4. Addiction to opium created a serious health crisis in China
When Lin arrived in Canton with a mandate to bring the trade to a stop it was following a series of Imperial orders which had been intended to end the illegal trade but failed. One for example, which forbade the unloading of ships in Chinese ports until they had been inspected by Imperial officials was circumvented by British traders through using ships as floating storage facilities. Anchored in open water, the trading ships would unload their cargo into the storage ships, from which the opium was sold directly to Chinese dealers. China’s weak navy was powerless to intervene with ships which flew the British flag.
In 1810 the Daoguang Emperor declared in an edict, “Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality”. For the next two decades, government attempts to control its use increased, and failed, in large part because the trade was too lucrative for the British (and Americans) to give up. It was also lucrative to the Chinese dealers in the drug, who moved it into the interior of China, where foreign traders were banned. By the time Lin arrived in Canton, the EIC had established a garrison of its troops in Macau, allegedly to protect British interests from French interference, and maintained armed ships on station as protection against piracy.