The Other 'Inner Opium War': British Traders’ Debates about Opium in the Canton Period

Abstract

Thanks to a new generation of scholarship, we now know that the Opium War was never simply a clash between 'East and West.' Recent studies have revealed sophisticated debates within the Qing government about whether opium should be legalized or prohibited, debunked the conventional image of opium turning China into a nation of addicts, and shown how opium served a variety of medical and social purposes. Other studies have suggested that the British declared war on China not so much to avenge Lin Zexu's destruction of some 20,000 chests of opium in spring 1839, but to maintain Britain's national honor and credibility. Less attention has been paid, however, to the debates about opium among those who were most responsible for importing it: British merchants in Canton. This paper shows how these debates reflected a wide range of opinions and attitudes, not only about China's right to prohibit opium and Britain's right to import it, but also about the nature of the British presence in China. Many British traders agreed that the Qing government had every right to prohibit the opium trade, some were convinced that the Chinese themselves had caused the demand for opium, while others argued that the opium trade threatened Britain's legitimate trade with China. In the face of growing interest in China, both in Britain and in India where the opium was produced, these debates also enabled Britons in China to present themselves as the true experts on China.