Chinese Opium War Medals
The issuance of coins and medals is usually associated with a significant and glorious event in a nation's history, but sometimes a piece can commemorate a bad memory, and this is exactly the case with the "Chinese Opium War Medals." Britain controlled most of Asia and the world in the 18th century, but the empire fell in love with attractive Asian products, especially Chinese silk, tea herbs, Chinese spices, and of course, Chinese porcelain. All of these were considered very valuable at that time, which tipped the economic balance in China's favor. Over time, British silver accumulated in China, threatening Britain's control over the world's economic resources. So the British resorted to a despicable trick.
The idea was to cultivate opium in the Indian region of Bengal under their control and export it to China through traders and smugglers. Over time, with the encouragement and spread of the habit of smoking opium, most of the Chinese people began to seek it out at exorbitant prices, and Britain was able to recover huge quantities of silver in this way. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the United States wanted to share the profit with Britain, and American traders began smuggling cheap Turkish opium to China, which led to competition between high-quality English opium and its American counterpart. The result was a decrease in price, making it possible for most of the people to become addicted at a low price!
A minor but important point: The most prominent American traders who amassed their unimaginable fortunes from the opium trade were: Francis Forbes (head of the famously wealthy Forbes family, which periodically publishes the Forbes 500 list of the world's richest businesspeople, including John Kerry, the former US Secretary of State, whose full name is John Forbes Kerry) and Warren Delano (grandfather of the most famous US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt!).
The Emperor of China realized the imminent danger facing his country, so he began to criminalize the opium trade and destroy all the quantities his forces found. He realized the seriousness of the conspiracy when some traitors suggested that he legalize the opium trade and enact legislation to allow for taxation. He insisted more on his position and ordered that the owners of opium smoking shops be compensated and that they be converted into tea shops. However, the European shop owners refused, so he wrote a letter to Queen Victoria asking her to help him eliminate this destructive habit, but the letter never reached her.
One day, the Chinese authorities seized huge quantities of opium in the Chinese city of Canton (which was a free trade city like Dubai and Port Said in the past). The confiscated opium belonged to English merchants, so the English merchants protested to their government on the basis that the freedom of international trade in Canton was guaranteed to all honest merchants! They also highlighted their financial losses as a result of the confiscations, so Britain had no choice but to declare war on China! Unfortunately, the war was not equal, and after several naval battles, China suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the superior British forces in numbers and equipment, which led to the shaking of the throne of the Qing dynasty later, in addition to the spread of chaos and corruption for about a hundred years.
The British insisted on unfair peace terms, including that Hong Kong become a colony of the British Crown, that China pay 21 million silver dollars - within 3 years - as compensation to English merchants and Her Majesty's Government, that all detained opium merchants be released (whether Chinese or foreign), and that English merchants be allowed to conduct their trade anywhere in China, not just in Canton.
China was forced to submit to unfair British terms and pay tons of high-purity silver with very low impurities. This silver was melted down to mint new British coins, and a very small amount of gold was extracted, but it was enough to mint a limited number of medals commemorating the "Chinese Opium War," which proudly bore the inscription: "This gold was extracted from Saiki silver, plunder of the British forces in China. Extraction took place at Her Majesty's Mint in March 1842..."
