Core Practice: Point/Counterpoint – Legalization or Suppression

World History Name: ______

E. Napp Date: ______

Pre-Primary Source Activity:

A Thought to Consider:

For many years, a trade imbalance existed between the nations of Western Europe and China. While the Europeans purchased many Chinese products such as porcelain, silk, and tea, the Chinese were largely disinterested in European products. Viewing China as the Middle Kingdom, the Chinese did not see anything particularly valuable or pleasing inEurope’s goods. And so, silver flowed to China for the purchase of Chinese goods but silver flowed out of Europe. As the nations of Western Europe became more powerful, they increasingly looked for ways to reverse this trade imbalance. Eventually, a good was found that was in great demand in China. It was opium, a highly addictive drug. From the poppy plant grown in India, the British were able to supply the Chinese with a tremendous amount of opium and as a highly addictive drug, demand for the drug was easily ensured. As opium flooded the Chinese market and as social problems increased within China, the Chinese were faced with an alarming situation. Some Chinese advocated the legalization of the drug in order to more effectively control it while others advocated suppression to hopefully end the problem. Ultimately, officials of the Chinese government burned the opium warehouses and war became. In 1839, the First Opium War became between China and Britain. It was followed by a second war. Due to Europe’s technological superiority in the 1800s, China was defeated and parts of China were placed on foreign control. Nonetheless, the issues and decisions that China faced during the 1800s are issues and decisions that officials in many nations face today. Should a harmful drug be legalized or suppressed?

General Vocabulary Checklist:

Point: As in point of view, an opinion

Counterpoint: A contrasting or opposing point of view

A Passage from Ways of the World by Robert W. Strayer:

“The Opium War of 1839-1842 marked a dramatic turn in China’s long history and in its relationship with the wider world. It was also indicative of the new kinds of cross-cultural encounters that were increasingly taking place as Europe’s global power mounted…

By the early nineteenth century, China had long enjoyed a position of unrivaled dominance in East Asia. Furthermore, its wealth and technological innovations had given it a major role in the world economy of the early modern era, reflected in the flow of much of the world’s silver into China. At the same time, the island nation of Great Britain was emerging as a major global economic and military power, thanks to its position as the first site of the Industrial Revolution and its increasingly dominant role in India.

At the heart of the emerging conflict between these two countries was trade rather than territory. From the British point of view, the problem lay in the sharp restrictions that the Chinese had long imposed on commerce between the two nations. The British were permitted to trade only in a single city, Canton, and even there had to deal with an officially approved group of Chinese merchants. This so-called Canton system meant that Europeans had no direct access to the Chinese market. Thus in the early 1790s, the British government sent a major diplomatic mission to China, headed by Lord George Macartney, to seek greater access to the Chinese market.”

General Vocabulary Checklist:

Trade Imbalance: ______

Middle Kingdom: ______

Reverse: ______

Opium: ______

Ensure: ______

Advocate: ______

Legalize: ______

Suppress: ______

First Opium War: ______

Technological Superiority: ______

Cross-Cultural Encounters: ______

Unrivaled: ______

Innovation: ______

Dominance: ______

Industrial Revolution: ______

Emerging: ______

Restrictions: ______

Canton System: ______

Pre-Primary Source Questions:

  1. Why did a trade imbalance exist between China and Western Europe for many years?

______

  1. Why were the Chinese disinterested in European goods? ______
  2. What revolution was increasing Britain’s technological power? ______
  3. How did the British begin to reverse the trade imbalance?

______

  1. Why was opium a particularly useful good for reversing the trade imbalance?

______

  1. What were two different Chinese attitudes regarding the importation of opium?

______

  1. State one cause of the First Opium War.

______

  1. State one effect of the First Opium War.

______

  1. How did the British presence in India affect the supply of opium in China?

______

  1. Describe the so-called Canton system.

______

Think Point of View:

The following questions may help the student determine the individual’s point of view:

  • Who wrote the primary source?
  • What was the social class background of the author?
  • How did the author’s experiences influence his/her perspective of the event?
  • When was the source written?
  • What historical events were occurring when the source was written?

Remember: No two individuals experience the same event exactly the same.

Point – Commissioner Lin Zexu
Excerpts from Letter to Queen Victoria (1839)

/ Counterpoint – Xu Naiji
Excerpts from An Argument for Legalization
Ways of the World; pp. 908-909

“…We have heard that in your own country opium is prohibited with the utmost strictness and severity: this is a strong proof that you know full well how hurtful it is to mankind. Since then you do not permit it to injure your own country, you ought not to have the injurious drug transferred to another country, and above all others, how much less to the Inner Land! Of the products which China exports to your foreign countries, there is not one which is not beneficial to mankind in some shape or other. There are those which serve for food, those which are useful, and those which are calculated for re-sale; but all are beneficial. Has China (we should like to ask) ever yet sent forth a noxious article from its soil? Not to speak of our tea and rhubarb, things which your foreign countries could not exist a single day without, if we of the Central Land were to grudge you what is beneficial, and not to compassionate your wants, then wherewithal could you foreigners manage to exist? And further, as regards your woolens, camlets, and longells, were it not that you get supplied with our native raw silk; you could not get these manufactured! If China were to grudge you those things which yield a profit, how could you foreigners scheme after any profit at all? Our other articles of food, such as sugar, ginger, cinnamon, &c., and our other articles for use, such as silk piece-goods, chinaware, &c., are all so many necessaries of life to you; how can we reckon up their number! On the other hand, the things that come from your foreign countries are only calculated to make presents of, or serve for mere amusement. It is quite the same to us if we have them, or if we have them not. If then these are of no material consequence to us of the Inner Land, what difficulty would there be in prohibiting and shutting our market against them? It is only that our heavenly dynasty most freely permits you to take off her tea, silk, and other commodities, and convey them for consumption everywhere, without the slightest stint or grudge, for no other reason, but that where a profit exists, we wish that it be diffused abroad for the benefit of all the earth!
Your honorable nation takes away the products of our central land, and not only do you thereby obtain food and support for yourselves, but moreover, by re-selling these products to other countries you reap a threefold profit. Now if you would only not sell opium, this threefold profit would be secured to you: how can you possibly consent to forgo it for a drug that is hurtful to men, and an unbridled craving after gain that seems to know no bounds! Let us suppose that foreigners came from another country, and brought opium into England, and seduced the people of your country to smoke it, would not you, the sovereign of the said country, look upon such a procedure with anger, and in your just indignation endeavor to get rid of it? Now we have always heard that your highness possesses a most kind and benevolent heart, surely then you are incapable of doing or causing to be done unto another, that which you should not wish another to do unto you! We have at the same time heard that your ships which come to Canton do each and every of them carry a document granted by your highness' self, on which are written these words "you shall not be permitted to carry contraband goods;" this shows that the laws of your highness are in their origin both distinct and severe, and we can only suppose that because the ships coming here have been very numerous, due attention has not been given to search and examine; and for this reason it is that we now address you this public document, that you may clearly know how stern and severe are the laws of the central dynasty, and most certainly you will cause that they be not again rashly violated!” / “Xu Naiji, Vice-President of the Sacrificial Court, presents the following memorial in regard to opium, to show that the more severe the interdicts against it are made, the more widely do the evils arising thereform spread…
In Keenlung’s reign, as well previously, opium was inserted in the tariff of Canton as a medicine, subject to a duty…After this, it was prohibited…Yet the smokers of the drug have increased in number, and the practice has spread almost throughout the whole empire…
Formerly, the barbarian merchants brought foreign money to China; which being paid in exchange for goods, was a source of pecuniary advantage to the people of all the sea-board provinces. But latterly, the Barbarian merchants have clandestinely sold opium for money, which has rendered it unnecessary for them to import foreign silver. Thus foreign money has been going out of the country, while none comes into it.
It is proposed entirely to cut off the foreign trade, thus to remove the root, to dam up the source of the evil. The Celestial Dynasty would not, indeed, hesitate to relinquish the few millions of duties arising therefrom. But all the nations of the West have had a general market open to their ships for upward of a thousand years, while the dealers in opium are the English alone; it would be wrong, for the sake of cutting off the English trade, to cut off that of all the other nations. Besides, the hundreds of thousands of people living on the sea-coast depend wholly on trade for their livelihood, and how are they to be disposed of? Moreover, the barbarian ships, being on the high seas, can repair to any island that may be selected as entrepôt, and the native sea-going vessels can meet them there; it is then impossible to cut off the trade…Thus it appears that, though the commerce of Canton should be cut off, yet it will not be possible to prevent the clandestine introduction of merchandise.
It will be found, on examination, that the smokers of opium are idle, lazy vagrants, having no useful, having no useful purpose before them, and are unworthy of regard of even of contempt. And though there are smokers to be found who have overstepped the threshold of age, yet they do not attain to the long life of other men. But new births are daily increasing the population of the empire; and there is no cause to apprehend a diminution therein; while, on the other hand, we cannot adopt too great, or too early, precautions against the annual waste which is taking place in the resources, the very substance of China.
Since then, it will not answer to close our ports against [all trades], and since the laws issued against opium are quite inoperative, the only method left is to revert to the former system, to permit the barbarian merchants to import opium paying duty thereon as a medicine, and to require that, after having passed the Custom-House, it shall be delivered to the Hong merchants only in exchange for merchandise, and that no money be paid for it. The barbarians finding that the amount of dues to be paid on it, is less than what is now spent in bribes, will also gladly comply therein…
It becomes my duty, then, to request that it be enacted, that any officer, scholar, or soldier, found guilty of secretly smoking opium, shall be immediately dismissed from public employ, without being made liable to any other penalty…
Besides, the removal of the prohibitions refers only to the vulgar and common people, those who have no official duties to perform. So long as the officers of the Government, the scholars, and the military are not included, I see no detriment to the dignity of the Government. And by allowing the proposed importation and exchange of the drug for other commodities, more than ten millions of money will annually be prevented from flowing out of the Central land.”

Vocabulary Checklist:

Prohibit: ______

Beneficial: ______

Noxious: ______

Commodities: ______

Indignation: ______

Violated: ______

Interdicts: ______

Pecuniary: ______

Clandestinely: ______

Relinquish: ______

Entrepôt: ______

Vagrants: ______

Detriment: ______

Questions:

  1. According to Lin Zexu, why is opium illegal in Britain? ______
  2. According to Lin Zexu, since opium is illegal in Britain, why should the British not sell opium in China? ______
  3. According to Lin Zexu, what does China sell to the British?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, how do Chinese products benefit the British?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, what is of “no material consequence” to the Chinese? Why?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, what does the “heavenly dynasty” allow? Why?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, what is the independence movement not about?

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  1. According to Lin Zexu, how do the British make a profit from trade with China even without the sale of opium?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, how would the British feel if the Chinese sold opium to the British?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, what has been heard in China regarding Queen Victoria?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, what does every British ship carry?

______

  1. According to Lin Zexu, what should happen to British ships coming to China?

______

  1. According to Xu Naiji, what will be the effect of more interdicts?

______

  1. According to Xu Naiji, what has made it unnecessary for “Barbarian merchants” to import silver?

______

  1. According to Xu Naiji, what are three reasons it would be unwise to cut off trade?

______

  1. How does Xu Naiji describe opium smokers and why should government officials not worry about opium smokers?

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  1. According to Xu Naiji, what should the Chinese government do regarding the sale of opium?

______

  1. According to Xu Naiji, what distinctions should be made between the government officials/scholars and the common people regarding opium? Why? ______

Enrichment Activities (To Be Completed on a Separate Piece of Paper):

  1. Write a critique of Lin Zexu’s point of view on the sale of opium.
  1. Write a critique of Xu Naiji’spoint of view on the sale of opium.
  1. Which point of view do you agree with? Write a defense of your point of view.
  1. Explain the meaning of the cartoons.