The economic realities of the opium trade dictate that the British government did indeed have its hand in the pot. Opium was grown in British controlled India and the taxes on opium provided around 10 percent of total revenues for the British government in India. Despite debate in Parliament as to the moral implications of the drug trade, opinion reached a favorable high in backing the trade with British warships. For decades the British had faced a trade deficit with China. Tea, silk, spices and porcelain were in great demand in the Western world, while relatively few Western products were desired by the Chinese. The opium trade allowed their positions to be reversed, and silver flowed out of China. The profit was too important to ignore.
While the economic gain to Britain was the obvious impetus to the Opium War, another factor is far too important to be overlooked. The lack of decisive foreign relations and the gulf between cultures fueled public opinion, leaving many, including those who felt the drug trade to be wrong, with the feeling that China needed to be taught a lesson. The nature of the Chinese bureaucracy and the Western abhorrence of kowtowing made access to the emperor nearly impossible, and it was only by Imperial decree that change could be made. Corruption within the Chinese government and the resistance to change made furthering diplomatic relations extremely difficult. Humiliation was perceived by both sides, and the Western world felt the Chinese were snubbing an outstretched hand of friendship.
As with the timeless conundrum of the chicken and the egg, it is difficult to say if the British created the huge demand in China for opium. There is no doubt that it was morally reprehensible, and quite illegal from China's point of view, to continue the drug trade with all the military might of the British Empire thrown behind it, and many believe without a supply the demand grows less. It was also shameless exploitation by the British which fueled the enormous growth of the problem. In a startling parallel to the modern war on drugs, there were Chinese officials in the early 1800s who suggested to the emperor that the way to combat the problem was to legalize it, thereby controlling trade and raising revenues. We know the outcome of the decision to eradicate the opium trade. It is interesting to conjecture what would have happened had those few officials been heeded.
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