The opium trade in China is described thoroughly and accurately in this book by Samuel Merwin, a reporter for "Success Magazine". The current edition is a re-publication of the book published in 1908. The book provides an American perspective on the decades-old trend of opium smoking. This habit was shared by all classes in China. The opium supply was profitable to British merchants but also, Merwin notes, the Chinese government administrators and street-level sellers. The history can be seen in one way, as a great wrong imposed on China. There were efforts on multiple occasions of Chinese reformers, good government supporters. There may have been some American missionaries who also opposed opium use. The poverty caused by this drug was a factor in the "Boxer Rebellion" and anti-foreigner sentiment. Chinese nationalism and reform movement converged in the overthrow of the last imperial dynasty, the Qing, and the establishment of the early 1900s Republic of China.
On looking through the book the details and portraits of working class life and middle class life are very interesting and revealing. There was extensive poverty and, while heroin, a purified form of opium, is extremely harmful, the Chinese managed to use the form of opium closer to the natural product and this, incidentally, allowed some aspect of the opium to serve as a pain treatment and sedative and their users lives were extended. In the US, the FDA could regulate opiate drugs to be of a very low-dose level, like an enhanced ibuprofen, and this may hold some promise in reducing the shift many people make from using prescription opioids to street heroin. Some people will always alter legal drugs in the US but a form that can be taken like methadone or suboxone should in many instances be the first and only prescription opioid.
We can learn great lessons from history like this one about late Imperial China. The grandeur of modern American life -- something we take for granted -- as well as universal experiences that are shared with other societies, and the increasing incidence of tragedies, are set in a larger perspective when we can understand the backbreaking toil, poverty, and exclusiveness of upper class life in other societies.
One lesson from China's drug problem is that the sufferings and poverty of the middle class and peasants never brought about a reform of their laws or trade but, with a change in government and leadership, the Chinese people broke with history entered into new and distinct forms of society.
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Top reviews from other countries
Simon
An incredible tale of Britain's hypocrisy...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 22, 2017Amazon Customer
Well written although limited in scope
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 27, 2013