Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the trade in 1799, local Cantonese officials were always willing to look the other way for
'squeeze money' (a term still used in Hong Kong).
In 1839 the emperor appointed the incorruptible Commissioner Lin Tse-hsu to stamp out
the smuggling of 'foreign mud'. Lin's crackdown was severe. He demanded that the British
merchants in Canton surrender their opium stores, and to back up his ultimatum he laid
siege to the traders, who, after six tense weeks, surrendered over 20,000 chests of opium. To
Queen Victoria, Lin addressed a famous letter, pointing out the harm the 'poisonous drug'
did to China, and asking for an end to the opium trade; his arguments are unanswerable but
the lofty, though heartfelt, tone of the letter shows how unprepared the Chinese were to ne-
gotiate with the West in realistic terms.
An amusing isle
'Albert is so amused,' wrote Queen Victoria, 'at my having got
the island of Hong Kong.' Her foreign secretary, Lord Palmer-
ston, was not so amused; he dismissed Hong Kong as 'a bar-
ren island with hardly a house upon it'.
The Opium Wars
A year later, in June 1840, came the British retaliation, beginning the first of the so-called
Opium Wars. After a few skirmishes and much negotiation, a peace agreement was reached.
Under the Convention of Chuenpi, Britain was given the island of Hong Kong (where it had
been anchoring its ships for decades), and on 26 January 1841, Hong Kong was proclaimed
a British colony.
The peace plan achieved at Chuenpi was short-lived. Both Peking and London repudi-
ated the agreement, and fighting resumed. This time the British forces, less than 3,000
strong but in possession of superior weapons and tactics, outfought the Chinese. Shanghai
fell and Nangking was threatened. In the Treaty of Nanking (1842) China was compelled to
open five of its ports to foreign economic and political penetration, and even to compensate
the opium smugglers for their losses. Hong Kong's status as a British colony and a free port
was confirmed.
In the aftermath of the Opium Wars, trade in 'foreign mud' was resumed at a level even
higher than before, although it ceased in 1907. Opium-smoking continued openly in Hong
Kong until 1946; it was abolished by the Communist government in mainland China in
1949.
