Opium is an addictive narcotic that is made with the unripe seedpods of Opium poppies. Today opium is associated with some of the most addictive drugs in the world, such as heroine, and is illegal in most countries. Looking at the history of opium, it’s largest epidemic in history was in China during the 18th and 19th centuries. The scale of which had many contributing factors including; the traditional uses and benefits of the opium, it’s increasing popularity, the diversification of its use and it’s increased production during particularly the 1700s. It is through the lenses of Yangwen Zheng’s book ‘The Social Life of Opium in China’ and the ‘The World Drug Report 2008’ that we will explore the combination of different factors that contributed to the opium epidemic in China leading up to the start of the 1800s and the Opium Wars later on. These texts although similar in many respects, bring with them their own perspectives and analysis that prove vital to our understanding of opium crisis in China.
The use of Opium in China did not always carry with it negative associations and in fact had a fairly deep history of being used in traditional Chinese medicine and remedies. Reading the ‘World Drug Report 2008’ it even suggests that opium was used in China as early as 11th century, several centuries before it became a problem in China. (World Drug Report 2008) During this time opium was ingested through its combination with either water or food and was an effective treatment for diarrhea, sun stroke as well as a number of other conditions. In ‘The Social life of Opium’ Zheng addresses the popularity and ease of creating such opium infused remedies as he expressed its simplicity compared to other medicines of the time, saying “it was easier to prepare opium, even a child could do it.” (Zheng, 2005 p12) Reading these two texts both make this point about the origins and controlled nature of the opium in its use previous to the epidemics start and increased production. As these texts comment on the early use of opium we the readers are given a foundation knowledge of the role that opium had in Chinese medicine and recognize that merely its presence did not lead to the widespread epidemic later on in the 18th and 19th century.
As time went on in China however the role of opium and popularity within society changed dramatically. This change was fostered by the increasing awareness of the drugs abilities as an aphrodisiac and the introduction of a new method of ingestion. Both texts again illustrate this increase in opium’s popularity. Zheng explains the diversification of opium as he states how the drug in “increases(ed) the arts of alchemists, sex and court ladies.” (Zheng, 2005 p11) This change in the way that the drug was used is encapsulated perfectly by the altering of its definition in the dictionary of the Ming Court, from yao, which is medicine, to chu nyao, which translates to ‘spring drug’ or aphrodisiac. (Zheng, 2005, p12) Zheng’s explanations particularly of this increasing use of opium is coupled with the later “introduction of a new way of ingestion – smoking – at the end of the 17th century.” as explained by the ‘World Drug Report’. (World Drug Report 2008, p173)Reading these two sources it is interesting to see how they respectively stress the importance of these two factors as we begin to understand how although quite some time apart, they complimented each other.
After establishing the increasing popularity of opium in both Zheng’s ‘Social Life of Opium’ and the ‘World Drug Report 2008’, the latter goes on to explain the factors that led to opium’s increased production and spread as the 18th century progressed. The factor which is illuded to as the biggest contributor of such growth in opium production was Britain’s recognition of its value as a commodity to those merchants that would sell it. Moreover, they realized that with increased production and selling of opium that they could offset much of the cost of having to deal for goods in silver within the Chinese market whilst also subsidizing their military efforts in India. ‘The World Drug Report’ explains the success of this realization as it states, “Opium proved to be the wedge the western powers had been seeking to prise open the Chinese market, which heretofore proven nearly impenetrable.” (World Drug Report 2008, p175) Thus, it was from this awareness of opium’s value that Britain created a network of channels through which they would produce and sell opium in the Chinese market; all of which was supported by a system of ‘perfect bribery’. The creation of such a system saw “In 1729, around 13mt exported to China, (which then) increasing(ed) to about 64mt by 1767 and over 115mt by 1798.” (World Drug Report 2008, p174) Reading this we begin to understand the perspective of the report as it points us to the corruption present within both governments that enabled such large increases over the course of the century.
In conclusion, it is through tracking the different events/factors that these two sources present that results in an appreciation of the readers understanding of how it is that the opium epidemic in China came to be and what steps led to the start of the opium war later on.
Sources:
World Drug Report 2008. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2008/WDR2008_100years_drug_control_origins.pdf
Zheng, Y. (2005). The social life of opium in China. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
