>that has enormous and predictable negative effects for someone else and a comparatively tiny positive effect for themselves,
[italics mine] How much did the British know about the addictive effects of opium? This seems like a rather crucial part of the story. Several decades after the Opium War, opium became popular in Europe and led to various social maladies, which culminated in its ban and the initiation of the drug wars. It seems to me that if the British had really known how destructive opium is, they would have banned it at home during the war.
>The opium trade incurred intense enmity from the later British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.[65] As a member of Parliament, Gladstone called it "most infamous and atrocious" referring to the opium trade between China and British India in particular.[66] Gladstone was fiercely against both of the Opium Wars Britain waged in China in the First Opium War initiated in 1840 and the Second Opium War initiated in 1857, denounced British violence against Chinese, and was ardently opposed to the British trade in opium to China.[67] Gladstone lambasted it as "Palmerston's Opium War" and said that he felt "in dread of the judgments of God upon England for our national iniquity towards China" in May 1840.[68] A famous speech was made by Gladstone in Parliament against the First Opium War.[69][70] Gladstone criticized it as "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace".[71] His hostility to opium stemmed from the effects of opium brought upon his sister Helen.[72] Due to the First Opium war brought on by Palmerston, there was initial reluctance to join the government of Peel on part of Gladstone before 1841.
It's easy in hindsight to suggest that the British should have listened to Mr. Gladstone, but who can say for themselves that they certainly would have, in a time and place when almost nobody knew anything about opium?
[italics mine] How much did the British know about the addictive effects of opium? This seems like a rather crucial part of the story. Several decades after the Opium War, opium became popular in Europe and led to various social maladies, which culminated in its ban and the initiation of the drug wars. It seems to me that if the British had really known how destructive opium is, they would have banned it at home during the war.
>The opium trade incurred intense enmity from the later British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.[65] As a member of Parliament, Gladstone called it "most infamous and atrocious" referring to the opium trade between China and British India in particular.[66] Gladstone was fiercely against both of the Opium Wars Britain waged in China in the First Opium War initiated in 1840 and the Second Opium War initiated in 1857, denounced British violence against Chinese, and was ardently opposed to the British trade in opium to China.[67] Gladstone lambasted it as "Palmerston's Opium War" and said that he felt "in dread of the judgments of God upon England for our national iniquity towards China" in May 1840.[68] A famous speech was made by Gladstone in Parliament against the First Opium War.[69][70] Gladstone criticized it as "a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace".[71] His hostility to opium stemmed from the effects of opium brought upon his sister Helen.[72] Due to the First Opium war brought on by Palmerston, there was initial reluctance to join the government of Peel on part of Gladstone before 1841.
It's easy in hindsight to suggest that the British should have listened to Mr. Gladstone, but who can say for themselves that they certainly would have, in a time and place when almost nobody knew anything about opium?