What was China's worse nightmare during the late 18th and the 19th 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, parti...