When Trade Wars Turned Bloody: The Opium War with Stephen Platt
ChinaTalk
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The Chinese's Inability to Understand British Politics
One miscalculation on the Chinese side was not understanding what free trade really meant. Charles Elliott himself was quite opposed to the opium trade, but he had no power to do anything about it. He didn't have any coercive power. The government tried to arrange for him to be able to establish legal courts over the British subjects in China. That was shot down by parliament because it infringed on China's sovereignty.
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