2.3 East India Company and English Trade in China during 1800’s
2.3.2 The Precautions in Canton Region
A formidable bureaucrat known for his thoroughness and integrity, this key figure was the commissioner Lin Ze Xu. He was sent to Guangdong to halt the importation of opium from British prior to the First Opium War (1838). He confiscated more than 20,000 chests of opium already at the port and supervised their destruction in Humen Town. Later he blockaded the port from European ships. That caused a big reaction in UK. Their money source was hindered by him.
China was in a starting point of making British angry by adopting a stricter policy towards everyone, Chinese or foreign, who brought opium into China. His memorial expressed a desire that Victoria would act “In accordance with decent feeling” and support his efforts. Open hostilities between China and Britain started in 1839. He later blockaded the port from European ships.88
Because of the economic problems the British had started to smuggle opium to Chinese ports and spread the habit of opium smoking among the Chinese people.
By the 1830s, there were some ten million opium addicts in China, leading to a
88 This resources came from Ellen La Motte‟s e-book, The Opium Monopoly, can be found at;
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/om/ommenu.htm please see chapter 7.
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serious drain of silver westwards. By 1835, there were already two million opium-smokers in the coastal cities of China.89
From 1800 to 1838, the British had smuggled hundreds of thousand cases of opium into China. At that time Western trade was conducted through the monopolistic official Chinese agents called Cohong (公行)90 who were forced to spend half of the year in Macau, were only allowed to live in the (factory area) a small strip of land opposite Guangzhou, and were forbidden to enter the city and bring their wives.
In 1838, Lin Ze Xu was appointed the Imperial Commissioner in charge of dealing with opium smuggling. In 1839, Emperor Dao Guang ordered Commissioner Lin to suppress the entire opium trade. A death penalty was imposed on anyone involved in the trade. Lin discovered 22 British ships, each loaded with a thousand cases of opium. He ordered the owners of the opium to surrender the opium and gave them an ultimatum. The British initially tried to bribe him and surrendered only a thousand cases. When they failed to bribe him, they threatened him. Lin, being a patriot, insisted that they surrender the whole amount. When the British defeated him,
89 Qouted from East Asian Studies web site: http://www.eastasianstudies.com/eastasian/5921_01.htm This web data base provides many information to the readers. Books are available for further studies about China.
90 The Cohong: The monopoly of trade resided in a small group of merchants known as the hong merchants. In 1720 they formed themselves into a monopolistic guild known as the Cohong with the function of regulating prices and strengthening their position in the dealing with Chinese government authorities and foreign merchants. In 1760 this system was officially recognised and the Canton authorities had set up the security merchant system. It was instituted that every foreign ship had to find one hong merchant to assume responsibility for its conduct and duties. The hong merchants were directly supervised by the Superintendent of Maritime Customs for Guangdong, better known in the West as the “Hoppo”. The Hoppo was then responsible to collect and levy duties on this Canton trade and send them to the Board of Revenue at Beijing. The governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi was also partly responsible in the supervision of this trading system. The History web data base:
http://www.thecorner.org/hist/essays/china/canton-system.htm
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he ordered his men to burn all the opium and throw it into the sea. This provoked the British and a clash took place between the forces of the British and Lin‟91s men. The burning of the opium resulted in the Opium War in 1840.
On August 21, 1840, the Emperor dismissed Lin Ze Xu from his post as Imperial Commissioner and said;
“You have caused this war by your excessive zeal.” the Emperor wrote.
“You have lied to us, disguising in your dispatches the true color of affairs. Instead of helping us, you have only caused confusion to arise. Now, one thousand unending problems are sprouting. You have behaved as if your arms are tied. You are no better than a wooden dummy. As we think about your grievous failings, we become furious, and then melancholy.” 92
His title was stripped of and he was exiled to the isolated northern frontier province of Ili. In that place he was given the task of supervising large scale irrigation and flood control projects. Lin Ze Xu gradually recovered from the disgrace of his failure to put an end to the opium trade. Ten years after his dismissal, the Emperor again called him back into service. Lin was reinstated as Imperial Commissioner, and assigned to travel to the rebellious province of Guangxi to negotiate with rebel
91 Fairbank, John K. China’s Response to the West, Harvard University Press, 1954, pp. 24–27
92 This part was quoted from Paul Chrastina‟s study on:
http://opioids.com/opium/opiumwar.html
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factions. Lin Ze Xu collapsed and died while going to Guangxi on November 22, 1850, at the age of 67.93
The successive imperial commissioners who replaced Lin Ze Xu in Canton were unable to stop the opium traffic. In conflicts known as the First and Second Opium Wars, British naval and marine forces seized control of Hong Kong, ravaged the Chinese coastline and briefly occupied the capital city of Beijing. In 1858 the Chinese government, bowing to British demands, reluctantly legalized the importation of opium.