mddm 27: coffee,tea...Ooaphium?Re: mddm 27: coffee,tea...Ooaphium? mddm 27: coffee,tea...Ooaphium?

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

>> Anyone more familiar with The Company's connection
>> with the introduction of opium into China, at about this time?


 >From: jbor at bigpond.com>
 Pynchon does, though it was about half a century or so later than this I
 think:

  [snip-GR quote]

The actual "Opium Wars" were, as you say, somewhat later
on, but after a quick search I've detected some info to 
suggest that the groundwork for that awful imperial legacy
was being laid much earlier:

 http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/captain/ei_company.html 

                            But porcelain never amounted to more than a few percent
                          of the company's trade with China. Instead of teapots and
                          cups, Chinese tea itself became the nation's most
                          sought-after commodity. By 1750, the company was
                          importing 2.5 million pounds of Chinese tea annually and
                          was auctioning it in London for five shillings a pound —
                          twice what it paid in Canton. By 1800, the importation of
                          Chinese tea would generate more revenue than the
                          company's entire trade with India.

                          But the tea trade also was a source of tension between
                          the English and the Chinese for much of the 1700s. The
                          Chinese allowed the British to buy tea and other goods
                          only through a Cantonese merchant cartel, the Co-hong,
                          which set the price and often tacked on unexpected taxes
                          or required substantial bribes — as much as 10 percent of
                          a cargo's value — to cinch deals. The British, in turn,
                          aroused the ire of the Chinese by peddling opium, even
                          after the Chinese emperor banned the addictive narcotic in
                          1729. (The East India Company obstensibly ordered its
                          traders to stop selling the drug; the rule was widely
                          ignored.) By 1773, the year that the Royal Captain made
                          its first — and last — visit to China, relations between
                          England and China had grown tense. England sent an
                          ambassador, Lord George Macartney, to the court of the
                          Chinese emperor, K'ien Lung, with 13,000 English pounds
                          worth of gifts and a letter from King George III But
                          because of the opium problem, Macartney was so coolly
                          received by K'ien Lung that his delegation decided to turn
                          around and go home.

See also:

  http://www.maritimeheritage.org/newtale/opium.html

and,

  http://serendipity.magnet.ch/wod/hongkong.html