Opium, Empire, and Political Economy

"The British Empire, the opium trade, and the rise of global capitalism all occurred together. That the rise of the three was simulataneous, is not proof of causality; it does however, suggest a relationship..."

Page 7

"..Opium needs to be understood as simply a commodity among many others. It is, however, a unique commodity, and its uniqueness is shared with other drugs, therefore we need to study the opium trade as we have studies the trade in other commodities and in particular other drug commodities. In this category, I include tobacco, coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, and of course, alcohol. Too often, scholars and economic historians are prone to divide drugs between those which happen to be legal and those which are not. This may make sense from a law-enforcement or social policy or social policy point of view, but it makes bad history and worse economics. We have very little understanding of drugs-as-commodities, because they are rarely studied without prejudice by economists. Drugs ought to be seen as major actors in the economic history of the world. Drugs and drug trades, from tobacco to opium, from the sixteenth century to the twentieth, have been crucial elements in the course of European expansion. Opium was just the last in a series of imperial drug trades. It also had a crucial role in the formation of the British Empire in the creation of a global capitalist economy."

Page 8

Europeans first went to Asia in their quest for spices. All of the subsequent empires that they built in Asia were simply modified versions of the initial venture. The exact "spice" varied over time, bu there was always one exotic chemical of another that became the object of European trading monopolies -- first it was nutmeg and cloves; later it was pepper, coffee, cacao, and sugar; still later it was tea and finally it was opium. In most cases, the aim was to monopolize the delivery of the desired substance to the European market. For three centuries, European trade with Asia was marked by the one-way flow of exotic chemicals. Opium was the exception. Even though it was an "Asian" chemical, it was marketed primarily in Asia. It was thus essential in changing the balance of economic, and by extension, political relations between east and west"

Page 8

"The trade balance between the two halves of Eurasia was maintained during most of those three centuries between 1500 and 1800 by the reverse flow of precious metals from Europe to Asia; or, perhaps more precisely, from the Americas, via European agency, to Asia. Whether the gold and silver crossed the Atlantic of the Pacific, it ultimately found its wat to Asia(east of Suez) to purchase the "riches of the East" and to allow the otherwise deprived inhabitants of the northwest Eurasian peninsula to share in the fabled Oriental splendors. The trade "imbalance" or bullion deficit, was compounded by the European demand for the manufactured luxuries of the east as well as its exotic chemicals: Indian cottons and Chinese silks and ceramics in particular. Well before the eighteenth century, the Spanish silver dollar (minted in Mexico_ became the standard currency of the trading communities around the South China and Java Seas."

Page 8

"Opium was the first product that made it possible for the balance to be tipped in the other direction. As with the American precious metals, the source was not in Europe but "agency" was. By the eighteenth centry, Europeans dominated the flow of opium from India to China and had created in China something entirely new under the Eastern sun, a veritable "drug plague." Also, for the first time in history, western traders had something besides silver to offer for the riches of Asia."

Page 9

"Nor were Europeans the only ones to gain from the drug, but several groups of Asian merchants (Triads?), particulary some Chinese grew wealthy through opium."

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Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950
By Carl A. Trocki
Edition: illustrated
Published by Routledge, 1999
ISBN 0415215005, 9780415215008
208 pages