Silk Silver Opium: The Trade with China that Changed History

Silk Silver Opium: The Trade with China that Changed History not only tells the fascinating stories of silk and tea, porcelain, silver and opium, missionaries, mercenaries and trade, but also what became inevitable–war and humiliation. Much about China’s modern relationship with the West is the product of its past inter-reactions, conflicts, victories and humiliations. The South China Sea was the place from where the ultimately destructive European sailing ships arrived. The Ryukyu Island chain was the place from where marauding Japanese pirates preyed mercilessly on China’s east coast ports. Taiwan was where anti-Qing rebels established a stronghold in the seventeenth century. The story of imperial China’s trading relationship with the West is a powerful tale, with clear implications for the future.

Europe’s trading relationship with imperial China started in wonder and ended in war and bloodshed. The Europeans marvelled at shimmering silk, fragrant tea and exquisite porcelain, which were unknown in the West until their introduction through the China trade. They became indispensable items of Western culture and fashion, but to the exasperation of the Europeans the secrets of their production remained a mystery for a very long time. Silk possessed qualities not shared by any other known fabric; tea became the world’s most popular beverage after water; and porcelain was second in intrigue only to the philosopher’s stone until its secret was finally deciphered in a royal workshop near Meissen in Germany in the eighteenth century. This is the story of those remarkable products, and the silver and opium that were funnelled into China in exchange. It is also a story of avarice, war and imperial collapse.