The governments of Great Britain and France…

The governments of Great Britain and France have grown deeply concerned by the late 1830s about their stockpiles of precious metals and seek alternate trading schemes with China—the foremost of which is addicting China to opium.

The huge demand in Europe for Chinese goods such as silk, tea, and ceramics can only be met if European companies funnel their limited supplies of silver into China.

The Qianlong Emperor had stated to the British Ambassador Lord Macartney in 1793 that China had no use for European manufactured products.

Consequently, leading Chinese merchants have only accepted bar silver as payment for their goods.

Opium as a medicinal ingredient is documented in texts as early as the Ming dynasty but its recreational use had been limited and there are laws in place against its abuse.

It is with the mass quantities introduced by the British motivated by the equalization of trade that the drug has become prevalent.

British importation of opium in large amounts had begun in 1781 and between 1821 and 1837, import had increased fivefold.

Opium addiction has spread rapidly, reaching some three million Chinese addicts by the 1830s.

As the British East India Company had loosened its restrictions in the 1820s and then lost its monopoly in 1834, China's opium imports had increased nearly tenfold in less than twenty years, from 270 tons in 1820 to 2,558 tons (some 40,000 chests) by 1838.

China's emperor has become alarmed over the growth of the opium trade carried on by British and Chinese smugglers—both for the obvious moral reasons and for the more practical one that even illegal imports must be paid for with the export of Chinese silver.

Lin Zexu, a leading Chinese scholar and official, submits a memorial condemning a suggestion that the trade be legalized.

In support of his position, he cites the measures by which he had suppressed the drug traffic in the provinces of which he was then governor general.

The Daoguang Emperor, who for almost two decades has vainly attempted to enforce the ban on the importation of opium, had responded by appointing Lin imperial commissioner in late 1838, vesting him with extraordinary powers.

After an unusual nineteen personal audiences with the emperor , ...