British Opium Policy and Its Results to India and China

about 600 dollars; and the last, or 'redskin,' for about 400 dollars. Formerly, the barbarian merchants brought foreign money to China, which, being paid in exchange for goods, was a source of pecuniary advantage to the people of all the sea-board provinces. But latterly, the barbarian merchants have clandestinely sold opium, for money."

That sum, "ten million taels," was echoed back from Peking, by an edict which reads like a sigh and curse blended; and from this date to the time of Lin, all reports and edicts dwell upon the same point. Choo-Tsun, of the "Board of Rites," remarks: "If the opium-smuggling can be stopped, the outflow of dollars will cease." And then this Chinese Minister of Public Worship adds wistfully: "As to levying a duty on opium, the thing sounds so unbeseemingly, that such ought not to be levied or mentioned." That last sentence shows that Chinese statesmen were still sincere in denouncing the opium traffic, although by this date they had been hard pressed to legalize it and share its profits. Subsequent experience has proved that they can easily make from £700,000 to £1,000,000 per annum from a light import duty; and since they knew this, they must have the credit of resisting the temptation. We are speaking of the Court and the Peking high officials; along the coast the hated drug corrupted every imperial servant (from viceroy to custom-house clerk), demoralized the population, and impoverished the country. How such a trade was maintained, and how it led to war, must now be considered.