History of the Opium Problem: The Assault on the East, ca. 1600 - 1950

This is the first scholarly study in which the production, trade and political effects of opium and its derivatives are shown over many centuries, and in many countries (China, India, Indonesia, Japan, all Southeast Asian countries and some in Europe and the Americas). Starting in the 16th century, slavery and opium became the two means with which the bodies and souls of men and women in the tropics were exploited in western imperialism and colonialism. The first waned with the abolition movement in the 19th century, but opium production and trade continued to spread, with the associated serious social and political effects. Around 1670 the Dutch introduced opium as a cash crop for mass production and distribution in India and Indonesia. China became the main target in the 19th century, and only succeeded in getting rid of the opium problem around 1950. Then it had already been transformed from an "Easternâ€_x009d_ into a "Westernâ€_x009d_ problem. PREFACE; PREFACE; Acknowledgements; Acknowledgements; LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS, TABLES, FIGURES and MAPS; LIST of ILLUSTRATIONS, TABLES, FIGURES and MAPS; ILLUSTRATIONS; PART ONE THE OPIUM PROBLEM; INTRODUCTION; THE POLITICS OF GUILT; THE "ORIGINAL SIN"; CONCLUSIONs; PART TWO THE BRITISH ASSAULT; the actual sins; A Private English Asian Trading Company; Opium on a List; A Moral Question; TEA FOR OPIUM Vice Versa; An Analysis from Within; The Bullion Game; The Decision; Opium Shipping; Opium Smuggling; Opium Corruption; Religion as Opium; Opium Banking in a Crown Colony; Exorbitant Opium Revenues THE "VIOLENT OPIUM COMPANY" (VOC) IN THE EASTA "Heart of Darkness" avant la lettre; The Dutch Opium Image; Laudanum Paracelsi; The Sailor's Health; The Asiatic Opium Image of the Dutch; Double Dutch Violence; Monopoly Wars; Empire Building; The Banda Case and all that; Other 17th-century Violence; Continuous Dutch Violence; Dutch Opium Trade: General Questions; The Indigenous Producers; Opium Consumption in the East Indies; THE AMPHIOEN SOCIETY AND THE END OF THE VOC; A Brilliant Economist?; The AS Performance; THE CHINESE, THE VOC AND THE OPIUM; Murder in Batavia; Birth of a Chinese Hate? Chinese as VictimsChinese and Early Opium Trade; FROM TRADE MONOPOLY INTO NARCO-STATE MONOPOLY; A Transformation from Private into Public Interest; The Four Van Hogendorps as Opium Dealers; The Birth of a Narco-military State; TIN FOR OPIUM, OPIUM FOR TIN?; The Opium Business of Billiton; PUBLIC ADVENTURES OF A PRIVATE STATE WITHIN THE STATE; A Royal Opium Dealer; The State within the (Colonial) State; THE OPIUM REGIME OF THE DUTCH (COLONIAL) STATE,1850-1940; The Outer Districts; The Bali Case; The Opiumregie; The Dutch Cocaine Industry; Legal Hypocrisy; A Double Dutch End; PROFITS The Opium FarmerThe Colonial State as Farmer; REFLECTIONS; PART FOUR THE FRENCH ASSAULT; OPIUM IN AND FOR LA DOUCE FRANCE; Parisian Fumes; The French Pharmaceutical Scene; Drugs from abroad; THE FRENCH COLONIAL SCENE IN SOUTHE AST ASIA; The Beginning of a Disaster; The French Opium Performance; Revenue Farming; The Opiumregie; The French Concession in Shanghai; The End of a Disaster; THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN CONTEXT; Introduction; From "Golden Triangle" to "Bloody Quadrangle"; The Tribal Scene; The Shan State; The Hmong tribe; Consumption Pattern; Myanmar (Burma); Thailand (Siam) On the Chinese SideINDIAN PROFITS; Monopoly Opium Production; Monopoly Smuggling; A Western Competitor; Narco-business Revenues; THE INVENTION OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM PROBLEM; Questions; An English Home Market for Drugs; The Creation of the English Opium Problem; A FIRST REFLECTION; PART THREE THE DUTCH ASSAULT; PORTUGUESE LESSONS; Portuguese Elite versus Portuguese Folk; Arab Trade in Peace; On the Malabar Coast; What Did the Dutch Learn about Opium from the Portuguese?; PEPPER FOR OPIUM VICE VERSA; THE BENGAL SCENE; The Dutch Connection; Mughal Production and Consumption "Covering a period of about four centuries, this book demonstrates the economic and political components of the opium problem. As a mass product, opium was introduced in India and Indonesia by the Dutch in the 17th century. China suffered the most, but was also the first to get rid of the opium problem around 1950"--OCLC