his (with Matheson's support) petitioning for the British government to attempt to gain trading rights and political recognition from Imperial China, by force if necessary. In addition to trade, some western missionaries arrived and began to proselytise Christianity to the Chinese. While some officials tolerated this (Macau-based Jesuits had been active in China since the early 17th century), some officials clashed with Chinese Christians, raising tensions between western merchants and Qing officials.<ref name="Rowe-2009" />{{page needed|date=September 2021}}<ref name="Fay-2000i">Fay (2000) pp. 110–113.</ref>

While the foreign community in Guangzhou grew in influence, the local government began to suffer from civil discord inside China. The White Lotus Rebellion (1796–1804) drained the Qing dynasty's treasury of silver, forcing the government to levy increasingly heavy taxes on merchants. These taxes did not abate after the rebellion was crushed, as the Chinese government began a massive project to repair state-owned properties on the [[Yellow River]], referred to as the "Yellow River Conservancy".<ref>Fay (2000) pp. 57–58, 60.</ref> The merchants of Guangzhou were further expected to make contributions to fight banditry. These taxes weighed heavily on the profits made by the Cohong merchants; by the 1830s, the once-prosperous Cohong had seen their wealth greatly reduced. In addition, the declining value of China's domestic currency resulted in many people in Guangzhou using foreign silver coins (Spanish coins were the most valued, followed by American coins)<ref>Fay (2000) p. 68.</ref> as they contained higher amounts of silver. Using western coins allowed Cantonese coiners to make many Chinese coins from melted-down western coins, greatly increasing the city's wealth, and tax revenue while tying much of the economy of the city to the foreign merchants.<ref name="Rowe-2009" />{{page needed|date=September 2021}}<ref>Fay (2000) pp. 62–71.</ref>

A significant development came in 1834 when reformers (some of whom were financially backed by Jardine)<ref name="Fay-2000i" /> in Britain, advocating for free trade, succeeded in ending the monopoly of the British East India Company under the [[Saint Helena Act 1833|Charter Act]] of the previous year. This shift in trade policy ended the need for merchants to comply with the royal charter for trade in the far east; with this centuries-old restriction lifted, the British China trade was opened to private entrepreneurs, many of whom joined the highly profitable opium trade.<ref name="China: The First Opium War" /><ref>Fay (2000) pp. 84–95.</ref>{{page range too broad|date=September 2021}}

On the eve of the Qing government's crackdown on opium, a Chinese official described the changes in society caused by the drug;

<blockquote> At the beginning, opium smoking was confined to the fops of wealthy families who took up the habit as a form of conspicuous consumption, even they knew that they should not indulge in it to the greatest extreme. Later, people of all social strata—from government officials and members of the gentry to craftsmen, merchants, entertainers, and servants, and even women, Buddhist monks and nuns, and Taoist priests—took up the habit and openly bought and equipped themselves with smoking instruments. Even in the center of our dynasty—the nation's capital and its surrounding areas—some of the inhabitants have also been contaminated by this dreadful poison.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cleary |first=Vern |title=The First Opium War (1838–1842) |url=http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/modernworldhistorytextbook/imperialism/section_5/firstopiumwar.html# |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190624223400/http://webs.bcp.org/sites/vcleary/modernworldhistorytextbook/imperialism/section_5/firstopiumwar.html |archive-date=24 June 2019 |access-date=2017-08-10 |website=webs.bcp.org |language=en}}</ref></blockquote>

==== Napier Affair ====
In late 1834, to accommodate the revocation of the East India Company's monopoly, the British sent [[William John Napier]] to Macau along with [[John Francis Davis]] and [[Sir George Robinson, 2nd Baronet]], as British superintendents of trade in China. Napier was instructed to obey Chinese regulations, communicate directly with Chinese authorities, superintend trade pertaining to the contraband trade of opium, and to survey China's coastline. Upon his arrival in China, Napier tried to circumvent the restrictive system that forbade direct contact with Chinese officials by sending a letter directly to the [[Viceroy of Liangguang]], [[Lu Kun]], requesting a meeting. The Viceroy refused to accept it, and on 2 September of that year an edict was issued that temporarily closed British trade. In response, Napier ordered two Royal Navy vessels to bombard Chinese forts on the Pearl River straight, the ''[[Humen|Bocca Tigris]]'', in a show of force. This command was followed through, but war was avoided due to Napier falling ill with typhus and ordering a retreat. The brief gunnery duel drew condemnation by the Chinese government, as well as criticism from the British government and foreign merchants.<ref>Lydia He. LIU; Lydia He Liu (2009). [https://books.google.com/books?id=LkTO2_-XDa8C&pg=PA47 ''The Clash of Empires: the invention of China in modern world making'']. Harvard University Press. pp. 47–. {{ISBN|978-0-674-04029-8}}.</ref> Other nationalities, such as the Americans, prospered through their continued peaceful trade with China, but the British were told to leave Guangzhou for either [[Whampoa anchorage|Whampoa]] or Macau.<ref name="Michie-2012">{{Cite book |last=Michie |first=Alexander |title=The Englishman in China During the Victorian Era: As Illustrated in the Career of Sir Rutherford Alcock, Volume 1 |date=2012 |publisher=HardPress  |isbn=978-1-290-63687-2}}</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2021}} Lord Napier was forced to return to Macau in September, where he died of [[typhus]] a month later, on 11 October.<ref name="MCR-1834">{{Cite web |title=The Napier Affair (1834) |url=http://jds.cass.cn/Item/5699.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204215424/http://jds.cass.cn/Item/5699.aspx |archive-date=4 December 2014 |access-date=10 December 2014 |website=Modern China Research |publisher=Institute of Modern History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

After Lord Napier's death, Captain Charles Elliot received the King's Commission as Superintendent of Trade in 1836 to continue Napier's work of conciliating the Chinese.<ref name="MCR-1834" />