All About Opium with Carl Zha

<p>Today, we have Carl Zha from <a target="_blank" href="https://silknsteel.podbean.com">the Silk and Steel Podcast</a> joining us to discuss the Opium wars. </p><p></p><p>Show Notes</p><p>0:00:00 - 0:03:12 - Introductions</p><p>0:03:14- 0:05:20 - Opium Beginnings</p><p>Originally, opium was ingested orally. However, ingesting it in large quantities lead to death because it stopped breathing. However, after Europeans colonized the New World, they brought back tobacco from the Americas. Particularly, the Spanish and the Portuguese, who brought it to the Philippines and Malaysia, both countries had a significant Chinese diaspora. Later, when the Dutch colonized Indonesia, they, too, brought tobacco. Now, Opium was mixed with tobacco and it could be smoked allowing for consumption in larger amounts without death.</p><p>0:05:21- 0:07:08 - Damn British and Opium</p><p>Opium, itself, is not grown in china. It is grown outside of China and had to be imported. India grew Opium. In the Late 18th century when the British Colonized India, they forced the farmers in India to grow opium. Their policy of making Indian farmers grow Opium was responsible for many famines. </p><p>The British East India Company (BEIC) would license the opium through their opium monopoly. They would sell the opium to individual traders who would carry them into China, because the British want plausible deniability. If someone every questioned them, they would say, “Oh, we are the venerable British East India company. We don't we don't actually believe in the opium trade.”</p><p>0:07:08- 0:08:01 - Smoke and Mirrors</p><p>The BEIC ships the opium, but the individual parcels will be parceled out and sold to employees of BEIC. A famous opium smuggler is William Jardine, who started as a sergeant under the BEIC. As an employee of the BEIC, he got his own cargo space on their shops which was used to ship opium that he sold to China. </p><p>0:08:02- 0:09:48 - China’s Opium Epidemic</p><p>Opium was illegal in China and soon the Chinese government