The year was 1839 and China had an opium problem.

Opium wasn’t new to China. It had been a luxury good for centuries. But the supply had increased dramatically over the last few decades, which drove the price down and made it accessible to the masses. Addiction and corruption were becoming widespread.

The cause for this increase in supply: private traders from the west. Mostly British. They would buy opium in India (cultivated by the East India Company), sail it to Guangdong (a.k.a. Canton), and sell it to corrupt state officials who would smuggle it inland. The Qing Dynasty had outlawed opium in 1776 but it was loosely enforced. The opium trade operated semi-openly and was growing rapidly despite the ban.

China, at the time, was very protectionist and hostile to foreigners. Guangdong was the only port open for trade. There was housing outside the city for foreign traders to live and work out of, called factories. They weren’t allowed to venture further. The westerners didn’t like this. They wanted to trade as they pleased. But despite the restrictions there was still lots of money to be made. Especially for those dealing in opium.

When the opium problem became too big to ignore, the emperor hand picked Lin Zexu, a famously incorruptible bureaucrat with a proven track record of cracking down on opium, to go to Guangdong and deal with the problem at its source.

When Lin arrived, he first tried to appeal to the morals of the British traders. “I have heard that you strictly prohibit opium in your own country, indicating unmistakably that you know how harmful opium is,” he wrote in an open letter to Queen Victoria, “You do not wish opium to harm your own country, but you choose to bring that harm to other countries such as China. Why?”

When that didn’t work, Lin threatened force. In March 1839, he demanded the western traders hand over all of their opium stock, or else. Trade was shutdown and Lin had the factories blockaded, cutting off their food supply and not letting anyone leave.

It’s not clear how serious Lin was with his threats. Food still found its way into the factories and the traders could live rather comfortably. George Elliot, however, Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, was growing concerned. His job description boiled down to keeping the merchants in check and maintaining good trade relations with China. He was vocal about his disapproval of the opium trade, but he took his job very seriously and was worried that if things kept escalating, he’d have blood on his hands. So he hatched a plan.

Elliot ordered the traders to hand over their opium to him so he could satisfy Lin’s demands. For their sacrifice, the traders would be paid fair market value. Not by Elliot, of course. He didn’t have £2 million pounds to spare. The British government would foot the bill. It was a plan to please everyone… except the British government. Elliot had no absolutely no authority to make such an offer, but the traders pretended not to know this. An IOU from a British official, signed in good faith, was preferable than outright confiscation by the Chinese.

The opium (nearly 1.2 million kg of it) was handed over and subsequently destroyed. 500 workers laboured for weeks, mixing it with lime and salt and throwing it into the sea. But the lockdown of the factories was not lifted. Lin wanted more concessions, guarantees that the opium trade would stop for good. Elliot was growing increasingly spiteful and erratic. His brief stint as a drug dealer had not appeased Lin. Tensions continue to rise.

Meanwhile, in Britain, some alarming news trickled in. Legitimate trade with China—which made up a sizeable chunk of Britain’s economy (and tax revenue)—had been halted with no end in sight. George Elliot was claiming he was under duress and needed military support. And a whole bunch of opium traders wanted their money.

In cabinet meeting at Windsor Castle on October 1, 1839—despite minor disagreements—a decision was made. A small naval force would be dispatched to obtain reparations from China.

War was coming.

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I’m not a historian. I’ve just read a few books. My main source for this series was Imperial Twilight by Stephen R. Platt. It is excellent. Go read it.