On the legalization of the opium trade

In the first half of the 19th century, European and American capitalist countries rose rapidly. The development of industrial capitalism objectively requires the expansion of commodity sales markets and raw material production areas. As a result, European and American countries directed their guns at backward areas. China, which was at the end of its feudal society, was particularly coveted by invaders due to its rich resources and vast domestic market. China's anti-smoking campaign prompted this long-planned war of aggression to finally break out. However, after this war with opium as the fuse, middle school history textbooks did not mention the issue of opium trade again, leaving people with a feeling that it was stuck in the throat and left unfinished. Below, the author will elaborate on this issue.

In fact, after the British government launched the First Opium War to safeguard the opium trade, it did not take advantage of the aftermath of victory to legalize the opium trade through a peace treaty or commercial treaty. The main reason was that the British government pressure. Because the British people were influenced by China's anti-smoking movement, the Chartists were the main force to launch anti-opium and anti-smuggling trade movements, which had a wide impact through parliamentary debates. The British government was frightened by domestic public opinion and did not dare to openly protect the opium trade with China through bilateral treaties. Therefore, neither the Treaty of Nanjing nor the Treaty of Humen mentioned the opium issue. However, the British government did not give up the opium trade and used verbal "persuasion" to coerce the Qing government to lift the ban on opium. For example, during the negotiations of the Treaty of Nanjing, Pu Dingcha formally raised the issue of legalizing the opium trade, and Qiying's reply was that China would no longer care whether merchant ships from various countries carried opium. This was essentially a public admission of opium smuggling. Before the signing of the Humen Treaty, the British government still demanded the legalization of the opium trade. In June 1843, Pu Dingcha suggested that Nan'ao, Guangdong, and Quanzhou, Fujian, be used as opium trade distribution centers. Later, he sent Morrison to negotiate. Morrison deceived Qing officials and said, "China has banned opium in name. It is called a ban on opium, but it is actually a tax exemption. For the current plan, it is better to tax it than to ban it." Although the senior elite had doubts about the issue of opium taxation, , but still said that if Britain promised to pay 5 million silver opium taxes every year, he would ask Emperor Daoguang for approval. Pu Dingcha did not agree to this condition, so the negotiation failed. However, China's anti-smoking ban was also forced to be limited to the mainland and did not restrict opium smuggling in the treaty ports. In fact, after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, opium smuggling became more rampant than before the war. After the Second Opium War, the opium trade was finally legalized.