The research on which this article is based is part of a larger study. of the history of opium. I am grateful to the British Academy for financial support in the early stages of this work.

¹ The average annual export in the 1870s was 82,827 chests, the high point being 1879–1880 when 94,835 chests were exported.Google Scholar Royal Commission on Opium, Minutes of Evidence taken before the Royal Commission on Opium, II (London, 1894), p. 390.Google Scholar

² Greenberg, M., British Trade and the Opening of China (Cambridge, 1951), p. 104.Google Scholar

³ Government of India, Statistics compiled from the Finance and Revenue Accounts of the Government of India from 1st April 1898 to 31st March 1906 (Calcutta, 1907). p. 2. In 1896, import duty and local transit duty on foreign opium provided 19.82 per cent of all customs revenue in China;Google Scholar China, Imperial Maritime Customs, Returns of Trade and Trade Reports for the Year 1896, Part I (Shanghai, 1897), pp. 22–3.Google Scholar

⁴ Wright, M. C. (ed.), China in Revolution: The First Phase 1900–1913 (New Haven and London, 1968), Introduction by M. C. Wright, pp. 14–15;Google ScholarReins, T. D., ‘China and the International Politics of Opium, 1900–1937: The Impact of Reform, Revenue, and the Unequal Treaties’ (Ph.D. thesis, Claremont Graduate School, 1981), passim.Google Scholar

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⁶ Figures supplied by the Opium Agent, Benares, 3 July 1876, India, Sep.Rev.A, November 1877, 7; Note on the Opium Question by Oakden, R. and M. S. D. Butler, pp. 43–44, India, Sep.Rev.A, January 1910, 9.Google Scholar

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⁹ Berridge, V. and Edwards, G., Opium and the People: Opiate Use in Nineteenth-Century England (London, 1987), ch. 14;Google ScholarJohnson, B. D., ‘Righteousness before Revenue: The Forgotten Moral Crusade Against the Indo-Chinese Opium Trade’, Journal of Drug Issues, V (Fall, 1975), pp. 304–19.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Royal Commission on Opium, VI, Final Report (London, 1895), pp. 93–5.Google Scholar

¹¹ Reactions to the Royal Commission are examined in Lodwick, K. L., ‘Chinese, Missionary and International Efforts to End the Use of Opium in China 1890–1916’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Arizona, 1976).Google Scholar

¹² Israel, J., Progressivism and the Open Door: America and China, 1905–1921 (Pittsburgh, 1971);Google ScholarVarg, P. A., ‘The Myth of the China Market, 1890–1914’, American Historical Review, LXXIII, 3 (02 1968), pp. 742–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹³ Reins, ‘China and the International Politics of Opium’, passim.Google Scholar

¹⁴ International Opium Commission, Report of the International Opium Commission, Shanghai, China, February 1 to February 26, 1909, Vol. II,Google ScholarReports of the Delegations (Shanghai, 1909), p. 57;Google ScholarChina, Annual Report, 1907 by Jordan, J. N., 27 February 1908, p. 7, Great Britain, Foreign Office (hereafter FO) 405/178.Google Scholar

¹⁵ International Opium Commission, Report, pp. 46–7 and 49–50.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Cameron, M. E., The Reform Movement in China, 1898–1912 (Stanford, 1931), ch. VII;Google Scholar Wright, China in Revolution, Introduction; Rhoads, E. J. M., China's Republican Revolution: The Case of Kwangtung, 1895–1913 (Cambridge, Mass., 1975), passim;Google ScholarEsherick, J. W., Reform and Revolution in China: The 1911 Revolution in Hunan and Hubei (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1976), passim;Google ScholarDes Forges, R. V., Hsi-Liang and the Chinese National Revolution (New Haven and London, 1973), passim.Google Scholar

¹⁷ The number of addicts has been estimated by Spence, J. D., ‘Opium smoking in Ch'ing China’ in Wakeman, F. and Grant, C. (eds), Conflict and Control in Late Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1975).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Quoted in International Opium Commission, Report, p. 78.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Regulations Prohibiting Opium Smoking in ibid., pp. 79–82.

²⁰ Jordan to Sir E. Grey, 26 November 1906, Great Britain, House of Commons, China No. I (1908),Google ScholarCorrespondence respecting the Opium Question in China (London, 1908);Google ScholarJordan to Grey, 21 December 1906, FO 371/221. There was considerable duplication between the various collections of documents on opium, a fortunate circumstance for the historian, since no one collection survives complete. The Indian material is contained in the proceedings of the Separate Revenue Department of the Government of India and the files of the Revenue and Statistics Department of the India Office (hereafter R & S). The latter contain despatches from India, letters and reports forwarded from the Foreign Office and minutes by India Office officials. The most comprehensive collection on China is the series of files on opium from the British legation in Peking (FO 228, file 2415 et seq.). This includes correspondence to and from London and the Chinese government, reports from consuls in the Chinese provinces, press cuttings and other non-official materials. Much of this was copied for London, where it was placed on the Foreign Office correspondence files (FO 371), together with information from the India Office and minutes by Foreign Office officials. The most important letters, but not usually the supporting documentation, were published in the Foreign Office confidential print series (FO 405 and, from 1910, a special series on opium, FO 415).Google Scholar There is a facsimile edition of FO 415 entitled The Opium Trade 1910–1941, 6 vols (Wilmington, Delaware, 1974) (hereafter referred to as OT).Google ScholarA small selection of the same letters, sometimes with significant deletions, was published in a series of House of Commons papers, such as China No. 1 (1908).Google Scholar

²¹ Wright, China in Revolution, p. 14.Google Scholar

²² General Report on China for 1906 with Jordan to Grey, 1 June 1907, India, Sep. Rev.A, January 1908, 1.Google Scholar

²³ Wilson to F. H. Lucas, 6 January 1913, Wilson Papers, Mss. Eur. E.224/28.Google Scholar

²⁴ Minto to Morley, 19 september 1906, Morley Papers, Mss. Eur. D.573/9.Google Scholar

²⁵ Grey to Jordan, 31 August 1906, FO 371/35.Google Scholar

²⁶ Hansard, 4, 158, 505–15.Google Scholar

²⁷ Ibid., 513–14.

²⁸ Morley to Minto, 1 June 1906, Morley Papers, Mss. Eur. D.573/1.Google Scholar

²⁹ Morley to Minto, 29 June and 29 August 1906, Morley Papers, Mss. Eur. D.573/1.Google Scholar

³⁰ General Report on China for 1906, India, Sep.Rev.A, January 1908. 1.Google Scholar

³¹ Morley to Minto, 26 september 1906, Morley Papers, Mss. Eur. D.573/1.Google Scholar

³² Jordan to Grey, 30 November 1906, FO 228/2415.Google Scholar

³³ India Office to Foreign Office, 29 May 1907, China No. 1 (1908), p. 15; India Office minute [March 1907] and Grey to Jordan, 14 June 1907, R&S/7/577/705 of 1907.Google Scholar

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³⁵ Secretary of State to Viceroy, 13 July 1906, India, Sep.Rev.A, June 1906, 262; Secretary of State to Viceroy, 2 July 1907, India, Sep.Rev.A, July 1907, 276.Google Scholar

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³⁷ J. E. C. Jukes, Under Secretary, Finance Dept, India to Secretary, Separate Revenue Dept, United Provinces, 21 July 1911, India, Sep.Rev.A, July 1911, 506.Google Scholar

³⁸ Memorandum by Drake, F. C., 9 February 1914, R&S/7/777/1 of 1914.Google Scholar

³⁹ Lt.Col. Daly, H., Agent to Governor General, Central India to Secretary, Foreign Dept, India, 4 June 1908, India, Sep.Rev.A, January 1909, 59A; E. G. Colvin, Agent to Governor General, Rajputana to Secretary, Foreign Dept, India, 3 June 1908, India, Sep.Rev.A, January 1909, 59; Viceroy to Secretary of State, 17 October 1908, R&S/7/633/3160 of 1908.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Government of India to Secretary of State, 14 May 1908, R&S/7/573/279 of 1907.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Government of India to Secretary of State, 28 October 1909, India, Sep.Rev.A, January 1910, 10.Google Scholar

⁴² Minute by Holderness, T. W., 26 October 1908, R&S/7/633/3160 of 1908.Google Scholar

⁴³ Hardinge to Crewe, 13 December 1912, Hardinge Papers 118/55.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Memorandum respecting the Prohibition of Opium Smoking in China, January 1908, FO 405/179. Discussion of the Japanese attitude is in FO 371/414.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Memorandum respecting the Prohibition of Opium Smoking in China, January 1908, FO 405/179; May, F. H., Officer Administering the Government of Hong Kong to Earl of Elgin, 15 May 1907, FO 228/2418; Jordan to Grey, 23 June 1908, FO 371/414.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Memorandum on the opium movement in Shanghai with Warren, P. to Jordan, 18 July 1907 and 24 July 1907, FO 228/2417; North China Herald, 28 June 1907, pp. 749–50 and 768–71; D. Landale to P. Warren, 18 October 1907, FO 228/2420.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Grey to Jordan, 25 January 1908 and 17 March 1908, FO 371/414; Jordan to Warren, 1 August 1907, Jordan Papers, FO 350/4.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Shanghai Municipal Council, Report of the Annual and Special Meeting of Ratepayers, March 20, 1908 (Shanghai, 1908), FO 371/414.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Frazer to Jordan, 22 september 1914, R&S/7/777/1 of 1914.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Jordan to Grey, 5 June 1908, FO 371/414.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Ker, W. P. to Jordan, 24 July 1907, 1 August 1907 and Jordan to Grey, 6 August 1907, FO 228/2418.Google Scholar

⁵² Jordan to Grey, 21 December 1909, OT, I/I, p. 6.Google Scholar

⁵³ Muller to Grey, 24 June 1910, OT, I/II, pp. 21–5; Muller to Grey, 30 July 1910, OT, I/II, pp. 83–5; Jamieson to Muller, 4 August 1910 and 18 August 1910, FO 228/2432.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Mansfield, R. W. to Jordan, 7 October 1907, FO 228/2420.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Jamieson, to Muller, , 6 October 1910, OT, I/II, pp. 158–9.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Lugard to Harcourt, 14 November 1910, FO 228/2435.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ India Office to Foreign Office, 12 October 1910, OT, I/II, p. 109.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ See, for instance, Esherick, Reform and Revolution, pp. 113–17.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Morrison, G. E. to Edith, Blake, 9 08 1911, The Correspondence of G. E. Morrison, I (Cambridge, 1976), p. 615.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ See, for instance, discussions of the position of opiumin the Yunnan economy in Wilkinson, W. H. to Jordan, 14 August 1907, FO 228/2420; report by C. A. W. Rose, 9 June 1910, OT, I/II, pp. 28–34.Google Scholar

⁶¹ FO 228/2506–8.Google Scholar

⁶² Government of India to Secretary of State, 28 October 1909 and Morley to Government of India, 26 November 1909, R&S/7/654/2556 of 1909; India Office to Foreign Office, 6 April 1910 and Grey to Max Muller, 20 April 1910, OT, I/I, pp. 28–31.Google Scholar

⁶³ Muller to Grey, 29 september 1910, OT, I/II, p. 118 and Grey to Muller, 24 October 1910, OT, I/II, pp. 125–6. See also Sir Guy Wilson to F. H. Lucas, 6 January 1913, Wilson Papers, Mss. Eur. E.224/2B.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Memo by Wilson, 12 October 1910, Wilson Papers, Mss. Eur. E.224/13.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Morley to Minto, 23 March 1910 and 18 July 1910, Morley Papers, Mss, Eur. D.573/5.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Jordan to Grey, 12 October 1909 and Morley to Government of India, 26 November 1909, R&S/7/654/2556 of 1909;Google Scholar Government of India to Morley, , 28 10 1909 and 19 03 1910, OT, I/I, pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Memorandum from Muller, to Wai-wu, Pu, 30 07 1910, OT, I/II, p. 86.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Draft agreement of 1 11 1910 with Jordan, to Grey, , 6 12 1910, OT, I/II, pp. 181–2;Google ScholarViceroy to Secretary of State, 15 10 1910, R&S/7/766/4 of 1911;Google ScholarGrey, to Muller, , 24 10 1910, OT, I/II, pp. 125–6.Google Scholar The exchanges between the various parties are described in detail in Lim, M. J. B. C., ‘Britain and the Termination of the India–China Opium Trade, 1905–1913’ (Ph. D. thesis, University of London, 1969). It is difficult to accept Reins's view of these negotiations. He gives the impression that the British held the upper hand, but the opposite seems rather to have been the case, certainly from November onwards; ‘China and the International Politics of Opium’, pp. 69–77.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Fincher, J., ‘Provincialism and the National Revolution’ in Wright (ed.), China in Revolution, pp. 198–209; North China Herald, 7 10 1910, p. 43 and 14 10 1910, pp. 103–4;Google ScholarJordan, to Grey, , 6 12 1910, OT, I/II, p. 179.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Draft enclosed with Jordan, to Grey, , 27 02 1911, OT, I/III, pp. 75–7.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Jordan, to Grey, , 27 03 1911 and 25 04 1911, OT, I/III, pp. 104–9 and 148–57.Google Scholar

⁷² Jordan, to Alston, , 14 02 1911 and 8 03 1911, Jordan Papers, FO 350/7.Google ScholarHosie's, full report is in FO 228/2437 and a printed version in China, No. 1 (1911), Despatches from Sir A. Hosie forwarding Reports respecting the Opium Question in China (London, 1911), pp. 18–21.Google Scholar

⁷³ Viceroy to Secretary of State, 11 01 1911, R&S/7/766/4 of 1911.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Jordan, to Grey, , 4 01 1911, 27 03 1911, 7 and 25 04 1911, OT, I/III, pp. 17–18, 97, 104–9 and 148–57.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Government of India to Morley, , 17 03 1911, OT, I/III, p. 86;Google ScholarGrey, to Jordan, , 12 04 1911, Grey Papers FO 800/44.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ , G. B., Treaty Series, 1911, No. 13. Agreement between the United Kingdom and China relating to Opium (London, 1911).Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Jordan, to Grey, , 8 05 1911, OT, I/III, p. 167.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Jordan, to Grey, , 23 01 1911, OT, I/III, pp. 19–20.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Ibid., pp. 41–2.

⁸⁰ Jordan, to Grey, , 17 02 1911, OT, I/III, p. 45; minute (undated) in R&S/7/767/4810 of 1913.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Jordan, to Grey, , 27 03 1911 and 25 04, OT, I/III, pp. 104–9 and 148–57;Google ScholarViceroy to Secretary of State, 26 04 1911, R&S/7/766/4 of 1911; memorandum by Holderness, T. W., 11 07 1912, R&S/7/769/4815 of 1913.Google Scholar

⁸² Campbell, to Jordan, , 26 04 1911, Jordan Papers, FO 350/1.Google Scholar

⁸³ Campbell, to Jordan, , 13 05 1911, Jordan Papers, FO 350/1.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Jordan, to Campbell, , 15 05 1911, Jordan Papers, FO 350/7.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Hardinge, to Morley, , 4 and 18 05 1911, Hardinge Papers, 117/34 and 37.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Jordan, to Ch'ing, Prince, 7 09 1911, OT, I/IV, pp. 62–4.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Petigura, D. J. to Werner, E. T. C., 15 06 1911, OT, I/IV, p. 13.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Jordan, to Grey, , 29 05 1911, R&S/7/769/4815 of 1913.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Jordan, to Wai-chiao, Pu, 31 05 1912, OT, 2/V, pp. 169–70.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Jordan, to Grey, , 4 02 1913 and 4 06 1913, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913;Google ScholarJordan, to Grey, , 11 06 1913, R&S/7/772/4822 of 1913.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Memorandum by Holderness, T. W., 11 07 1912, R&S/7/769/4815 of 1913.Google Scholar

⁹² Siffert, D., senior foreign consul in Shanghai, and eleven banks to foreign ministers at Peking, 15 06 1912, R&S/7/769/4815 of 1913; Fraser to Jordan, 7 06 1912, FO 228/2448. Protests came mainly from the smaller banks and importers; Fraser (the British consul in Shanghai) thought that the Sassoon companies and the Hong Kong and Shangai Bank were large enough to weather the storm. Details of bank loans are in an undated memorandum in FO 228/2449.Google Scholar

⁹³ Government of India to Crewe, , 6 and 14 06 1912, OT, 2/V, pp. 154–6.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Wilson, to Lady, Hardinge, 12 06 1912, Wilson Papers, Mss. Eur. E.224/7.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Grey, to Jordan, , 17 06 1912, OT, 2/V, p. 152.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Hardinge, to Crewe, , 15 08 1912, Hardinge Papers, 118/39.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Memo by Drake, F. C., 2 03 1914, R&S/7/777/1 of 1914.Google Scholar

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⁹⁹ Memo by Drake, F. C., 28 04 1913, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913; Viceroy to Secretary of State, 10 02 1913, India, Sep.Rev.A, 03 1913, 194. The Government's receipts may be compared with Rs. 34 million in 1907–1908, the first fiscal year to be affected by the Anglo-Chinese agreements.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Jordan, to Grey, , 30 12 1912, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913. Among the violations of the treaty was a notorious incident at Anking, the capital of Anhwei province, where the Governor burnt seven cases of opium belonging to E. D. Sassoon and Fraser was sent from Shanghai in a British gunboat to investigate. Historians have found it impossible to resist the conclusion that this was a final Palmerstonian flourish, an echo of the opium war of 1839–42Google Scholar (Wright, , China in Revolution, p. 15). The truth is less sensational. Anxiety was expressed in London about Fraser's choice of conveyance and Grey ordered that the action should be strictly limited to one of enquiryGoogle Scholar (Grey, to Jordan, , 28 09 1912, and other letters in R&S/7/769/4815 of 1913).Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Viceroy to Secretary of State, 30 12 1912, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Viceroy to Secretary of State, 4 01 1913, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Jordan, to Grey, , 3 12 1913, India, Sep.Rev.A, 04 1914, 57; Fraser to Jordan, 8 11 1918, FO 671/452.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Jordan, to Grey, , 25 02 1913, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913; Jordan to Grey, 16 and 21 01 1914, R&S/7/777/1 of 1914.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ Viceroy to Secretary of State, 10 02 1913, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁶ Jordan, to Grey, , 3 01 1914, OT, 3/VIII, p. 8.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Ibid.

¹⁰⁸ Minutes in FO 371/1924; Foreign Office to India Office, 6 02 1914, R&S/7/777/1 of 1914.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Hardinge, to Crewe, , 29 01 1914, Hardinge Papers, 120/5.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ Hardinge, to Crewe, , 5 02 and 4 03 1914, Hardinge Papers, 120/6 and 9.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Crewe, to Hardinge, , 20 02 1914, Hardinge Papers, 120/7.Google Scholar

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¹¹³ Foreign Office to India Office, 20 04 1914, R&S/7/777/1 of 1914.Google Scholar

¹¹⁴ Grey, to Muller, , 30 07 1910, OT, I/II, p. 51.Google Scholar

¹¹⁵ This was the Government of India's assessment; see Viceroy to Secretary of State, 30 12 1912, R&S/7/771/4821 of 1913 and India Office minute on Jordan, to Grey, , 3 01 1914, loc.cit. For examples see the closure of ManchuriaGoogle Scholar (Jordan, to Grey, , 2 09 1911, OT, 1/IV, p. 41) and FukienGoogle Scholar (Jordan, to Grey, , 20 04 1914, OT, 3/VIII, pp. 65–6). After the repatriation controversy the closure of Fukien was much criticized in India.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Wilson, to Lucas, , 6 01 1913, Wilson Papers Mss. Eur. E.224/28.Google Scholar