What were the problems in the Anglo-Chinese relations in the 19th century?

In what ways
did opium precipitate the 1839-42 war?

Introduction- China around 1840 was the largest country in terms of population and territory in
the world. It was the oldest civilization with a recorded history of 4000 years of ‘Civilizational
Continuity’. Although it had limited contacts with the world in ancient and early Middle Ages,
‘Age of discovery’ initiated sporadic east-west contacts in 19th century after ‘industrial
revolution’ and these contacts intensified to an extent of collision between east and west. The
arrival of foreigners coincided with the establishment of alien Manchu/Ching Dynasty. The
coming of domestic and foreign elements together deeply impacted the Chinese political,
economic, social and cultural institutions, pushing it towards Modernization.

China considered itself unique can be expressed from the names it gave to itself; Zhongguo
(Middle Kingdom) and Zhonghua (Central Civilization or sino-centrism). Its traditional structure
was based on a system of highly coherent philosophical and moral system referred to as
Confucianism where worlds of nature and of men formed an integrated whole governed by
identical laws. The Chinese education system with essential Confucian virtues was especially
designed to initiate man into his moral duties.

Chinese society consisted of four occupational orders headed by emperor who possessed the
‘mandate of heaven’ to mediate between nature and human. Agriculture had a privileged position
but peasants remained in state of dependence. Some Scholars are certain that it was a feudal
situation where mass of peasants were under the domination of economic and extra-economic of
minority of landlords and scholar-official landlords. Joseph Needham termed this combination of
economic and political power as ‘BEAUREAUCRATIC FEUDALISM’. Artisans and merchants
had their guilds, though merchants were placed at the bottom of society as to maintain economic
stability, some of them purchased offices to achieve status and proliferated the first order.
Payment in kind, copper-cash and sometimes silver were allowed.

Although, 18th century china remained unbridled in East Asia but indices of Manchu dynastic fall
set in after 1775. It was under 25 year reign of Chia-Ching that many decline symbols appeared.

1) Administrative inefficiency- The guiding principle of avoiding issues i.e. kowtow more and
talk less constrained the capacity of officials for energetic action. Lack of free expression
also increased the discontent.
2) Widespread corruption- Officials lived off luxuries beyond their salaries and made graft and
extortion. These also levied irregular taxes in both civil and military services. Imperial
revenue also shrank. Technological backwardness and increased unemployment infuriated
the youths.
3) Degradation of the Manchus and the bannermen- Manchus (manual labour was considered
unworthy of noble status) and army became lazy, irresponsible and corrupt by engaging in
embezzlement, thus, rendering themselves as parasites on society.
4) Financial stringency- Inordinate military expenses as campaigns against added with graft and
corruption in administration rendered treasury drained, making value of silver soar high
which fluctuated the rate of exchange and reduced copper productions.
5) Population pressure- Land-man ratio got imbalanced where land increased less than 50% and
population increased more than 100%, pushing off poor to fell in banditry. Resources
dwindled in relation to the increasing population. Attempt to extend cultivation initiated
internal migrations.
6) Intellectuals became oblivious of their duties towards society and lack of morality made them
forget importance of unity and action.

Besides these domestic problems, foreign distress also emerge

a) Trade- Trade was looked down upon to maintain stability as it was predominantly
agricultural society. China considered itself self-sufficient economy, thus trade was only the
extension of a privilege/favour by the emperor based upon good behaviour of traders. Only
Canton port was open for foreign trade where they dealt with Cohong merchants who
enjoyed monopoly and were responsible for everything related to their dealings with them.
Foreign traders faced strict regulations concerning movements, relations, behaviour, stay,
contracts and Chinese law enforcement (punishment exacted by Chinese in Lady Hughes and
flint incident caused anxieties and protest against canton authorities) became source of
conflicts. Further, corrupted custom officials charged them twice the customary duties.
b) China also restricted the missionary activities as it was considered unorthodox and stability
could only be ensured when ideological loyalty went hand in hand with political obedience.
c) In order to accrue more profits, westerners desired for abrogation of restrictions and small
tract of land to sustain peaceful trade. For this, diplomatic missions were sent with the spirit
of opening china and these missions were headed by:
i) James Flint in 1741
ii) Lord Cathcart in 1783
iii) Lord Macartney in 1793
iv) Lord Amherst in 1816
v) Lord Napier in 1834

All these missions failed, sometimes either due to incomplete submission to the Chinese
authority as per Chinese traditional practices or sometimes refusal by Emperor as trade was
simply an extension of favour. After this, British were left with only three alternatives:

1) Abandon the Chinese trade

2) Submission to the Chinese treatment
3) Aggressive intrusion.

Meanwhile, canton system underwent complete transformation from 1790s-1830s owing to the
rapid growth of private and country trade which successfully formed the trade triangle. India was
the starting point and Britain the ending point and china a midway station in this triangular trade.
Chinese tea was used to expand Indian exports. Because of the devaluation of rupee, traders
found India-china trade profitable than Britain-china. Furthermore, there was no lack of
mechanism for converting Indian opium, cotton and goods into Chinese silver and then silver
into pound sterling through tea. Chinese tea obsession of EIC proved lucrative as it set up
profitable contacts with canton authorities who helped them later in smuggling Indian opium, an
illegal commodity in forbidden Chinese land.

By 1831, opium demand increased ten times in china rendering plus two million people and 90%
of staffers addicted which took a tall on Chinese economy. Tremendous profits accruing out of
opium trade was not only for Britain but it benefitted Indian economy as well. Thus, opium
became not only a generator but a transmitter of Indian revenue that facilitated internal
contradiction of Britain-China trade between its import-orientation and urge for export
expansion. It was in this social-political and economic crisis that Britain was trying to intensify
their efforts to open China to international commerce and diplomacy. This led to first Opium
war.

First opium war- Because of opium, business slowed down, standard of living fell and public
services no longer worked smoothly. This also affected the monetary system as the sale of
Chinese goods to Westerners no longer balanced Chinese purchases of opium and led the export
of Chinese silver and affected the exchange rate between copper and silver, reducing the copper
production. Massive opium smuggling and consumption balanced the trade in favor of
westerners. Canton became centre of dissidence. Manchu government opened debate on take of
opium smuggling, where;

1. One group proposed the legalisation of opium trade to better control it.
2. While other group suggested use of force to do away with opium smuggling.

According to Chung, Manchu opted for second thought when they had exhausted their tolerance
towards the opium and they launched an anti-Opium War in 1839 with Commissioner Lin Tse-
hsu making 1600 arrests, confiscating and destroying 11000 pounds opium and 20000 opium
crates and ordered closing of canton. This war led to the total collapse of the opium trade which
in turn threatened to deprive the British of the valuable instrument in creating and remitting
surplus of Indian revenues for Britain and closing the multiple advantages of the China trade. In
response to this anti-Opium War, the British government decided in 1840 to wage an anti-anti-
opium war which fulfilled its aims in 1842. The two negative prefixes cancel each other out and
the Sino-British conflict in 1840-42 becomes an Opium War. This war ended with the Treaty of
Nanking signed in 1842. This treaty opened five ports (shanghai, hongkong, Ningpo, Foochow,
amon), china compromised its sovereignty and was to pay a indemnity of 6 million, ended the
cohong system, import-export duties were to be decided by Britain afterwards, it ended Chinese
resistance policy and Britain secured claim to extra-territoriality. This treaty was followed by
treaty of Bogue 1843, treaty of Wangxia, treaty of Tieusen, and Peking Convention 1860.
Interpretation of Opium war- Scholar Tan Chung has categorized historians into three schools
of thought over interpretations of opium war-

1) Cultural Conflict Theory (proposed by J.K. Fairbank, Immanuel Hsu)- this theory asserts that
opium war was not due to opium which “provided the occasion rather than the sole cause of
war”, meaning that there were other fundamental issues between china and Britain besides
opium conflict. These issues included the Chinese perceptions of ‘universal kingship’,
stigmatising of foreigner as barbarians, tributary system, anti-commercial attitude, dislike for
toxic products and foreign trade and judicial eccentricity. Tan Chung criticised this by saying
that these issues had existed for more than 100 years before 1838 but no shadow of war ever
existed. It was only when Manchu government launched a war against opium trade that
tensile strength of Sino-British broke and Britain counter-attacked it. He also states that
tributary system was not derogatory and other stigmatization accrued to the
misunderstandings/ misinterpretations by foreign powers. He further says that China and
Britain were two poles apart in conceptions and beliefs, where Britain aggressively wanted to
project itself as superior and unwanted to be on equal footing. Karl Marx says that Britain
sought to defend its action to avoid taking of blame for the physical, social, mental harm
done to china.
2) Trade War Theory (proposed by Michael Greenberg, Hsin Pao Chang, Victor Possehl)- this
theory asserts that main conflict was between British commercial expansion and Chinese
resistance to it, thus, war was inevitable in this situation. Also, Opium was merely an
incidental commodity, had there been any other effective commodity like molasses or rice,
the war could had been called molasses or rice war, therefore considered it a X-War with the
algebra symbol standing for any commodity. But Tan Chung counter-argued that British
commercial expansion was never contained at any stage by the Chinese government as
evident from the expansion of trade triangle between Britain, China and India. This trade
triangle was constituted by British woolens for China, Chinese tea for Britain and India,
Indian cotton for China and Indian opium for China. And the vital force of this expansion
was generated by Indian opium.
3) Opium War Theory (proposed by Tan Chung, Hu Sheng, Willoughby)- scholars argues that
opium war (1840-42) was the consequence of China’s trade with Britain and India. Britain
choice of ‘opium’ was a deliberate action, cheaply available from India. Opium was very
lucrative as compared to other items like cotton yarn and bullion which failed to attract
demand and any near profits. Had there not been opium there could be no war as opium was
the central issue between the Chinese side who were fighting for the stoppage of opium trade
and British side who were fighting for its expansion and continuation, and Britain increased
smuggling when they became assure of Chinese lack of military preparedness.
J.K. Fairbank counterattacked this theory by saying that opium was given an undue
importance in opium war as there were also other commodities in items of exchange. So it
could have been one of the pretexts and therefore no need to exaggerate the value of opium.
 Tan Chung further says that opium was chosen to gain boundless profits as Britain was very
well aware of the addiction and side-effects it causes which had the potential to challenge
state control, that set in motion the degradation of politico-economic, social and cultural
institutional practices. It is evident from its increased smuggling accounting from 2000 crates
to 11000 crates in 1830 within the turn of a decade it increased to 24000 crates, clash was
inevitable to brew. J.K. Fairbank again responded to the allegation of increased smuggling by
arguing that it was the Chinese demands which stimulated the rapid increase and not the
Britain’s desire for profits.

Conclusion- Various theories have been given to interpret the opium war. It appears therefore
that opium war could had been the outcome of the culmination of several factors. But it is
definite that opium war led the change in the structure of China and the relations between China
and westerners.