The Relationship between Narcotics in China, Colonial Empires and the League Of Nations - Term Paper Example

Topic: Explain the relationship between narcotics in China, colonial empires and the League of Nations. Background Introduction Narcotics trade was legally operated worldwide during the 18th and 19th century. Opium had become a primary commodity in international trade during the second half of the 19th century. The Asian opium zone had expanded from Balkans to Manchuria with increase in its farming and consumption. One big reason of its increased production was acceptance given to its use in medicines by the pharmaceutical industry, resulting in its mass abuse in Western Europe, the Americas and Australia. Narcotics provided some genuine therapeutic remedies in gastrointestinal diseases, which became an epidemic in some cities of United States and United Kingdom. Pharmaceutical companies like Bayer and Parke-Davis propagated the use of opiates. The American Medical Association endorsed the new drugs to cure respiratory diseases. Changed dietary habits also promoted the use of narcotics based medicines for relaxation. Consumption of opium increased many times in America and England (McCoy, 2003). China and Narcotics and Colonial Empires China became the centre-stage of narcotics production due to worldwide use of opiates and legalisation of its production. With the end of the Second Opium War in 1858 fought by the British Empire and the second French empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, cultivation of opium expanded to all provinces of China. Some of the Chinese cities like Szechwan and Yunnan were producing record opium equaling 54% of the total opium produced in China (McCoy, 2003). Colonial empires of Europe felt deficiency of finance to support public works; therefore they set up opium farms and put them on lease with the overseas Chinese merchants. China’s state policy and demand and supply factors contributed in the increase of opium trade and enhanced the authority and control of European empires. Narcotics’ demand also increased with the Chinese migration to Southeast Asia as labourers working in opiate farms also fueled the demand after getting employment in leased farms. Thus, opium franchises in Southeast Asia were a reason of the rise of China as overseas capital (McCoy, 2003). In the second half of 19th century franchises turned into state-permitted opium dens. Earlier, the colonial empires had not gone beyond importing opium from India and accepting bids for the opium farms or franchises, mostly a consortium of Chinese merchants but in 1881 the French empire formed the Opium Regie in Saigon, the capital of French Indo China, which paved the way to capture the market and earning of huge profits. The whole of Southeast Asia came under the monopolistic control or state-licensed franchise by the end of the century (McCoy, 2003). The Dutch empire expanded on Java also had huge commercial stakes in the illicit traffic of opium. The Dutch East India Company imported huge quantities of opium, which went on increasing till the end of 19th century to 208 tons. The Dutch had retail monopoly of the drug trade two centuries before the other European empires; therefore they had huge number of Javanese smokers as their clients. Expansion of opium dens was in the interest of its financial stakeholders, the colonial empires, as it was a big source of their income. For example in 1905-06, the French Indo-China earned 16% taxes from the sale of opium; Netherland earned 16% from Indies, 20% from Siam and 53% from British Malaya (McCoy, 2003). Fearing that smuggling of narcotics by the tribal highlands would decrease the opium price, the monopolies of colonial empires tried their maximum to not allow local production although they were not successful in it as cultivation had started in the highlands before the Second World War. The peak time of opium production was in 1907 at 41,624 tons. China started low in opium cultivation in 1840s but by 1906-07, it grew 35,000 tons of raw opium which was 85% of the total opium supply worldwide. Consumption also increased drastically in China from 3 million opium smokers in 1830 to 13.5 million in 1906 (McCoy, 2003). Analysis of the Trends within Epoch: The period from 1858 to 1907 was ruled by colonial empires. During this period, Britain, a monopolist of the opium trade under mercantilism got bereft of its monopoly of the drug trade with its becoming a free-market commodity. With the restrictions lifted, opium gained new markets in the West. The European colonial empires established monopolies in the production of opium to increase their tax revenues and profits in 1880s and 1890s letting the continuation of the restrictive mercantilism. Although some restrictions remained on cultivation by farmers but with the opium becoming a free commodity, its international business has expanded worldwide due to its requirement in the pharmaceutical industry (McCoy, 2003). Role of League of Nations Under the aegis of League of Nations, efforts were made through the Shanghai Opium Commission in 1909 and the International Opium Conference in Hague in 1911-12. These were followed by a number of opium control pacts under the League of Nations in 1925 (McCoy, 2003). A Christian movement started in the second half of 19th century against the production of opium. With diplomacy and propaganda, it turned into a popular movement working for the prohibition of the drug to stop drug abuse by the Protestant clergy and laity. It resulted in a number of treaties limiting the worldwide expansion of narcotics trade. The movement started by the Christian missionaries had the most enduring legacy of using force and government control to punish the law breakers. State interference in the stronghold of drug mafia still holds a place in political history. As the movement gathered momentum and became powerful but by then narcotics had become an international commodity that harmed the Chinese society, as a quarter of its adult males became habitual of drug consumption and opium had become a staple of China’s consumer economy (McCoy, 2003). Parallel to the movement for the prohibition of narcotics trade by the missionaries marching towards the total prohibition of the drug, new criminal syndicates came forth to replace the practice of licensed dens or patent medicine sales through illicit trafficking of narcotic. The movement started initially was a loose alliance among the British Protestants, China’s missionaries and the Chinese colonial officials. The movement was formed in 1874 under the banner of the Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of Opium Trade. The Archbishop of Canterbury also became a supporter of the movement very soon. The movement got success after struggling for continuous 30 years when the British parliament passed mandates resulting in an agreement between the Chinese and British diplomats to reduce cultivation of the drug. By the time Britain stopped its support of the drug trade, the production of opium in China had reached to the extent of 85% of the total production worldwide as stated above (McCoy, 2003). Narcotics suppression campaign dwindled in the face of taking command in China by the new Republican government after the revolution of 1911. Due to corruption, cultivation started again replacing opium use with heroin and morphine pills by the opium syndicate. Finally in 1919, the last chest of opium was burnt in Shanghai. With the League of Nations organising the Geneva Conference in 1925, it initiated new discussions on drug diplomacy by following the hard line of compulsory global sanctions in stead of voluntary national laws. Colonial empires inhibited the efforts made by League of Nations; as a result it took the flexible route of entering into global pacts that created a slow impact on the governments’ right to traffic in drugs. Results became visible in 1934 when drugs production decreased by 82% in total opium supply from 42,000 tons in 1906 to 16,000 tons in 1934 (McCoy, 2003). Positive action by the Southeast Asian states also reduced opium sales in the next 15 years after World War 1 without doing away with monopolies, for example, Netherland Indies reduced consumption by 88%, from 127 tons to 15 tons. But it was not an easy task to totally stop cultivation of narcotics going on uninterrupted during the colonial rule spanning 300 years. With the government ban on its cultivation, smugglers and dealers entered the cultivation market to reap the benefits by supplying the drug illegally. It was not possible to close the mountain borders by Mainland, Thailand and Indochina to the ongoing caravan trade from Yunnan and Burma. With high stakes in the business of narcotics, Bangkok and Saigon markets of opium prompted the caravans from the opium hills towards South with the continued supplies of narcotics (McCoy, 2003). Republican China’s efforts at banning opium were countered with more production and consumption. With the reduction in British imports and Chinese ban on the cultivation of opium emerged negative developments like increase in the cultivation of the drug, preference to imported heroin over local opium for self consumption by the addicts and consolidation at a central place of criminal operations over the illegal trade of opiates. Important thing was the rebounding of the international opium trade, which China has observed before the Second World War; any attempt at banning the trade failed. Demand for illicit morphine and opium increased with the attempted prohibition by the Chinese government. With the production of opium declining in Szechwan, Shanghai’s licensed consortiums like the popular Green Gang started import of heroin and morphine from Europe. Attempts at eradication further stimulated the expansion of narcotics cultivation in other states and encouraged the smuggling of opiates into China. Smuggling of narcotics in a major way was made possible by Japanese traders during 1911 and 1915. To meet the rising domestic consumption of the opiates the consortium of Shanghai traders were importing to the tune of 10.25 tons of heroin by the year 1923 from Japan and Europe. Later the criminal gangs entered into the business of growing and distribution of heroin in stead of importing by the late 1920s. Thus, growth in the business of narcotics in northeast China was a market response to banning the cultivation and business at both global and local platforms (McCoy, 2003). After the League’s attempts at prohibition of the opiates trade in 1925, Shanghai had become a big den of illicit heroin. China started export of the banned substance in a big way, contributing to the US local drug market supplies. The League of Nations banned the manufacture of heroin in Europe in 1931 and after three years a sudden shift in the narcotics business was seen from Europe to the East. In 1928, the Geneva Convention took place to prohibit European export of heroin, Europe’s criminal businessmen shifted their business centre to Istanbul first and then to Turkey, which produced 845 tons of opium in 1928 and manufactured 13.2 ton of heroin and morphine in 1932. As environment in Turkey was not congenial to fulfill the needs of Asian drug supplies, major drug dealers like Eliopolos brothers changed their destination to Shanghai and Tientsin in the first half of 1930s. Such a remark was made by the U.S. Treasury Attaché in 1934 in his report to Washington that earlier associates of the drug trade had migrated to China. The Jewish consortiums working from New York under the leadership of Yasha Katzenberg and Louis Lepke Buchalter sent associates to buy heroin via European dealers based in Shanghai. By and by, Shanghai attracted the trade leaders from different corners of the world to transform it into a den of opium producers, dealers and exporters (McCoy, 2003). At the same time a new development happened when the city’s Green Gang leader Tu Yueh-sheng became a prominent name and established contacts with the Nationalist government so that the business of narcotics might run without any government interference due to anti-opium campaign of 1930s. Yangtze River opium trade had become centre of China’s drug traffic with the presence of Tu’s cartel in the area. The volume of annual harvests in the Southwestern highlands passing from the major river ports from downriver to Shanghai from Szechwan touched to 18,000 tons and from Yunnan 10,000 tons. The Special Tax Bureau gathered $20 billion in opium transit fees at Hankow city (McCoy, 2003). Connivance of the Green Gang leader with the head of the government’s Opium Suppression Bureau and League of Nations efforts worldwide to ban the cultivation and business of narcotics and the Chinese government prohibitory efforts helped in the expansion of the illicit trade of narcotics. With the League passing regulations so that heroin didn’t reach in the hands of criminals from the legally operating laboratories, Shanghai Green Gang became a reckoning force in the Asian heroin producing consortiums. Causality underlying above changes Within a span of two centuries, China became exporter of heroin from importer of opium. It happened due to internationalisation of the commodity, authoritative prohibition by running a chain of campaigns against opiates and an understanding between the drug mafia and intelligence services of China. Impacts of the changes: --Opium production came down from 41,624 tons in 1907 to about 16,653 in 1934 on global platform. --Authorised production of heroin also declined roughly from20, 000lbs. in 1926 to only 2,200lbs. in 1931 globally. Impact on Opium Cultivation by Area: Worldwide opium cultivation saw a downfall during the period stated above but within the Asian opium zone no changes were observed; production was almost same. Impact on the quantity of Opium Consumption by Area: --In China, no changes on the down side were observed in the addiction level of the people in general other than a shift towards consumption of heroin to opium smoking during 1896 to 1924. In the United States comparatively, the trends were quite visible on the down side, declining opium consumption from 313,000 to roughly 200,000 during the same period. Summary Analysis of Trends within Epoch: Anti-Opium Movement: The Protestant Church of England and America played a crucial role in discouraging the cultivation and business of Opium in the 19th century. Momentum to the movement was added due to the influence of Chinese missionaries who felt disheartened by the volume of European drug trade and their aversion against the over-consumption of narcotics. Trade in Narcotics became a reflection of the Christian war against evil fought with the political motive of its total eradication. Over-indulgence in narcotics paved the way for Harrison Narcotics Act 1914 in America under the laissez-faire principles of 19th century social customs. Prohibition of Narcotics Mixed results were observed worldwide on the banning actions. In China, prohibitory efforts produced results that encouraged planned and structured criminality in the cultivation, production and import-export of Narcotics. In colonies like India where British power was exemplary, prohibition was more effective. In the West, effective government machinery impacted social behavior, which helped in the reduction of opium consumption when ban was made mandatory by the governments (McCoy, 2003). In the 1920s, the legal opium trade led the way to transnational criminal trade with Chinese drug mafia working towards expansion of crime in narcotics trade. One distinct feature of prohibition was increase in organised crime that made prohibition ineffective, driving and pushing the consumption and production of opiates. Criminalisation of the opium business and extra-ordinary returns in the trade of opium helped in sustaining the Chinese mafia. Despite all contrary circumstances, the League of Nations succeeded in its attempts in reducing the total consumption and production of narcotics by applying limits on drug trafficking by the states. Colonial empires had already receded back their support under the impact of Protestant Church. Reference Book McCoy, Alfred W 2010. Opium: Opium History, 1858 To 1940, from Bayer to Organized Crime. Available from http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/opi010.htm [Accessed 19 February 2010]. Read More