with China merely in order to guarantee its right to sell opium there. The Opium wars were begun in 1839. Like the Boston Tea Party that would later occur in the American Colonies, Chinese seized control of opium warehouses in Guangzhou or modern day Canton. The Chinese government up until this point was pursuing a course of diminishing the opium trade, while the British desired the opposite “Opium sales had risen gradually from 2,330 chests in 1788 to 4,968 chests in 1810. Once the British got a monopoly, they forced it up to 17,257 chests in 1835, worth millions of British pounds” (Thomas 1-2). The Chinese government was opposed to the spread of Opium. They basically viewed British efforts as commercial efforts, regardless of how poisonous its product may have been to Chinese users. When it came to its own people, the Chinese government executed those convicted of selling opium for profit. However, the British did not view it as an offense but as a virtual gold-mine. In his now famous Letter of Advice to Queen Victori
...