“Imagine that Chinese ships were to start importing arsenic* into England, advertising it as a harmless, foreign and fashionable luxury. Next, imagine that after a few years of arsenic being all the rage, with hundreds of thousands using it, the British government were to ban its use because of its bad effects. Finally, imagine again that, in opposition to this ban on arsenic, Chinese ships were to be positioned off the coast of England, making occasional raids on London.
Advocates of the opium-smuggling profession argue that it is immensely profitable and that supplying opium in bulk as they are doing is not immoral and it only becomes vulgar when the opium is sold in small portions, to individual users. What admirable logic with which one may shield oneself from reality, satisfied that the opium trade is nothing more than ‘supplying an important source of revenue to British companies operating in India.’
The trade may be a profitable one—it may be of importance to the Indian government, and to individuals— but to pretend that it can be defended as harmless to health and morals is to argue the impossible. Anyone who seriously thinks about the subject cannot defend what is, in itself, manifestly indefensible.”
*a poisonous substance
“Remarks on the Opium Trade,” letter to a British magazine from an anonymous English merchant in Guangzhou (Canton), China, published in 1836
The trade described in the passage is best seen as an early example of which of the following?
The economic decline of Asian states resulting from the importation of cheap consumer goods from Europe
Answer A: The economic decline of Asian states resulting from the importation of cheap consumer goods from Europe
A
The growing economic influence of European immigrants in China
Answer B: The growing economic influence of European immigrants in China
B
The declining political power of European joint-stock companies in Asia because of states assuming direct imperial control
Answer C: The declining political power of European joint-stock companies in Asia because of states assuming direct imperial control
C
The use of economic imperialism by European merchants and states