Hope this can be used for an introduction.
The year was 1842, and Britain had just finished a successful military campaign in China, a campaign that also signified a rather humiliating defeat for the Chinese army. The first Opium War reestablished Britain's profitable opium trade routes from India to China, and also established a new mode of British-Chinese relations, one that resulted in British control of the new colony of Hong Kong and semicolonial control over various treaty ports. The progressive optimism that this combined political and economic control seemed to herald for the British Empire was reflected in a piece in the newly established Illustrated London.
A large family of the human race, which for centuries has been isolated from the rest, is now about to enter with them into mutual intercourse. They are all equal now, but there will be differences on both sides - one may wish his children to become as wealthy as himself, while another wishes not to share any part of their wealth at all. It would seem the best way for Britain to avoid conflict is by having them all have exactly the same level of wealth, which they can then use to buy each other's goods or to fight against each other. Scores. If you want your kids to grow up wealthy, send them here.