Opium Trade Research Paper

medicine for creating a generally good mood and sense of well being”. However, this justification is flawed in that all of these evidence of the “harmlessness” is only provided by the East Indian Company and their doctors that act out of the interests of the company. Therefore, it could not be used as a credible claim to assure the fact that opium is harmless and has not detrimental influences on Chinese smokers. Like the British government and British merchants, the Indian government blamed the Chinese smokers for their addiction to the drug, and if anything, they brought on their own destruction. India, being a British colony and had interests of their own as the government stated that “banning that the growing of Indian poppies will damage

This anti-opium group mostly consisted of British Missionaries. In their efforts to purify the environment, British Missionaries have been active in campaigns to lobby against opium trade. One of the more well known British missionary during his time was John Dudgeon, whom claimed that “the ferocious opium trade was destroying the morals traditional culture, society, and economy of the Chinese, turning China into the West’s greatest market and in turn affecting China’s own economic benefits”. Dudgeon argued that opium was introduced by the Portuguese during the 17th century, “it was not until the beginning of the East Indian Company’s opium trade with China that the use of opium became widespread”. Though this effort failed to end the opium trade in China, it has proved the fact that different attitudes towards the trade had existed. Although they were not mainstream opinions, and did not reflect the interests of the British government, they were nevertheless able to depict the real struggles of the Chinese people in the face of Western imperialism and

As smoking became more prominent in prominent Chinese cities such as Shanghai, the traditional Chinese culture of principles and morals have been eradicated by the rising trend of opium smoking in China. For example, “novelists in Shanghai began to focus entirely on the power of opium to erode one’s standing in a social hierarchy in which wealth is a determining factor”. Smoking opium has become a part of the Chinese high culture, and through media and everyday novels, opium has become an emblematic symbol of wealth and status. In addition, the internalization of opium in the Chinese population can be accounted for in their use of opium as a money system. The value of opium was seen to be more highly regarded as money in many trading transactions. This comes to show that opium has become an inseparable part of the Chinese identity in the late 19th century. Thus, not only did the introduction of opium as a recreational leisure entertainment harmful to the well being of the bodies of Chinese smokers, it has also corrupted their long traditional morals and Confucian