A tea-party that quickly turned sour
The first expedition of the British East India Company arrived at the region in 1699 and, as trade between China and Britain grew rapidly, the company established its own trading post in Canton in 1711.
Chinese tea became extremely popular in Britain and by the end of the 18th Century the customs duty on tea accounted for 10% of the government's income. Other products that Britain imported from China included spices and silk.
During the early years of trade, Britain's exports to China included luxury products such as clocks, watches and musical boxes... However, China's interest in British products was quite low and soon enough, British traders found themselves in a serious problem, incapable to compensate for the unbalanced trading of massive quantities of tea.
The solution came from a rather surprising direction: In 1757, following the Battle of Plassey, Britain conquered the region of Bengal in Northeast India and gained access to the production of Opium. Thanks to its addictive nature, the Opium became very popular in China and British traders made some handsome profits which enabled them to increase the trade volumes significantly.
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An insight about hypocrisy and double standards...
The fact that opium was illegal in Britain at the beginning of the 19th century, did not stop British politicians from pushing big quantities of this narcotic drug to China... Desperate to compensate for the unbalanced trade in tea, the Brits and their allies were determined to go "as low as it takes" in order to keep the business going...
In 1839, Lin Zexu, a senior official of the Qing government, wrote an open letter to Queen Victoria urging her to act "in accordance with decent feeling" and put an end to the opium trade... The letter was never delivered to the queen, and although it was later published in The Times, it was too little too late to stop the war.
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Obviously, Chinese imperial authorities were very unhappy about the new trend and their natural suspicious towards foreigners grew even bigger. Out of sincere concern for the wellbeing of their citizens, the Chinese authorities decided to stop the trade in Opium and shipments were confiscated and destroyed.
The British government considered the destruction of its Opium products as nothing but an insult and an alleged breach of its "ancient rights of commerce"... In reality, however, it was the massive profits from the trade with China that were just too big for the British government and its European allies to let go without a struggle... A war was just a question of time...
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Hong Kong during "the Opium Wars"
