Chapter 10 Erlin Zexu's Anti-smoking Activities and Comments

From the day when Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, dating back to the first anti-smoking decree in 1729, the Qing government has banned smoking for 110 years, and its focus is all in Guangzhou and Haikou.Arresting cigarette dealers, closing "kiln entrances" and driving out barges have become commonplace, and the results are getting less and less effective.What's more, before Lin's arrival, Deng Tingzhen, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, had carried out a vigorous and vigorous anti-smoking campaign under the strict order of Emperor Daoguang. Although he had achieved considerable results, he failed to achieve his goal.Therefore, for Lin Zexu, if he wanted to fulfill the mission of eradicating the source entrusted by Emperor Daoguang, he could no longer use ordinary methods, but had to take extraordinary ways.

Lin Zexu's anti-smoking activities in Guangdong can be divided into two aspects, one is aimed at Chinese people, and the other is aimed at foreigners. As far as the first aspect is concerned, shortly after Lin Zexu took office, he issued a series of announcements.Examining the documents reveals a level of meticulousness and determination, but overall, nothing terribly new.In fact, he was not very enthusiastic about this. In the first few months after he took office, Deng Tingzhen, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Yiliang, the governor of Guangdong, were still in charge of the anti-smoking activities against the Chinese.

From about May 1839, that is, when Lin Zexu had won the anti-smoking campaign against foreigners, he took over the anti-smoking campaign against Chinese people when he had a little free time.According to his six memorials, from May 13, 1839 to June 28, 1840, a total of 890 cigarette cases were seized, 1,432 criminals were arrested, 99,260 taels of tobacco soil, 2,944 taels of tobacco paste were seized, and 2,065 taels of bongs were confiscated. 205 rods and smoke pots; 98,400 taels of tobacco soil, 709 taels of tobacco cream, 16,659 bongs, and 367 smoke pots were also seized or first handed over by the people.If we only look at the amount of opium, smoke, soil and smoke paste, Lin Zexu's achievements in this year are more than 200,000 taels.

Although the achievements are not small, compared with his actual achievements in Hubei, they are already ten times, but compared with Deng Tingzhen's work before him, they are not significant.From the spring of 1837 to May 12, 1839, Deng Tingzhen seized a total of 461,000 taels of smoked soil and tobacco paste, and 174,000 taels of tobacco paste and smoked soil were first handed over by the people themselves. Deng Tingzhen and Lin Zexu have obtained a total of 835,000 taels in more than three years, which is not easy. They have created a historical record and are the most in the country.Under the circumstances of the time when the officials were idle and the soldiers were playing games, they were able to achieve such extraordinary achievements, which fully reflected that Deng and Lin had tried their best in terms of effort, intelligence and ability.However, if compared with the 81,000 boxes of opium smuggled into China during this period, it is less than one percent.

The harsh facts show that if the Qing government always emphasized the old method of cracking down on Chinese people's sales activities to ban smoking, under the circumstances at that time, it would be impossible to succeed anyway. Lin Zexu succeeded because he adopted new methods in his anti-smoking campaign against foreigners. On March 18, 1839, eight days after Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, he summoned merchants and issued a strict edict ordering them to order foreign merchants to surrender opium.At this time, Lin Zexu did not go directly to foreigners, but to seek businessmen to settle accounts, which was the result of the trade system implemented by the Qing government at that time.

According to the regulations of the Qing government, foreign businessmen who came to Guangzhou were only allowed to do business with hong merchants designated by the Qing government, and were not allowed to find other trading partners or deal with Qing government officials.The purpose of this regulation is to cut off the channels for foreigners to communicate with ordinary Chinese, so as to prevent "connecting with foreign countries";Undoubtedly, this kind of monopoly trade preference made the hong merchants rich and became the wealthiest group in China at that time; (including fees) and character guarantee, you can get a red card to enter Guangzhou.And once foreign businessmen evaded taxes or misbehaved, the Qing government only asked questions about business.

Since 1816, the merchants have issued a guarantee that every foreign ship imported will never carry opium.This is obviously a lie.Lin Zexu first attacked the merchants, just in accordance with the practice of the Qing government.He ordered the merchants to tell the foreign merchants to surrender all the tens of thousands of boxes of opium stored on the barge within three days, and sign a willing contract, declaring that opium will be carried in the future. That is, there is no official."At the same time, he also issued his decrees to merchants from all over the world. On this day, according to Lin Zexu's deployment, the Guangdong Customs suspended the red cards issued to foreign businessmen to leave Guangzhou, and some soldiers also secretly patrolled near the commercial houses where foreign businessmen lived, secretly guarding against maintenance.

Three days passed.Foreign businessmen did not comply.They have become accustomed to the Guangdong authorities' loud threats and little intimidation, and they feel that this is just a variation of asking for bribes, and they don't take it seriously.But Lin Zexu pressed on step by step, never letting go, and gradually shifted his spearhead from targeting merchants to targeting foreign businessmen. On March 21, Lin Zexu sent an order through the merchants that he would go to the merchants' club the next day and execute one or two merchants.As a result, foreign businessmen agreed to hand over 1037 boxes of opium.

On March 22, Lin Zexu ordered the large opium merchant Lancelot Dent to be summoned, but failed. On March 24, Lin Zexu made the greatest determination and made the final decision: 1. Suspend all Sino-foreign transactions.2. Block the commercial hall, evacuate the servants, and cut off the supply.In other words, Lin Zexu turned the 66,000-square-meter business district located in the southwest corner of Guangzhou into a large detention center, and locked up about 350 foreign businessmen in it. The days of confinement will naturally not be too easy.Elliot, the British chief commercial officer in China who ventured into the business hall, surrendered three days later.In the name of the British government, he advised British businessmen to hand over opium to him, and then he handed it over to the Chinese government. On March 28, Elliot "respectfully reported to the imperial envoy", saying that he "followed the special order of the imperial envoy" and handed in 20,283 boxes of opium!

After Lin Zexu got the news, he resumed the supply to the commercial area on the 29th. On April 12, when Lin Zexu received the first batch of opium, he allowed the servants to return to work in the commercial area. On May 2, when Lin Zexu determined that the tobacco payment work could be completed as scheduled, he lifted the blockade on the commercial hall, and all foreigners were allowed to leave Guangzhou except for 16 major opium merchants including Diandi. On May 22, when the work of collecting cigarettes was over, Lin Zexu asked the 16 detained opium merchants to pledge that they would not come to China in the future. Under Elliot's proposal, Diandi and others all pledged. On May 24, Elliot and the last batch of foreign businessmen left Guangzhou.

On June 3, 1839, according to the order of Emperor Daoguang, Lin Zexu destroyed a total of 19,176 boxes and 2,119 bags of opium in Humen, with an actual weight of 2.37 million catties.This figure accounted for about 60% of the total opium shipped to China during the 1838-1839 monsoon season. Regarding Lin Zexu's method of banning smoking against foreigners, some commentators said that he acted too hastily and radically, and said that he should be responsible for the subsequent war.I don't think it's fair to say that.Let's see how the less drastic methods work. In 1836, in order to oppose Xu Naiji's theory of relaxing the ban, Xu Qiu submitted a memorial advocating strict ban.One of the paragraphs mentioned foreign opium merchants, named Diandi, William Jardine and other 9 people, and suggested countermeasures: put these 9 people in "Chana detention" and order them to regularly transfer the opium that was parked outside Humen The barge sailed home, and then brought the letter to the King of England.This method is similar to Lin Zexu's later practice.The only difference is that Xu advocated arresting 9 people, Lin locked up all foreigners, Xu demanded to deport the barge, and Lin demanded that the opium be confiscated. Xu Qiu's memorial was issued by Emperor Daoguang to Deng Tingzhen, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, for reference.Deng Tingzhen made a workaround, instead of arresting them, he announced on October 28, 1836 that the nine people would be expelled from the country.However, these opium merchants asked for a postponement on the grounds that the business was not completed.Finally, with the approval of Deng Tingzhen, these nine people should leave China from the end of Daoguang 16th to March of the following year (February 4th to May 4th, 1837).Deng Tingzhen reported the results to Emperor Guang, saying that he had "obtained the barbarian merchants and other restrictions, and the foreign merchants (referring to the merchants) who dared to tolerate and exceed the limit were willing to be punished and punished." Long-term occupation is not enough", "immediately and strictly deal with it".Two years later, Emperor Daoguang investigated the matter again, and Deng Tingzhen had to report the results again on February 11, 1839. Except for one person who had no other person, only 4 people left China, and 3 people including Diandi were still in Macau. , and because of unfinished business, he still goes to Guangzhou from time to time, and Chadton didn’t even go to Macau at all, and still lives in Guangzhou! In 1837, Emperor Daoguang twice ordered Deng Tingzhen to expel the opium barges outside Humen, Guangdong.Since the Guangdong navy does not have the ability to drive away barges by force at all, and the method proposed in Emperor Daoguang's decree is for the merchants to "instruct the merchants in the country" to order the barges to "return to the country". In addition, Yilu was sent several times to allow the barges to sail, and the last one had a one-month deadline.But the foreign opium merchants ignored this at all. Elliot claimed that the ships that had not been imported and declared for customs were not under his jurisdiction, and conflated the matter with his efforts to establish direct official correspondence.As a result, the matter remained unsolved. At the beginning of Lin Zexu's smoking ban, he still did not directly target foreign opium merchants, but targeted the merchants who sponsored them. On March 22, 1839, when he learned that the big opium merchant Diandi, who had been expelled by the Qing government, was agitating in the Guangzhou Commercial House to refuse to hand over opium, he ordered Diandi to be summoned.However, the Nanhai and Panyu county officials who carried out the order did not send troops, but sent merchants to invite him.Diandi refused to obey, and instead asked Lin Zexu to issue a sealed document to ensure that he could return within 24 hours. On March 23, two peddlers, wearing chains, went to the shop and begged Diandi to obey, otherwise they would be beheaded.Diandi still doesn't agree.Finally, after discussion by the foreign businessmen in the business hall, another 4 foreign businessmen were sent to explain to the local officials in Guangdong why the British land had not arrived.The extremely majestic order turned into a tearful begging.The whole operation looks like a bad farce to the present. Here we can see another aspect of Sino-British relations at that time.When the dignified "China" repeatedly refused to have equal relations with the "barbarians", the rebellious foreign businessmen did, like the "barbarians", ignore the laws of the "celestial dynasty".In the eyes of these people, the majesty of the "Heavenly Dynasty" is just a guise that hangs in the air. The joint of all laws and regulations lies in the amount of bribes and bribes. Whether it is a businessman or an official, it turns out to be barbarians (barbarians).Emperor Daoguang, who was far away in the capital, would never have imagined that the majestic "Heavenly Dynasty" external system would become so absurd and despicable under the operation of these greedy businessmen and officials who perverted the law. ", it will become a shop selling dog meat. On March 24, when Lin Zexu heard the untrue news that Yilu had helped Diandi escape, he couldn't bear it, so he ordered the severance of trade and the closure of the business hall.Is this too radical?That depends on what standard to measure. Let's first look at the severance of commerce.As mentioned in the introduction, in the concept of the Qing Dynasty, trade was a means of caring for people far away, a favor given to the "barbarians", and the most direct countermeasure against the disrespect of the "barbarians" was to cancel this favor.What needs to be explained here is that in the minds of Qing officials (including Lin Zexu), Chinese products have already tripled the profits of these foreign businessmen, and Chinese tea and rhubarb are indispensable treasures for the "barbarians". These meat-eating "barbarians" will suffer from indigestion and all die.Therefore, cutting off commerce is not only cutting off their interests, but also killing them.This method of controlling the enemy without using weapons but cutting off trade is roughly similar to the economic sanctions that are popular today, and was regarded by Qing officials as a magic weapon to deter people from afar.Since the 18th century, it has been used again and again, and it has been tried and tested.Before Lin Zexu, the two most recent ones were the visit to China by Lawrence in 1834 and the opium case of a martyr in 1838. During Lin Zexu’s training in Beijing, he must have discussed the severance of trade with Emperor Daoguang, although they did not pay attention to the British response, but only saw the reduction in Guangdong Customs revenue caused by the severance of trade.From this point of view, according to the standards of the Qing Dynasty, cutting off trade was originally a matter within the purview of Guangdong officials, and Lin Zexu had asked for an order in advance, so there was absolutely no question of going too far.Even by today's international standards, imposing economic sanctions on foreign countries that do not enforce their own laws would not be a drastic problem. Let's take a look at the most criticized blockade store.According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, opium trafficking was a crime of exile and exile; according to the judicial practice of the Qing Dynasty, suspects could be arrested without evidence;Therefore, Lin Zexu could arrest all the foreigners in the business hall, interrogate and convict them; Britain, which had not obtained extraterritoriality at that time, had absolutely no reason to interfere in this.However, Lin Zexu did not do this. At the beginning, he just announced that he was not allowed to leave the country. During the 47 days of the blockade of the business hall, he only cut off the supply for 4 days (there is no danger of food shortage in the business hall at this time), and the servant service for 19 days. , In fact, it is similar to house arrest.But when the matter of confiscating cigarettes was in progress, that is to say, when the Qing government had obtained the actual criminal evidence of these opium dealers, Lin Zexu released most of the criminals.When the work of confiscating cigarettes was over, Lin Zexu only deported the 16 most serious criminals.On the 18th day after the 16 tobacco dealers left the country, the Qing government promulgated 39 new anti-smoking laws, which stipulated: "The profit of selling opium, tobacco paste and tobacco soil is up to five hundred taels, or Although it is less than five hundred taels and has been sold many times, the first offender intends to be hanged and wait in prison, and he will be sent to the army as a follower (that is, an accomplice). Therefore, from the perspective of the laws of the Qing Dynasty, Lin Zexu’s method was not only not extreme, but It is simply spacious. To say that all foreign businessmen were locked up indiscriminately was precisely because most of the foreign businessmen who came to China were engaged in opium smuggling at that time, and among the British businessmen, there seemed to be no innocent ones.Lin Zexu himself seemed to feel that something was wrong. In his decree to foreign businessmen, he mentioned the need to "reward" and "protect" "good barbarians who do not sell opium".No matter how it was implemented later, in Lin Zexu's mind, there still seemed to be a policy boundary. Of course, Lin Zexu also made mistakes in this move: first, the representatives of the British government should not be locked up; 3. The last item of the two requirements made by foreign businessmen, "recognized", the phrase "human beings are the right law", has no necessary basis in the laws of the Qing Dynasty at this time. Regarding the third item, Lin Zexu also became aware of it later.When the aliens began to hand over the cigarettes, he released them without insisting on recognizance. On May 18, 1839, he played a memorial to Emperor Daoguang, requesting "to discuss a special article, and temporarily pay the first payment and be exonerated."Immediately after receiving the performance, Emperor Daoguang ordered the Minister of Military Aircraft to discuss and reply. On June 23, Emperor Daoguang approved a special article drawn up by Mu Zhang'a, Minister of Military Affairs, stipulating that foreign merchants selling opium should be punished according to the law of opening kiln mouths, that is, the first offender "beheaded for execution" and the accomplice "strangled for execution".After Lin Zexu enacted this new regulation, there was only a legal basis for "human beings are right" and he immediately required foreign businessmen to make a bond according to the new regulation, and no business would be allowed without a bond. According to the current legal standards in various countries, the suspect should not leave the country until the case is clarified.Therefore, Lin Zexu ordered the Guangdong Customs to stop issuing licenses to go to Macao on March 18, which was not an extreme move. According to the current legal standards in various countries, the offenders should be arrested after obtaining evidence. However, it seems inappropriate for Lin Zexu to take action before obtaining the stolen goods.However, there are four points worth noting: 1. Lin did not imprison them; Smokers; 4. Lin did not punish them later, but should surrender himself.To take a step back, even though Lin Zexu violated today's standards in this matter, what he conducted was a just anti-drug operation, and a little extreme in the judicial process has nothing to do with the purpose, let alone Lin did not violate the laws of the Qing Dynasty. Judging from the sailing conditions at that time, it took four to five months to travel from England to India via the Cape of Good Hope and then to China. It goes without saying that there were waves and hardships, and shipwrecks and deaths often occurred.Compared with this, the 47 days in the commercial building of more than 60,000 square meters is like a resort today.The reason why British businessmen don't complain about the hardships of coming to China, but they protest so much about the blockade of business houses, is because the former makes them profit while the latter makes them suffer losses. In fact, the most powerful protesters were American and Dutch merchants who did not sell opium, and it can be said that they were detained innocently.However, their government did not respond strongly to this, on the one hand their national strength and foreign policy, on the other hand their national losses were small (only 1540 chests of opium in the United States) or no loss! From this point of view, the core of the problem is not whether Lin Zexu's method is "excessive", but whether Lin's method is effective, that is, whether it can really seize opium.As long as British merchants suffered losses in the opium trade, the British government would inevitably react strongly.This is not only because of the loss of businessmen in the country, but also directly damages the interests of its government. There have been many papers and books on the status of opium in the triangular trade between China, Britain and India, that is, the triangular relationship of opium→tea→cotton products, as well as the opium tax of the British Indian government and the tea tax of the British government. well researched.I just want to quote Zhang Xinbao's analysis here: From this, we can think that the British opium merchants and the government made a big fuss by blocking the business house and provoked a war against China. They used the standards of colonialism and the logic of imperialism. After 150 years, that is, in 1990, US President Bush sent troops to Panama on the grounds that Noriega, commander of the Panamanian National Defense Forces, was trafficking drugs to the United States.Compared with Lin Zexu's anti-smoking methods, Bush's methods can be described as "radical" tens of thousands of times.Also around drug cases, the attitudes of Britain and the United States are so different after a century and a half apart.No matter what people today think about or evaluate these two wars, the principle that has never changed throughout the two wars is the power of power in international politics. Let us go back and look at the two choices before Lin Zexu, although he himself did not realize it at this time: Either stop the source of opium and cause war, or avoid war and give up the efforts to ban smoking. The "Celestial Dynasty" system does not allow Lin Zexu to conduct diplomatic negotiations, and Lin himself has the concept of "Celestial Dynasty" and has no intention of such negotiations, and the UK and the international situation have not been able to pave the way for such negotiations. Therefore, the relationship between China and the UK It is impossible to reach an agreement with a ten-year ban such as that in 1907.In other words, under the conditions at the time, there seemed to be no room for negotiation between the "celestial dynasty" and the "empire on which the sun never sets".From this we can conclude: This is the crux of Lin Zexu's tragedy later.