Is it true that the British tried to force the Chinese to accept drug shipments?

Answer 1

BOTH the British and the Americans, through their major Chinese trading companies, caused the "Opium War" of 1840.

There is a very good, if very biased, treatment of this subject at .

Essentailly, the English East India company, by this time a Crown monopoly, had built a wonderful trade on opium. It was grown in India, carried to Canton - then the only principal port of China open to foreign trade - and used instead of money to purchase Chinese goods. The flood of opium into China caused terrible addiction and prostrated many of the coastal areas. The "Opium War" began the destablization of Chinese government that concluded with the dissolution of the country into a group of warlord-dominated regions in 1911.

However, a number of American traders were also involved. One was the old New England Yankee China merchant shipping firm of Russell, Sturgis & co. They were in close alliance with Britain's leading private finance and shipping company, Baring Brothers.

These two firms had a great deal to do with the behind-the-scenes manipulation of British national policy that resulted in the Opium War.

Later, one of the descendants of this family, an entrepreneur named Russell Sturgis, relocated to England and never came home. He built a huge shipping empire around a shipping co-op called the "Black Star Line" based in Liverpool.

There is a very strange sidelight to this tale: The Russell Sturgis Foundation (do not know whether it is named for the man or the company) was established to finance a new secret society at Yale University in the mid-1800's. It continues today as the financial support for the infamous Skull and Bones Society.

Answer 2

I found this on wikipedia:

"This dispute was around the Opium trade which was perceived from two different cultural and economic vantage points — as with any and all global economic conflicts between two parties. The Chinese Emperor had banned opium in China due to its harmful effects on Chinese citizens and its denigratory impact on the Chinese culture; The British Empire, however, saw opium as a profitable good for commercial trade, as its import would help balance the huge trade deficit with China. The Opium Wars and the many treaties signed afterward led in part to the downfall of the Chinese economy, as many countries followed Britain and forced more treaties to increase trade within China."

Answer 3

That question has a yes and no answer. What happened was that the British wanted to have control of Opium trade in China as part of there overall plan to influence the Chinese economy. They were not importing drugs into China they just wanted a piece of the action that was already there