3rd Lecture: Opium Wars

Question 1

Opium is valued for its …

Answer 1

Seeds
Oil
Medical effect
psychoactive effects

Question 2

Alkaloids

Answer 2

substances in certain plants that have this psychoeffective characteristic to it; in the case of opium: morphine

Question 3

Consequences of isolating morphine

Answer 3

• No more guessing how much morphine might be in the opium (depends on the poppy seeds, varies) –> precises dosage
• Became much more potent
• Much greater addiction

Question 4

Clean Morphine in Europe and North America

Answer 4

upper-middle classes developing relationship wtih clean morphine -> prescribed, socially acceptable

Question 5

How many people did consume opium on a daily basis around the 1880s in China?

Answer 5

around 13 Millionen out of 400 Million

Question 6

How did the Brits do trade with Opirum?

Answer 6

• Brits didn’t want to sell Opium directly to China for diplomatic reasons
• but the opium production was under british state monopoly
• state sold it to private traders in India (European) and they tradet it with chinese private trading houses

Question 7

What was traded for what?

Answer 7

Chinese Traders mostly traded:
Tea, Porcelain, Textiles

they traded it for:
Silver, Cotton, Opium

Question 8

Lin Zexu and the first Opium War

Answer 8

Selling opium was highly illegal; state tried to suppress it; Lin Zexu: high clerk; still famous for his loyalty; ran a war on opium; confiscating, burning publicly, imprisoning European and Chinese opium traders –>

British afraid of losing profitable business
–> started first opium war; didn’t call it that; fighting for “free trade” “freeing people of China”?

Question 9

Opium Cultivation - Situation of peasants in India

Answer 9

• on average peasants couldn’t really make profit of Opium, left in cycle of debt
• neo-marxism: rural population was impoverished by colonialism
• neo-classical: opium trade flashed rural india with cash -> led to “modernization” and “progress” lol

Question 10

What led peasant to cultivate poppies?

Answer 10

Relations of dependence;

Contracts with opium agents
Where given money at the beginning of the season and at the time when the rent was due
At the end of the year not enough opium –> Cycle of debt, hard to get out

Question 11

Polcing the opium farmers

Answer 11

Opium agents had police like authority and harassed farmers; could arrest people;
Opium agency kidnapped peasant representatives of a village that resisted
- also collected the opium to bring it to the 2 major factories

Some members of the local elites collaborated with the opium department

Question 12

Gunboat Diplomacy

Answer 12

military display of strength to control weaker opponent