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Example research essay topic: East India Company Trade With China - 1,275 words

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What was China's worse nightmare during the late 18 th and the 19 th century? The answer is opium. The rise of the British opium trade with China not only brought devastating and chaotic results for the Chinese government, but also for its citizens. In this paper, I plan to discuss about how and why the opium trade was introduced. In addition, why opium-smoking was so popular and the different ways of how China tried to handle this dilemma, will also be talked about. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, China had a very strict and protectionist trading policy with the outside world.

Thus, what were the reasons for the introduction of the opium trade with China? First of all, the origin of a British opium trade between India and China resulted in the growth of opium-smoking in China. The British conquest of large areas of India first stirred up the production and distribution of opium. "At the instigation of the East India Company's directors, and speeded by the brilliant generalship of Robert Clive and the administrative skills of Governor-General Warren Hastings, between 1750 and 1800 the British had gained control of much of northern India and with additional bases in the south at Madras" (Fairbank, Reischauer, Craig 450). Ardent to find a cash cow product that would provide revenue through export sales, the British discovered that the opium poppy grew incredibly well in particular areas of India. Furthermore, there was a great quantity of supply of labor to be used for collecting the "sap from the incised poppy pods and to process it into a thick past that was best for smoking" (Spence 130). Later on, the East India Company colonized a monopoly for the purchase of Indian opium and then sold licenses to trade in opium to choose Western merchants who would be specifically involved in the transferring of the narcotic.

The second reason was because of the serious balance of payments problem for the West, particularly for Britain. Over the 17 th century, the growing demand in Europe and America for Chinese goods greatly increased. For example, tea had recently become fashionable in Europe and there was also great demand for Chinese silk and porcelain. However, China had little interest in trading for, what they considered, inferior foreign products. In other words, the Chinese goods highly demanded in Britain were unable to match the growth in the Chinese consumer demand for Western exports such as cotton, wool, and mechanical goods. As a result, British trading companies were forced to pay high tariffs and ran a tremendous trade deficit with China.

Thus, the British had to pay for the Chinese goods in silver (Thomas 1). This continuous flow of silver into China had lead to great prosperity for the Chinese people. For instance, "In the 1760 s', the silver flow into China surpassed 3 million taels; in the 1770 s', the amount grew to 7. 5 million, and by the 1780 s', 16 million taels. Despite this, it had caused a great panic for the British government maintaining its silver. Nevertheless, by the late eighteenth century, Britain had come up with a different and witty product, "opium", to trade in China for Chinese goods. After selling their opium in China, the Western merchants deposited the silver they collected in payment with company representatives in Canton in trade for letters of credit.

Then the company used the silver to buy tea, porcelain, and other Chinese goods for sale in Britain. Thus, a "triangular trade of goods from Britain to India, India to China, and China to Britain" initiated, at each step of which a high return of profit could be made (Spence 130). Essentially, these two reasons were the most important causes of why the opium trade commenced for China. As I had mentioned before, the opium trade between the British and the Chinese had unfortunately led to the smoking of opium. Before, opium poppy had only been known for medicinal purposes as a drug to treat dysentery, cholera and other diseases towards the end of the 15 th century for China. It was not until the 18 th century was there any facts of genuine inhaling of the water vapor (opium smoking) began only after smoking tobacco had spread to China from America in the seventeenth century ("The Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking" 1).

During the late 1700 s', abundant amounts of opium chests were imported yearly from India, a British colony at that time, to China. As time passed, the demand for opium grew enormously. For example, from 1800 to 1821, the average number of imported chests was about 45 hundred a year, but the annual amount grew to forty thousand chests in 1838 (Fairbank, Reischauer, Craig 450). What were the causes for the boom of opium and why did the Chinese of the Qing dynasty begin to smoke so much opium? Both of these questions can be answered by many factors.

First of all, opium is a narcotic drug that was only known to the Chinese people as a medicine to cure diseases until smoking the opium was discovered as a pleasurable activity to do. In other words, the British trade policy in China resulted in widespread opium addiction. With the Chinese addicted to opium, it is certainly explainable for the cause of smoking in an abundant amount and increasing demand for importing more opium into the country. In addition, according the Chinese documents of the time suggested that opium appealed immensely to groups that faced boredom or stress. For example, "Eunuchs caught in the ritualized web of court protocol smoked opium, as did some of the Manchu court officials, who often had sinecures or virtually pointless jobs in the palace bureaucracy" (Spence 131). People in wealthy households such as women who were not entitled to educational opportunities and forbidden to walk outside their homes, also smoked opium.

Wealthy women who had time on their hands were eager to try new activities out especially goods from the West to occupy their time. Merchants, secretaries and even students were addicted to opium. "The taking of opium has the effect of slowing down and blurring the world around one, of making time stretch and fade, of shifting complex or painful replies to an apparently infinite distance" (Spence 131). Thus, opium was the perfect activity of which the Chinese citizens took advantage. Furthermore, the practice of smoking opium became a social "thing" for relaxation among the reposeful classes.

Laborers who faced hardship and pain of carrying immense loads day after day also began to take opium as a way to escape from their arduous daily tasks, similarly with today's Chinese taxi drivers who take on 12 hours shifts smoke cigarettes to ease their long day. A few employers would provide free amounts of the drug for these coolie laborers after seeing them working even harder under the influence of opium (Spence 131). Lastly, because the majority of the Chinese citizens were addicted to opium it was certainly easy to make a large profit. Opium traders in China could make big profits, as prices correlated with the supply. To illustrate, "a chest might sell for one thousand or even two thousand Mexican dollars before 1821, and for seven hundred to one thousand in the period of increased supply thereafter" (Fairbank, Reischauer, Craig 451). This process of trading stirred great competition.

Foreign merchants began to contemplate alternative ways to get ahead of their rivals such as using the earliest type of clipper ships and then delivering these cargoes to "receiving ships" that were heavily armed. As for the Chinese opium traders with th...


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Research essay sample on East India Company Trade With China

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