Sara S
07-04-2012, 09:17 AM
from delancyplace.com:
In today's excerpt - in the 1700s, British merchants made fortunes smuggling opium
into China over the objections of Chinese leaders the resulting opium addition epidemic
devastated Chinese society. Profits proved too tempting and by the 1800s American
merchants had joined in the trade, earning vast sums including the fortune inherited
by Franklin Roosevelt:
"While opium consumption dates back mil*lennia in China, opium smoking is thought
to have been introduced by seventeenth-century Dutch traders, who combined opium
with tobacco in pipes. Although the Chinese government banned importation of the
drug, the British East India Company made large profits by smuggling Indian opium
to China. The firm of Jardine, Matheson originated as a British opium-smuggling
operation. Britain's Indian opium was off-limits to American merchants, but in 1804
Benjamin Chew Wilcocks of Phila*delphia found a substitute in Turkish opium. American
ships bought opi*um from Smyrna, Turkey, either by sailing to the eastern Mediterranean
or purchasing it at Gibraltar.
"The leading American drug-smuggling operation in China was J. & T H. Perkins Company,
which brought in more Turkish opium than its rivals. One of its principals, Thomas
Handasyd Perkins, instructed a cap*tain in 1791 that he had 'best sell the furs
down the River, to avoid [cus*toms] charges.' On behalf of the hong merchants, [a
prominent Chinese leader named] Houqua [who was reputed to be the richest man in
the world] warned the Americans: 'Opium, the dirt used in smoking, has long been
prohibited by an order received, it is not allowed to come to Canton.' The Ameri*cans,
like the British, ignored the law. In 1817-1818, if silver coin is factored out,
opium is estimated to have made up 10 to 30 percent of the value of US commodities
used to purchase Chinese merchandise, while Americans supplied between 10 percent
and a third of the opium consumed in China.
"In 1823, Warren Delano II sailed to Canton and within seven years rose to be a
senior partner in the Boston-based firm of Russell and Com*pany. Having made his
fortune, Delano retired in 1851 to Newburgh, New York. He wrote: 'I do not pretend
to justify the prosecution of the opium trade from a moral and philosophical point
of view, but as a mer*chant I insist that it is a fair, honorable, and legitimate
trade. I considered it right to follow the example of England, the East India Company,
and the merchants to whom I had always been accustomed to look up to-the Perkins,
the Peabodys, the Russells, and the Lowes.' Delano's daughter Sara married James
Roosevelt and gave birth to his grandson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"In the Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860, the British, with as*sistance from
the French, invaded China in response to the government's attempts to stamp out
the foreign opium trade. Britain and other Western powers imposed 'unequal treaties'
that gave them commercial privileges on the Chinese. In 1844, the Treaty of Wang
Hiya guaranteed Americans the same terms that were extorted by the British. Following
the example of Britain, the United States imposed trade treaties on Japan beginning
on July 8, 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet steamed into Tokyo Bay.
"From that point until the Chinese Revolution of 1911, China was a shattered state,
riven by warlords and drenched with blood in the cata*strophic Taiping Rebellion
of 1850-1864. The historian John K. Fairbank called the opium trade in which American
merchants took part 'the most long continued and systematic international crime
of modern times.' "
Author: Michael Lind
Title: Land of Promise
Publisher: Harper
Date: Copyright 2012 by Michael Lind
Pages: 64-65
Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States
by Michael Lind by Harper
Hardcover ~ Release Date: 2012-04-17
In today's excerpt - in the 1700s, British merchants made fortunes smuggling opium
into China over the objections of Chinese leaders the resulting opium addition epidemic
devastated Chinese society. Profits proved too tempting and by the 1800s American
merchants had joined in the trade, earning vast sums including the fortune inherited
by Franklin Roosevelt:
"While opium consumption dates back mil*lennia in China, opium smoking is thought
to have been introduced by seventeenth-century Dutch traders, who combined opium
with tobacco in pipes. Although the Chinese government banned importation of the
drug, the British East India Company made large profits by smuggling Indian opium
to China. The firm of Jardine, Matheson originated as a British opium-smuggling
operation. Britain's Indian opium was off-limits to American merchants, but in 1804
Benjamin Chew Wilcocks of Phila*delphia found a substitute in Turkish opium. American
ships bought opi*um from Smyrna, Turkey, either by sailing to the eastern Mediterranean
or purchasing it at Gibraltar.
"The leading American drug-smuggling operation in China was J. & T H. Perkins Company,
which brought in more Turkish opium than its rivals. One of its principals, Thomas
Handasyd Perkins, instructed a cap*tain in 1791 that he had 'best sell the furs
down the River, to avoid [cus*toms] charges.' On behalf of the hong merchants, [a
prominent Chinese leader named] Houqua [who was reputed to be the richest man in
the world] warned the Americans: 'Opium, the dirt used in smoking, has long been
prohibited by an order received, it is not allowed to come to Canton.' The Ameri*cans,
like the British, ignored the law. In 1817-1818, if silver coin is factored out,
opium is estimated to have made up 10 to 30 percent of the value of US commodities
used to purchase Chinese merchandise, while Americans supplied between 10 percent
and a third of the opium consumed in China.
"In 1823, Warren Delano II sailed to Canton and within seven years rose to be a
senior partner in the Boston-based firm of Russell and Com*pany. Having made his
fortune, Delano retired in 1851 to Newburgh, New York. He wrote: 'I do not pretend
to justify the prosecution of the opium trade from a moral and philosophical point
of view, but as a mer*chant I insist that it is a fair, honorable, and legitimate
trade. I considered it right to follow the example of England, the East India Company,
and the merchants to whom I had always been accustomed to look up to-the Perkins,
the Peabodys, the Russells, and the Lowes.' Delano's daughter Sara married James
Roosevelt and gave birth to his grandson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
"In the Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860, the British, with as*sistance from
the French, invaded China in response to the government's attempts to stamp out
the foreign opium trade. Britain and other Western powers imposed 'unequal treaties'
that gave them commercial privileges on the Chinese. In 1844, the Treaty of Wang
Hiya guaranteed Americans the same terms that were extorted by the British. Following
the example of Britain, the United States imposed trade treaties on Japan beginning
on July 8, 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet steamed into Tokyo Bay.
"From that point until the Chinese Revolution of 1911, China was a shattered state,
riven by warlords and drenched with blood in the cata*strophic Taiping Rebellion
of 1850-1864. The historian John K. Fairbank called the opium trade in which American
merchants took part 'the most long continued and systematic international crime
of modern times.' "
Author: Michael Lind
Title: Land of Promise
Publisher: Harper
Date: Copyright 2012 by Michael Lind
Pages: 64-65
Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States
by Michael Lind by Harper
Hardcover ~ Release Date: 2012-04-17