Opium Wars Pragmatism and Policy

Opium Wars

Pragmatism and Policy in the Drug Use: The Economic and Cultural Causes of the Opium Wars

Every conflict has at least two sides; this is a logical necessity in order for conflict to exist. This does not mean that the two sides and/or their need for conflict is always exactly clear, however, and in fact in some of the most interesting and compelling conflicts it turns out that the two opposed sides are actually best served by the same outcome despite their seeming opposition. These particular conflicts present very interesting cases for examination, as they reveal how various systems and interactions can create a seeming conflict that really indicates certain internal problems in one or more of the parties involved, rather than true cross purposes or incompatible desires. When this type of conflict occurs on an international scale and has worldwide consequences, it is all the more interesting.

The so-called Opium Wars that occurred between England and China during the middle of the nineteenth century represent just such a conflict. Though there were certainly two sides to this conflict, the fact that the conflict existed didn't actually mean that the two countries' needs couldn't be met by the same course of action, and in fact the situation improved (in some ways) for both countries by the resolution of the war. England's involvement in the Opium Wars was driven almost entirely by economic motives due to a situation created by a misguided China, while China's primary concerns was the drug use of its citizens, but ultimately the solution to both problems was found in the end of the wars and a change in overall policy.

By exploring both the initial causes of the Opium Wars and their ultimate resolution when the Wars ended, an understanding of both the economic and the cultural systems that allowed and in fact propelled these conflicts can be achieved. Concrete details and real scenarios that illustrate more abstract theories such as the compelling need for growth in capitalism or the detriment that sudden cultural changes can have on the practical functioning of society are not always that easy to perceive. In the case of the Opium Wars, however, these complex systems and features are right on the surface and clearly influential on the decision-making processes and the inevitable consequences of the decisions made. The following pages will explore and define the economic and cultural underpinnings of the Opium Wars, showing the necessity of their emergence given the situation of global commerce in the mid-nineteenth century and China's place within that situation.

Economic Realities

The economic forces at work in the build up to the Opium Wars and the fighting that ensued are far and away the most influential factors in the development of these wars, and in fact the cultural elements that were also a part of this lead-up stemmed directly from these economic realities (Hanes & Sanello, 2002; Melancon, 2003). Simply put, China had largely closed itself off to trade with foreign (primarily European and eventually American) nations, and that didn't sit well with the merchants of the era. England was at the height of its empire building and global trade network, and had the most to gain by opening China to trade (Bairoch, 1995).

In the decades leading up to the Opium Wars, China was in a period of reaction to the entrance of European and other foreign merchants and travelers in ever greater numbers, which was fundamentally altering the long-closed economic structure of the country (Hanes & Sanello, 2002). In a situation surprisingly similar to today's globalized economy, China placed strict limits on the imports it would accept into the country while exporting as much as possible in order to generate internal wealth, which created a major trade imbalance with the rest of the world and especially with its largest trading partner (Melancon, 2003). While in today's world the United States is China's biggest trading partner and China's closure is not so extreme -- in the first half of the nineteenth century the Chinese allowed international trading to occur only in one single port, and only with a designated group of merchants that essentially monopolized all legal trade -- there are many parallels between the Sino-English then and Sino-U.S. relations now simply because the underlying economic system of capitalism hasn't really been altered all that much (Hanes & Sanello, 2002; Bairoch, 1995).

With the highly restricted flow of goods into China, English merchant companies such as the English East Indies Company needed to find goods that were easy to buy, ship, and sell in bulk, and opium was the prime candidate (Melancon, 2003; Page, 2003). This proved a highly successful venture for many foreign merchants, and the English had a distinct advantage given their global position (Page, 2003). With opium easy to grow and produce in the nearby British colonies on India, exporting opium to China became an immensely lucrative business for several English companies (Hanes & Sanell, 2002).

Economically speaking, the Chinese had forced the foreign merchants' hands and created the massive importation of opium into their country along with all of the problems they would soon learn it entailed (discussed below). By making the flow of trade into the country so restrictive and so out of balance with the flow of trade out of China, a basic instability was created that simply couldn't be sustained -- constant flow of money in one direction is ultimately ruinous to the entire system (Bairoch, 1995). Furthermore, market demands for Chinese goods would not go unanswered, meaning trade out of the country could not really be reduced effectively, and though there was truly not a high market demand for a wide variety of Western goods this demand was almost certainly artificially lowered by the simple lack of presence of these goods (Hanes & Sanello, 2002; Melancon, 2003; Page, 2003). Opium was something that created a near-instant market with high demand, and while it remained legal in China it solved, however poorly from the Chinese perspective, the trade imbalance issue.

It was when China decided to make opium illegal that the wars eventually broke out, as the foreign merchants were severely crippled by the reduction in legal trade and the governments of China, England, and other countries were upset by the illegal trade that took its place (Hanes & Sanello, 2002). China simply wanted the trade to stop, but market forces weren't going to let that happen -- especially not with merchants in desperate need of something to export to China (Melancon, 2003). The final result was the Treaty of Nanking, which established several foreign-controlled ports in China that became centers for legal importation into the country of a variety of goods, and thus the trade imbalance was more permanently and positively solved, for the time being (Page, 2003; Bairoch, 1995).

Cultural Forces

While it was undoubtedly the economic forces that led to the true outbreak of war, there were some very important cultural factors at work in the development and the resolution of the Opium Wars. China's attempt to limit foreign trade into the country was born largely out of economic motives, but was also meant to slow the rate of cultural change that could already be observed occurring as China and the Western world began to interact on a large scale (Hanes & Sanello, 2002; Melancon, 2003). The initial cause of the rise in the opium trade, then, was in part due to China's cultural fears (though these cultural fears were ultimately caused by the economic encroachment of foreign merchants) (Page, 2003). It was also primarily a cultural fear that led to the illegalization of opium in China, and thus the most immediate cause of the Opium Wars if not the most influential could be seen as a cultural issue, as well.

Like any addictive and mind-altering substance, opium created significant social problems when its use was widespread, and the cheap bulk-selling nature of the product meant that its use was widespread, indeed (Bello, 2005). There was a debate at the highest levels of Chinese government as to how to handle the problem, with some arguing for stricter regulation and others insisting that the substance simply be banned (Hanes & Sanello, 2002; Bello, 2005). The voices calling for an outright ban of the substance eventually won out, and thus the cultural detriment that opium presented led directly to the band that sparked two wars (Page, 2003).