When Western pressure on the Manchu Empire began to
increase during the early nineteenth century, it served to
exacerbate the existing strains in Chinese society. By
1800, the trade relationship that restricted Western merchants
to a small commercial outlet at Canton was no
longer acceptable to the British, who chafed at the growing
trade imbalance resulting from a growing appetite for
Chinese tea. Their solution was opium. A product more
addictive than tea, opium was grown under company
sponsorship in northeastern India and then shipped directly
to the Chinese market. Soon demand
for the product in South China
became insatiable, despite an official
prohibition on its use. Bullion now
flowed out of the Chinese imperial
treasury into the pockets of British
merchants and officials.
World History
