Introduction People have blamed corporate greed for many social and economic problems, such as the pollution of our resources, the unfair pay for the working class, major recessions, and many more. It seems that some people are unaware of how much influence corporations have when war is involved. Corporations have a heavy hand in war profiteering when it comes to oil, weapons, and even essential items such as water and food. There are many examples of corporate greed’s influence on war, although I had never heard of a war directly funded or coerced by corporations until I did some research on China’s Opium Wars.

Britain and China’s First Encounter The relationship between the Chinese and the British has been unstable from the beginning. Their first encounter resulted in an immediate attack on each other on the high seas. Nevertheless, on August sixth of 1793 a fleet of ships came to shore carrying an important passenger, the British Ambassador, Lord Macartney. The objective was to open trade between Britain and China. Lord Macartney brought with him many gifts for Emperor Chi’ien Lung that had been selected to represent the best that Britain had to trade. Lord Macartney met with Emperor Ch’ien Lung in a large horsehair tent chosen by the Emperor to show he was meeting with simple barbarians rather than equals. Foreigners are required to wear Chinese clothing and practice the Kowtow. The Kowtow is a ritual of respect where one bows three times and each time humbly knocking ones head against the ground. This was too extreme for Lord Macartney who made a point of only kneeling as was customary in the British courts. (Breeching 16) Emperor Ch’ien Lung was impressed with Lord Macartney page, a servant boy, who delivered a letter directly from King George the 3rd. The page was a young boy named George Jr. who could speak fluent Mandarin. Emperor Ch’ien Lung’s reply to King George’s letter clearly indicated how confident he was in China’s self-sustaining country.
Our ways have no resemblance to yours, and even were your envoy competent to acquire some rudiments of them; he could not transplant them to your barbarous land… Strange and costly objects do not interest me. As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on strange objects and ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufactures. (Breeching 17)

Trading Begins
Trading in China was extremely profitable, for both foreign and local merchants alike. Unfortunately, the Qing Dynasty’s trade restrictions confined British merchant’s trade within a city named Canton. Canton was a three-month journey inland. These trades were only conducted under sanctioned monopolies through their imperialist’s officials. British merchants did not profit from manufactured products. This forced the British to trade in high valued items. An Englishman who had spent most of his life in China described the material life in China quite truthfully “The Chinese have the best food in the world, rice, the best drink, tea, the best clothing, cotton, silk and furs. They do not need to buy a penny’s worth elsewhere.” (Breeching 17)
Britain had a considerably large appetite for tea, a commodity that China was in abundance. China accepted only silver for their tea, which made trading difficult for British merchants. The British needed to buy their silver from continental Europe, which was an expensive and lengthy process. British merchants began to search for commodities that China would be willing to trade for instead of silver. British merchants would sail to the Falkland and Aleutian islands, to kill seals at their breeding grounds and skin them on the way to Canton. The Chinese were willing to pay cash for the pelts. This sustained a balanced trade for quite a while. The seals almost became extinct due to overkilling. It was reported that major drop in seal skins from 1,739,000 in 1812 to as little as 6,000 in 1830 had occurred (Breeching 20). The Chinese people like Ginseng and chiming clocks, however, British merchants knew these were very limited commodities and did little to solve the trade imbalance.

The British Trade Opium
British merchants realized they needed to find a sustainable, easy to transport commodity that China would be interested in trading for their tea. The British had opium farms in India. Opium, a byproduct of a genius of Poppy plant scientifically named Papaver Somniferum (Grant - Web). Opium in China has been documented to have been used as far back as the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Opium was consumed raw for medicinal purposes to relieve pain and treat diarrhea. Opium was never used for recreational purposes (First Opium War - Web). It was discovered that inhaling opium produced a strong feeling of Euphoria. The drug was highly addictive and the withdrawal symptoms such as chills, severe cramps, and nausea (Ropp 103). Addiction spread rapidly throughout China.
The trade relationship became imbalanced once again, but this time in Britain’s favor. Opium was an item early merchants could only dream of. It was a commodity that gave buyers the feeling as if they literally could not live without it. So again and again, the Chinese would return, money in hand, ready to buy more. From 1831 to 1833 over ten million ounces of silver came out of China back to the British (Ropp 103). The Qing government was obviously shocked when faced with these facts and made haste to stop the trade of opium. Lin Tse-Hsu was appointed to deal with the opium epidemic in Canton. He soon realized the opium trade was a complicated affair with complex problems such as corrupt officials.

The Opium Problem
Lin Tse-Hsu immediately banned the sale of opium upon his arrival to Canton. He requested that all foreign traders relinquish their stocks of opium and sign a bond against the sale of the drug, threatening a penalty of death if broken. Some of the merchants refused, so Lin Tse-Hsu blocked the channel leading to Canton in an attempt to force the British hand, essentially holding the British traders hostage. Charles Elliot, the British Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, persuaded the British traders to hand over their opium along with a vow to compensate for China’s losses caused by the British Government. After collecting and destroying the chests of opium, Lin Tse-Hsu wrote a letter to the Queen of Great Britain, a desperate and sincere attempt to stop the trade of opium. Lin Tse-Hsu was witness to the poisoning of his countries people through the hand of the British. The Queen never received the letter. (First Opium War – Web) Lin Tse-Hsu was passionate about stopping the trade of opium through this excerpt from his letter to Queen Victoria.
All those people in China who sell opium or smoke opium should receive the death penalty. If we trace the crime of those barbarians who through the years have been selling opium, then the deep harm they have wrought and the great profit they have unsurped should fundamentally justify their execution according to law. We take into consideration, however, the fact that the various barbarians have still known how to repent their crimes…, (Lin 194)

The First Opium War
The relationship between China and the Britain became strained after the apprehension of all the British merchants’ opium. During a riot started by British sailors, a temple was vandalized and a man named Lin Weixi was killed. The Chinese citizens wanted the British sailors tried and prosecuted under Chinese law. When the authorities of the Qing dynasty demanded the British hand over the sailors the British refused. The sailors were tried by the British court, only to be released once they arrived in England. Commissioner Lin and the Qing government saw the acquisition of the opium and the arrest of the sailors simply as justice. The British saw it as an act of war. (Roberts 166)
The war that followed was heavily funded through commercial interests. Trading firms would provide vessels for the British fleet with pilots and translators (Roberts 166). Britain professed the military movement towards China was for the sake of diplomacy and was for a Western ideal of peace. One could speculate that funding from trading firms indicate that the ultimate goal was to continue the opium trade. The events of the Opium War were often described in two phases. The first phase was an expeditionary force with the idea of peaceably constructing an agreement for releasing the imprisoned men and compensating the merchants for the opium the Chinese commandeered. A treaty was suggested but after debating for some time both sides simply rejected it. The Chinese thought it was too much compensation while the British thought it was too little in compensation. Now the second phase was military action from Britain. The Chinese had underestimated how serious a threat Britain’s naval power was to them. After a few skirmishes China wanted a treaty.

The Treaty of Nanjing
The treaty of Nanjng was signed On August 1842, which required China to abolish its government-sanctioned monopolies and to open five ports in which to legally trade. The treaty Nanjing also required China to pay $21,000,000 to the British for the opium China commandeered and the expenses of the war. This was the first in a string of treaties referred to as the ‘unequal treaties’ with western powers such as France and America. These treaties were created with unfair terms to make profit with little benefit to China. It seems to be exactly as Abraham Lincoln once predicted,
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. (Lincoln – Web)

Conclusion
It is apparent to me that the Opium Wars were unfortunate and avoidable. It was a war driven by corporate greed. China’s plea to ban opium in their country for the sake of their people’s wellbeing was understandable. Even after Lin Tse-Hsu’s passionate letter the British denied their request. I feel that I have a better understanding of some conflicts happening today. Most particularly the extremely similar British fight against Afghanistan’s opium trade (Willis – Web). I find this to be ironic as Britain is trying to stop Afghani opium from coming into their country illegally, exactly as China did in 1839.

Works Cited

Breeching Jack, The Chinese Opium Wars (pg. 16) 1975 ed. Jack Breeching
“First Opium War” 2010 cultural-china (Web)
Grant Bonnie, Garden Guides 2010 Demand Media (Web)
Lincoln Abraham, A Letter to Col. William F. Elkins, November 21, 1864 The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw Macmillan, 1950, New York

Lin Tse-hsu. “A Letter to Queen Victoria.” Reading the World; Ideas that Matter. (pg. 194) 2007, 2010 2nd ed. Ed. Michael Austin. New York: Norton

Roberts J.A.G., A History of China 1999, 2006 2nd ed. Ed. J.A.G. Roberts London, ed. Jeremy Black
Ropp Paul S., China in World History (pg. 103) 2010 ed. Paul S. Ropp, New York

Willis Amy, 'Britain's war against Afghan opium production is failing' 2012 The Telegraph (Web)