REVOLUSI CINA/TIONGKOK (Mungkin 2024)
Perdagangan candu, dalam sejarah China, lalu lintas yang berkembang pada abad ke-18 dan ke-19 di mana negara-negara Barat, kebanyakannya Great Britain, mengeksport candu yang ditanam di India dan menjualnya ke China. British menggunakan keuntungan dari penjualan candu untuk membeli barang-barang mewah Cina seperti porselin, sutera, dan teh, yang sangat diminati di Barat.
Candu pertama kali diperkenalkan ke China oleh pedagang Turki dan Arab pada akhir abad ke-6 atau awal abad ke-7. Diambil secara lisan untuk menghilangkan ketegangan dan kesakitan, ubat ini digunakan dalam jumlah terhad sehingga abad ke-17. Pada ketika itu, amalan merokok tembakau merebak dari Amerika Utara ke China, dan merokok candu segera menjadi popular di seluruh negara. Ketagihan candu meningkat, dan import candu berkembang pesat pada abad pertama dinasti Qing (1644–1911 / 12). Menjelang tahun 1729, telah menjadi masalah sehingga maharaja Yongzheng (memerintah 1722–35) melarang penjualan dan merokok candu. Itu gagal menghambat perdagangan, dan pada tahun 1796 maharaja Jiaqing melarang pengimportan dan penanaman candu. Walaupun terdapat keputusan seperti itu, perdagangan candu terus berkembang.
Pada awal abad ke-18 Portugis mendapati bahawa mereka dapat mengimport candu dari India dan menjualnya di China dengan keuntungan yang besar. Menjelang tahun 1773, British telah menemui perdagangan tersebut, dan pada tahun itu mereka menjadi pembekal utama pasaran China. Syarikat Hindia Timur Inggeris mewujudkan monopoli penanaman candu di wilayah Bengal di India, di mana mereka mengembangkan kaedah penanaman opium dengan harga murah dan banyak. Negara-negara Barat lain juga bergabung dalam perdagangan, termasuk Amerika Syarikat, yang berurusan dengan candu Turki dan India.
Britain dan negara-negara Eropah yang lain melakukan perdagangan candu kerana ketidakseimbangan perdagangan kronik mereka dengan China. Terdapat permintaan yang luar biasa di Eropa untuk teh Cina, sutera, dan tembikar porselin, tetapi ada sedikit permintaan di China untuk barang-barang buatan Eropah dan barang-barang perdagangan lain. Akibatnya, orang Eropah terpaksa membayar produk Cina dengan emas atau perak. Perdagangan candu, yang mewujudkan permintaan yang tetap di kalangan penagih Cina untuk candu yang diimport oleh Barat, menyelesaikan ketidakseimbangan perdagangan kronik ini.
The East India Company did not carry the opium itself but, because of the Chinese ban, farmed it out to “country traders”—i.e., private traders who were licensed by the company to take goods from India to China. The country traders sold the opium to smugglers along the Chinese coast. The gold and silver the traders received from those sales were then turned over to the East India Company. In China the company used the gold and silver it received to purchase goods that could be sold profitably in England.
The amount of opium imported into China increased from about 200 chests annually in 1729 to roughly 1,000 chests in 1767 and then to about 10,000 per year between 1820 and 1830. The weight of each chest varied somewhat—depending on point of origin—but averaged approximately 140 pounds (63.5 kg). By 1838 the amount had grown to some 40,000 chests imported into China annually. The balance of payments for the first time began to run against China and in favour of Britain.
Meanwhile, a network of opium distribution had formed throughout China, often with the connivance of corrupt officials. Levels of opium addiction grew so high that it began to affect the imperial troops and the official classes. The efforts of the Qing dynasty to enforce the opium restrictions resulted in two armed conflicts between China and the West, known as the Opium Wars, both of which China lost and which resulted in various measures that contributed to the decline of the Qing. The first war, between Britain and China (1839–42), did not legalize the trade, but it did halt Chinese efforts to stop it. In the second Opium War (1856–60)—fought between a British-French alliance and China—the Chinese government was forced to legalize the trade, though it did levy a small import tax on opium. By that time opium imports to China had reached 50,000 to 60,000 chests a year, and they continued to increase for the next three decades.
By 1906, however, the importance of opium in the West’s trade with China had declined, and the Qing government was able to begin to regulate the importation and consumption of the drug. In 1907 China signed the Ten Years’ Agreement with India, whereby China agreed to forbid native cultivation and consumption of opium on the understanding that the export of Indian opium would decline in proportion and cease completely in 10 years. The trade was thus almost completely stopped by 1917.
Opium smoking and addiction remained a problem in China during the subsequent decades, however, since the weakened central republican government could not wipe out the native cultivation of opium. Opium smoking was finally eradicated by the Chinese communists after they came to power in 1949.
