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57-574: The Opium Wars refer to the mid-1800s conflicts between Western powers and China including the First Opium War (1839–1842) and the Second Opium War (1856–1860). Opium War(s) or The Opium War(s) may also refer to: Opium Wars The Opium Wars ( simplified Chinese : 鸦片战争 ; traditional Chinese : 鴉片戰爭 ; pinyin : Yāpiàn zhànzhēng ) were two conflicts waged between China and Western powers during

114-553: A breach of the British East India Company 's tea monopoly, the successful and lucrative voyage of the Empress inspired other American merchants to follow suit with the desire to enter a new market with great potential for profit. By 1803, American vessels outnumbered British and all other nations in the trade. While more numerous, American vessels were smaller, averaging just under 300 tons each, compared with

171-515: A result of the wars, though the Taiping Rebellion and Dungan Revolt had a much larger economic effect. The First Opium War broke out in 1839 between China and Britain and was fought over trading rights (including the right of free trade ) and Britain's diplomatic status among Chinese officials. In the eighteenth century, China enjoyed a trade surplus with Europe, trading porcelain , silk , and tea in exchange for silver . By

228-726: A second phase of fighting which included the sack of the Old Summer Palace and the occupation of the Forbidden City palace complex in Beijing , the treaty was confirmed by the Convention of Peking in 1860. In February 1860, the British and French imperialist authorities again appointed Elgin and Grotto as plenipotentiaries respectively, leading more than 15,000 British troops and about 7,000 French troops to expand

285-686: A shortage of silver; this was the only currency that the Chinese, sole producers of the commodity at the time, would accept in payment. The East India Company (EIC), monopoly suppliers of tea to the English market, got around the problem by indirect sales of opium (grown on their plantations in India) to the Chinese, the proceeds from which they used to pay for tea. The Americans meanwhile, also needed silver to finance their burgeoning international trade in furs, timber, and other commodities. They too looked to

342-757: The "East Indiamen" from Europe, which averaged 1,200 tons each. Two years after the voyage of the Empress , Shaw set up the firm of Shaw & Randall to advise American firms unfamiliar with trade in the Far East. Boston Brahmin Thomas Handasyd Perkins of Perkins & Co. , the dominant American presence in the Turkish opium business, along with one of his partners and his 16‑year-old nephew John Perkins Cushing , subsequently opened operations in Guangzhou, where Russell & Co. had become

399-509: The Cohong and the foreign merchants were cordial and very peaceful, as both parties valued their reputations and had vested interests in preventing the disruption of trade. The Cohong reviewed the cargo of each ship and collected tariffs that were then passed onto the Hoppo (Inspector of Customs). The Cohong was at the mercy of the government's demands for revenue, and they had to add costs to

456-593: The Pearl River forts on the approach to Canton and proceeded to bombard Canton itself, but had insufficient forces to take and hold the city. On 15 December, during a riot in Canton, European commercial properties were set on fire and Bowring appealed for military intervention. The execution of a French missionary inspired support from France. The United States and Russia also intervened in the war. Britain and France now sought greater concessions from China, including

513-817: The 1820s that controlled seven-eighths of the China trade by 1825—Perkins and Company, Jones Oakford and Company, Archer, and T. H. Smith—the American trade was conducted through the use of supercargoes . Each American ship had a supercargo who acted as the commercial agent responsible for the purchases of Chinese goods. He had to arrive and leave on his vessel. It was not until 1800 that supercargoes began to establish themselves as resident agents in Guangzhou. These agents either served trading houses or operated off of commissions from other private merchants' transactions. Upon their emergence, large trading houses, greater capitalization, and higher volumes of trade became possible. One of

570-650: The 1820s, they attempted to compete with the British opium trade that monopolized the Indian crops by trading for Turkish opium. Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital and the Boston Athenæum, the Bunker Hill Monument, many factories, mines, the US's first railroad, university buildings, high schools, public libraries, and an orphanage were built with the proceeds of opium smuggling. The opium trade

627-481: The 1820s. The reason for the drastic change in amounts of porcelain exported could result from the increase in the porcelain price due to the increasing labor cost and Chinese duties on exporting porcelain. In Salem, Massachusetts there are important examples of American colonial architecture and Federal architecture from the Old China Trade in two historic districts, Chestnut Street District , part of

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684-550: The 20,000 chests (1,300 metric tons) over to Lin, who had them destroyed at Humen . Elliott then wrote to London advising the use of military force to resolve the dispute with the Chinese government. A small skirmish occurred between British and Chinese warships in the Kowloon Estuary on 4 September 1839. After almost a year, the British government decided, in May 1840, to send a military expedition to impose reparations for

741-441: The American firms, only Olyphant & Co. and one other abstained from the opium trade. Trade with China, originally an enterprise of seemingly limited prospects involving significant risk instead turned out to be extremely lucrative. American traders, then with a stable foothold in Guangzhou, were eager to sell their goods to China, but the Chinese interest in foreign goods was limited. The first item that tended to sell in China

798-469: The American trade from China. The American trade in Guangzhou existed primarily through private traders and without the supervision and supporting authority of the United States government. Soon after 1784, an American consul was appointed in Guangzhou and functioned as a reporting agent on trade to the U.S. government. The consul was not recognized by the Chinese authorities or the hoppo , and

855-511: The British East India Company no longer the dominant force in American trade, the job of satisfying this demand fell to American merchants. Therefore, when the Empress returned home, she brought with her a large stock of outlandish Chinese goods, which her owners sold for a significant profit of $ 30,000—a 25% gain. Other American merchants did not take long to realize that, while selling American species, ginseng, and fur to

912-538: The Chinese and then reinvested in tea for importation to Great Britain. The Americans had less difficulty finding a variety of different products to barter for tea. The Empress of China and the following early vessels were able to use ginseng and some species to secure tea. Yet, the market for ginseng was rather small, so the Americans began trading furs with Indian tribes in the American Northwest, which

969-455: The Chinese market as a source of hard currency based on their monopoly of the opium trade in Turkey . The man who would become the United States' first consul in China, Bostonian and former Continental Army officer Samuel Shaw (1754–1794), arrived in the port of Guangzhou (then romanized as "Canton" ) in 1784 aboard the converted privateer Empress of China . The "Chinese Queen", as

1026-407: The Chinese was undoubtedly profitable, selling Chinese goods in the United States would be considerably more so. Further motivation came from the knowledge that China, as a whole, had a mercantilist -like attitude towards foreign commerce; they tended to resist the importation of foreign goods because of a mixture of Confucian doctrine, which deprecated trade, and the underlying ethnocentrism felt by

1083-613: The Chinese—they did not need to actively search for trade because the inferior white "barbarian" states would instinctively bring it to them as a form of tribute. Because of these factors, American traders began to focus their funds on acquiring Chinese goods—a practice that the Chinese were more willing to adopt—rather than on purchasing those of the United States. What resulted was the flooding of Chinese teas, cotton, silks, rhubarb , cassia , nankeens (durable, yellow cloth), floor-matting, lacquerware , fans, furniture, and porcelains, into

1140-689: The US, to the extent that even those of poor social classes possessed some Chinese items—perhaps a painting of Guangzhou's harbor or a pair of trousers made out of nankeen cloth. In 1757, the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty confined all Western trade to Guangzhou and regulated it through the use of merchants known collectively as the Cohong . This group owned a licensed monopoly on trade with foreigners and served as trading intermediaries accountable for their behavior and cargoes. Relations between

1197-719: The actions of individuals. The chief concern of foreign traders was preventing the Chinese from closing trade, as they could threaten to do over legal disputes. At the end of the First Opium War in 1842, Britain and China signed the Treaty of Nanking , which effectively overthrew the original mercantilist system and forced open the ports of Guangzhou, Xiamen ("Amoy"), Fuzhou ("Foochow"), Ningbo ("Ningpo"), and Shanghai to British trading. Seeing that Britain could easily eliminate foreign competition in China with its new privileges and considerable trading prowess, Americans found

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1254-529: The afternoon also joined the robbery, and the most precious things in the Old Summer Palace were looted. All twelve bronze statues of animal heads began to be lost overseas. On 18 October, the Old Summer Palace was burned down by British soldiers, and France refused to provide aid. The fire burned for three days and nights, razing the buildings of the Old Summer Palace to the ground and destroying nearby royal properties. As of December 2020, seven of

1311-472: The companies prepared to hand over a token amount to placate him. Charles Elliot , Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, arrived 3 days after the expiry of Lin's deadline, as Chinese troops enforced a shutdown and blockade of the factories. The standoff ended after Elliot paid for all the opium on credit from the British government (despite lacking official authority to make the purchase) and handed

1368-418: The destroyed opium, with six million to be paid immediately, and the rest through specified installments thereafter. Another treaty the following year gave most favoured nation status to Britain and added provisions for British extraterritoriality , making Britain exempt from Chinese law. France secured several of the same concessions from China in the Treaty of Whampoa in 1844. In 1853, northern China

1425-400: The early 1780s to the 1810s, the export market started to shrink. Records show that in 1764, there were 20,116 piculs exported, while in 1784, the porcelain export declined to 13,780 piculs. Although it reached 25,890 piculs in 1798, soon the porcelain exports shrank to only 6,175 piculs in 1801. Finally, the amount of porcelain exported remains at an average level of 6,000 piculs per year around

1482-473: The financial losses experienced by opium traders in Canton and to guarantee future security for the trade. On 21 June 1840, a British naval force arrived off Macao and moved to bombard the port of Dinghai . In the ensuing conflict, the Royal Navy used its superior ships and guns to inflict a series of decisive defeats on Chinese forces. The war was concluded by the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing) in 1842,

1539-521: The first of the Unequal treaties between China and Western powers. The treaty ceded the Hong Kong Island and surrounding smaller islands to Britain, and established five cities as treaty ports open to Western traders: Shanghai , Canton, Ningbo , Fuzhou , and Xiamen (Amoy). The treaty also stipulated that China would pay a twenty-one million dollar payment to Britain as reparations for

1596-436: The foreign merchants, in order to extract extra money for bribes to please the officials; although Qing court officials did not actively supervise foreign trade, China's government treasury reaped the benefits of tariff revenues. Additionally, each foreign vessel had to contract a comprador responsible for supplying the ship with provisions and servicing the factories onshore. Before the rise of four American trading houses in

1653-623: The free-trade port of Canton , and sold it to Chinese smugglers. In 1834, the EIC's monopoly on British trade with China ceased, and the opium trade burgeoned. Partly concerned with moral issues over the consumption of opium and partly with the outflow of silver, the Daoguang Emperor charged Governor General Lin Zexu with ending the trade. In 1839, Lin published in Canton an open letter to Queen Victoria requesting her cooperation in halting

1710-421: The largest problems faced by foreign traders in Guangzhou was finding a reliable medium of exchange that would enable sustainable trade with the Chinese. The Chinese were always willing to accept bullion, in exchange for tea and other products. This was because the Chinese were fairly self-sufficient and did not have a large desire for foreign goods. Specie was very expensive and difficult to acquire considering that

1767-920: The late 18th century, the British East India Company (EIC) expanded the cultivation of opium in the Bengal Presidency , selling it to private merchants who transported it to China and covertly sold it on to Chinese smugglers. By 1797, the EIC was selling 4,000 chests of opium (each weighing 77 kg) to private merchants per annum . In earlier centuries, opium was utilised as a medicine with anesthetic qualities, but new Chinese practices of smoking opium recreationally increased demand tremendously and often led to smokers developing addictions. Successive Chinese emperors issued edicts making opium illegal in 1729, 1799, 1814, and 1831, but imports grew as smugglers and colluding officials in China sought profit. Some American merchants entered

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1824-450: The legalization of the opium trade, expanding of the transportation of coolies to European colonies, opening all of China to British and French citizens and exempting foreign imports from internal transit duties . The war resulted in the 1858 Treaty of Tientsin (Tianjin), in which the Chinese government agreed to pay war reparations for the expenses of the recent conflict, open a second group of ten ports to European commerce, legalize

1881-480: The mid-19th century. The First Opium War was fought from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain . It was triggered by the Chinese government 's campaign to enforce its prohibition of opium , which included destroying opium stocks owned by British merchants and the British East India Company . The British government responded by sending a naval expedition to force the Chinese government to pay reparations and allow

1938-528: The most important American opium dealer. The founders of Russell & Co., Samuel Russell, and Philip Ammedon, had set up in the Chinese city in 1808, buying opium at auction from the EIC in Bombay, which they then shipped clandestinely to Guangzhou on the south coast of China. By 1827 Russell and Co. had become the largest American opium dealer in China, competing in the market alongside British firms including Jardine, Matheson & Co. and Dent & Co. Of all

1995-542: The most lucrative— American export to China was ginseng. Hailed by the Chinese, among other cultures as shown by the genus' Latinate scientific name Panax as a panacea, the most potent and therefore most demanded type of ginseng, Panax quinquefolius , grew in Manchuria and the Appalachian Mountains. Transported from the interiors of Pennsylvania and Virginia to Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, ginseng

2052-412: The need to reestablish their diplomatic relations and commercial equality in China. For the previous fifty-nine years, Americans had been interacting with China merely through their business transactions, without government-to-government communication. As a result, the administration of President John Tyler sent the commissioner Caleb Cushing to negotiate a treaty in which the United States would receive

2109-495: The opium trade, and grant foreign traders and missionaries rights to travel within China. This also included China being required to bend to Western diplomatic behaviors instead of their normal way of conducting business through a tribute system. This treaty led to the era in Chinese history known as the " Century of Humiliation ", this term referring to how China lost control of many territories to its enemies after being forced into treaties which were unfair in their own regard. After

2166-509: The opium trade. The Second Opium War was waged by Britain and France against China from 1856 to 1860, and consequently resulted in China being forced to legalise opium. In each war, the superior military advantages enjoyed by European forces led to several easy victories over the Chinese military , with the consequence that China was compelled to sign the unequal treaties to grant favourable tariffs, trade concessions, reparations and territory to Western powers. The two conflicts, along with

2223-622: The opium trade. The letter never reached the Queen. It was later published in The Times as a direct appeal to the British public for their cooperation. An edict from the Daoguang Emperor followed on 18   March, emphasising the serious penalties for opium smuggling that would now apply henceforth. Lin ordered the seizure of all opium in Canton, including that held by foreign governments and trading companies (called factories), and

2280-511: The porcelain business. Most of the porcelain dealers in Guangzhou were small, family-run operations with sales of less than 1,000 taels of merchandise a year, while a few of them could manage to reach an annual gross sale of 10,000 taels per year. Each year, porcelain dealers generally placed their order to manufacturers at Jingdezhen from October to December. The items were completed and shipped to Guangzhou in August or September for export. From

2337-557: The principal and interest on their loans to the British banks. From 1830 to 1850, faster and larger tea clippers were introduced, thereby replacing the earlier, smaller privateering vessels from the American Revolution. As a result, Americans could achieve greater scale with the combination of tea clippers and British credit. Tea could be transported to American markets in less time and with greater freshness, translating into higher profits. By 1834, tea accounted for over 80% of

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2394-406: The same privileges as Britain. Cushing, in the Treaty of Wanghsia in 1844, not only achieved this goal but also won the right of extraterritoriality , which meant that Americans accused of crimes in China were to be tried by American courts only. This treaty was monumental in that it laid the foundation for a more extensive and regulated American trade with China; American ships would no longer make

2451-464: The sporadic—and somewhat reckless—voyages to China so characteristic of the Old China trade. In the late 18th century, Chinese porcelain could be purchased from two sources: the licensed Hong merchants or the porcelain specialized shopkeepers. From the records, the original porcelain market was concentrated on a street several blocks north of the thirteen factory area. Until 1760, after the Cohong

2508-470: The supply coming from South America fluctuated and it required a lot of goods to attain through a trade. Unable to afford to sustain high-level trading in specie, British merchants turned to the lucrative drug trade, obtaining trading rights for opium from India and importing it to the Qing Empire. Beginning in 1767 and rapidly expanding through the early 1800s, opium was illegally traded for specie with

2565-519: The trade by smuggling opium from Turkey into China, including Warren Delano Jr. , the grandfather of twentieth-century American President Franklin D. Roosevelt , and Francis Blackwell Forbes ; in American historiography this is sometimes referred to as the Old China Trade . By 1833, the Chinese opium trade soared to 30,000 chests. British and American merchants sent opium to warehouses in

2622-558: The twelve bronze statues have been found and returned to China. The whereabouts of the remaining five are still unknown. Old China Trade Anglo-American hostilities ceased in 1783 following the Second Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolutionary War and subsequently freed American trade from British control. At the time, increased global demand for tea was one of the primary reasons for

2679-473: The various treaties imposed during the century of humiliation , weakened the Chinese government's authority and forced China to open specified treaty ports (including Shanghai ) to Western merchants. In addition, China ceded sovereignty over Hong Kong to the British Empire , which maintained control over the region until 1997 . During this period, the Chinese economy also contracted slightly as

2736-525: The vessel was known, under the command of Captain John Green, carried a cargo of silver specie and ginseng for trade. In Guangzhou, the Americans encountered many European nations already trading under the Canton System , including the English, Dutch, French, and Danish. Shaw subsequently negotiated the sale of the Empress 's cargo and earned a substantial profit. As well as symbolizing

2793-537: The war against China. The British and French forces invaded Beijing, and the Qing emperor fled to Chengde. The British and French forces broke into the Old Summer Palace, looted jewelry, and burned it. Among the cultural relics that were looted were the well-known Old Summer Palace bronze heads . On the morning of 7 October, the French army broke into the Old Summer Palace and began to rob it. British soldiers who arrived in

2850-610: Was Spanish bullion : American traders would devote large sums of money to buying and amassing large quantities of the metal for export to China. The Spanish silver bullion was primarily used to complement the less profitable American goods such as cheese, grain, and rum. The use of bullion eventually became considerable with over $ 62 million worth of species traded to China between 1805 and 1825. This practice, however, gradually declined after 1815, when American merchants began to participate in "chain trade" routes —the buying and selling of goods en route to Guangzhou. The second major —and by far

2907-593: Was convulsed by the Taiping Rebellion , which established its capital at Nanjing . In spite of this, a new Imperial Commissioner, Ye Mingchen , was appointed at Canton, determined to stamp out the opium trade, which was still technically illegal. In October 1856, he seized the Arrow , a ship claiming British registration, and threw its crew into chains. Sir John Bowring , Governor of British Hong Kong, called up Rear Admiral Sir Michael Seymour 's East Indies and China Station fleet, which, on 23 October, bombarded and captured

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2964-457: Was created, all the small shopkeepers were moved to a new street on the quay which was later referred to as "China Street" (called Jingyuan Jie 静远街/靖远街 in Chinese). There were about 180 different names of porcelain shops from foreign trade records between 1700 and 1800. However, since many of them appear in records only once or for a few years, there were only a total of 25 to 30 shops dealing with

3021-524: Was in turn traded for species in Guangzhou, which was then used to purchase tea. From 1790 to 1812 supplies of furs and then sealskins were depleted and new products had to be found as demand also waned. In the Pacific Islands, merchants evaded cannibals and traded with natives to get sandalwood and sea slugs that could be traded for species. But those items soon ran their course, and by 1814 species had risen to nearly 70% of total American exports. In

3078-427: Was not allowed to fly the American flag over its factory until well after 1799. The Americans had to trade with the Chinese as subordinates instead of equals and use the Cohong for any and all demands. Consequently, the Americans did not have the leverage to raise political or legal protests and had to submit themselves to the Chinese justice system that believed in a "life for a life" and holding groups accountable for

3135-487: Was profitable for American traders and some of these profits were reinvested to support the industrial revolution. However, the opium trade had a damaging effect on Chinese society. The innovation of the British credit system and issuance of banking bills allowed the American traders to clear their debts with Cohong merchants and gradually substitute their cargoes away from carrying specie and more towards domestically manufactured items. The Americans could then later pay off

3192-423: Was the primary impetus for the United States' initiation of trade with China. The return of the Empress of China , which had carried all three commodities, and her by the now rich crew to Boston in 1785 inspired other Americans to make similar voyages. However, different reasons emerged for maintaining trade with China. There had always been a general American desire for foreign and sometimes exotic wares, and, with

3249-554: Was then shipped to China and sold for up to 250 times its weight in silver. Furs were the third-most lucrative American export to China. Searching for another type of item that could be sold to the Chinese aside from specie and ginseng, Americans soon found that the mandarins had a taste for sea otter pelts, which could be inexpensively purchased from the Indians of the northwest coast of the United States and shipped to Guangzhou. The Chinese mandarins' desire for bullion, ginseng, and furs

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