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reflected in ample measure the objective economic conditions of China at that time. A Briton who was a permanent settler in China had once remarked, "The Chinese have the best food rice, the best beverage tea and the best material for wear cotton, silk and fur. With these primary products and an abundance of indigenous goods on their hands the Chinese don't need to buy a penny's worth of goods elsewhere." (Note 3) It was precisely because of this that China's external trade had always registered an export surplus. Each year enormous quantities of tea and silk were exported while imported industrial products were minimal. Britain had the largest share of Earopean trade with China. During the period from 1781 to 1793 the total value of industrial products exported to China amounted to only one-sixth of the value of tea China exported to Britain from 1781 to 1790. (Note 4) Tea was significant not only because it was the commodity Britain imported in bulk from China but also because it was the source of huge profits for Britain's authorised mercantile agency, the East India Company, which owned a monopoly in tea. Moreover customs duty
To maintain
on tea constituted an important income for the British government. its trade with China Britain had to scour vast hard currency in the form of Mexican silver coins to pay for its huge trade deficit. This was a difficult task. Capitalism had to be on the constant move to expand its sphere of influence in order to survive. Since British industrial products had failed to secure a place in the Chinese market Britain, after considerable brains-racking, resorted to the unscrupulous means of vigorously developing the shameful opium trade.
China imported a limited quantity of opium each year for medicinal purposes. However because of the British government's promotion quantities of imported opium rose sharply, exceeding 4,500 cases in 1800 A.D. Opium was posing a more and more serious health hazard to the Chinese people. In 1798 (in the 3rd year of the reign of the Emperor Jia Qing) the Qing government imposed a ban on opium. The ban, despite subsequent reaffirmation, proved to be of little avail. Opium flooded in like tidal waves. In the eighteen twenties the table of trade balance was turned on China whose export surplus withered into an import deficit. Britain no longer needed to carry cash to China. The contrary was becoming the case when in 1830 Britain took 6.7 million yuans in silver bullion away from China. Opium traders included the East India Company and British and other countries' merchants. W. Jardine and J. Matheson, founders of the British trading house of Jardine & Matheson, and L. Dent, founder of another famous trading house started from scratch as opium traders and ended up with windfall fortunes. Some of the traders later became members of Parliament. even conferred with a knighthood.
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