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- [00:01]
Anita Anand
If you want access to bonus episodes, reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast ad, free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to empire club@www.empirepoduk.com.
- [00:29]
William Dalrymple
Hello and welcome to Empire with me.
- [00:32]
Anita Anand
Anita Anand and me, William Durimpel.
- [00:35]
William Dalrymple
And we continue our Victorian narcos series with. Well, the last episode, the opium crisis was in full swing. We were talking about Jardine and Matheson, two men who really have cornered the market on opium sales and you know, the whole thing just, just give us a quick, in a nutshell recap of what the state of China is with these two men pumping in the opium into the country.
- [00:59]
Anita Anand
Both these men continued to operate center stage. I've been reading, in a sense, several episodes ahead and they continue to be at the center of things in a way that I had forgotten from my reading. They are these two Scotsmen, one a self made man, one a down at heels aristocrat and clan chief who come together along with their brilliant Parsee partner. And they almost single handedly a create the crisis which resolves in the Opium War, but also are the kind of cheerleaders for the war. They are cheering on for conflict with the Chinese. They come out with a whole range of incredibly, to our ears, completely racist statements about what the Chinese are, how they're not creating this problem of opium addiction, they're merely servicing a demand and talking about how the British need to get serious with the Chinese and the poor Chinese are seeing their whole coastal region fall into anarchy as these drug gangs take over. Jardine and Matheson don't do the distribution for the drugs themselves. They just bring them to some of the islands off Hong Kong. And there they hand over the opium to a whole variety of Chinese brigands and coastal pirates and so on. And these guys become incredibly rich themselves and incredibly disruptive themselves. And they bring about a whole range of different problems. On one hand, they're obviously creating addiction and more and more people are becoming economically useless as they just sit back on their hips, hence the phrase hipster, and puff opium. But also they create, like in Colombia during the Medellin cartel, they create an armed criminal set of gangs that disrupt activity. And in the final analysis, it's the amount of silver leaving the country. This sudden moment when the Chinese court authorities in Beijing realized that they're running out of silver, that silver's just leaving the country, there's nothing to make coins with, there's nothing in reserve. And this is the point at which the young emperor, the Daoguang emperor, realizes that he's got to take this problem seriously. Now, the Danguang emperor himself had been quite a sort of amateur opium smoker himself in his youth and even wrote a. A nice poem about it.
- [03:16]
William Dalrymple
Yeah, but I mean. But not a serious opium addict. But I mean, his problem was, I mean, we're talking about a reign that stretches from 1820 to 1850 is that he is a weak, weak man. He allows his court officials to do whatever they want. A lot of that opium that's smuggled in is because, as Jardine and Matheson point out, you know, there's so much corruption in the court. You can make, you know, the court work for you. There's basically no wall to stop their operations. And, you know, opium traders are operating. I mean, it's sort of covertly off the port of Canton, but everybody knows it. A stronger man would have been able to take a stronger hand against them. But you've got a weak emperor in place who's just unable to make either to hear the truth of what's going on because maybe his corrupt officials aren't telling him or just too weak to do anything, take a stand against him. And I'm not sure which it is, William, whether he's just not hearing the problem or acknowledging the problem or hiding from the problem, or just completely blissfully unaware of the whole problem.
- [04:12]
Anita Anand
Well, as this episode will show, there are still many strengths to the Chinese system. And I think it's important to recognize that the civil service of China, the Mandarin system, which has been since time immemorial, connected to a series of super competitive and difficult exams on the Confucian Classics since the time of the Tang Dynasty, if not earlier. These produce often officials of great brilliance. This is definitely a country that has a problem, one that's largely caused by these two Scotsmen. But I think one should also accept that this is the second largest empire in the world after the British. At this period, the Chinese court rules over an area the size of Europe, and the officials who rise to the top are often men of extreme high calibre. And we're going to talk about one of those in this episode. Commissioner Lin. Incidentally, we should also say that the competitive examinations for the civil service are the things that give the British the idea to have competitive exams in their service, which is only introduced at this period after contact with China. And this is one of the points that Amitav Ghosh makes in his wonderful Smoke and Ashes in his final chapter, that While the British are quite capable of being rude about the Chinese, they're not so obtuse as not to learn from them.
- [05:31]
William Dalrymple
Oh, that's really interesting because initially, I mean, the ones who go out are sort of the sons of friends.
- [05:37]
Anita Anand
Yeah.
- [05:38]
William Dalrymple
You know, absolutely thick. You like milkshake thick and sweet and not very capable. But then when the competitive exam comes along, you have a whole different cadre of people who are much more active in the Indian civil service.
- [05:50]
Anita Anand
I don't remember the date that competitive exams are introduced into the East India Company and indeed the British civil service, but it is the mid 19th century, it's this period and I think there is a strong argument to be made that it is on the Chinese model.
- [06:03]
William Dalrymple
Tell me about Commissioner Lin, because I'm absolutely fascinated because here is a man with a straight back and who is not corrupt and who is very much somebody to be admired. So I mean, tell us about Lin Ze Xiu, who certainly seems like a man of great capability who rises through the ranks.
- [06:17]
Anita Anand
He certainly is. And he's from a family of declining aristocrats and landholders. Very similar, fun enough to the same class that often feed the East India Company. It's often those people who've fallen on relatively hard times but have memories of grandeur who send their kids out to India with a view to re establishing the family fortune. So this is very much what Lin Jae Xu is doing. His family from Southeast China, a declining land holding clan, and they've actually been progressively bankrupted by preparing generations of sons for this examination system. His father allegedly ruined his eyesight through fruitless examination preparation. And he puts his son into the same harness, trying in a sense to redeem the family name. He did not succeed, but he hopes that his son Lynn will do so. And Lyn, who becomes a very celebrated figure and is again now a celebrated figure. There's actually a statue to him in Chinatown in New York. As this epitome of an uncorruptible official. He, in his letters or memoirs later in life, recalls studying the Confucian Classics through freezing days and endless nights in a broken down three room department with the north wind howling angrily, one lamp on the wall. Young and old were sitting next to each other doing our reading and our needlework till the night was out. And age 12, he passes the first, easiest level of the exams. Age 19, he passes the provincial exams. He goes up a stage from the local to the provincial. Seven years later, in 811, he passes the metropolitan exam on his third attempt. And finally the imperial exams. In 1811, at the age of 26. By this point, he's got the name Lyn clear as heaven. He's regarded as incorruptible, as incredibly honest, and he is the equivalent of the topper in the ICS exams.
- [08:08]
William Dalrymple
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The one who gets the highest mark. So, I mean, the jobs that he's given, first of all, they really test his mettle. An administrator. I mean, they're not glamorous jobs, but they're ones that you need to really be on top of everything and a huge sort of sprawling network of human beings, and it's important, so water management and flood relief. And he gets a reputation for actually putting the welfare of the people first. You know, that look, we really need to look at what is effective for the greatest number of people. So people begin to know his name, Lin clear as heaven. And he becomes, very quickly one of the emperor's favorite ministers. And what is the rank that you get when you're a favorite of the emperor?
- [08:48]
Anita Anand
Commissioner. That's the commissioner.
- [08:49]
William Dalrymple
So that's it. That's as high as it gets.
- [08:51]
Anita Anand
I'm not sure it's the highest rank. There's provincial governors and so on, but certainly he's done very well to get there by the age of 26. And he is consulted on this issue in 1833 on opium, on the diocese on opium, on what to do with this growing criminalization, with this loss of silver, and with this growing problem of people who are just sort of not getting up from their beds all day. And in 1833, he writes a formal memorial to the emperor, to Daguang. And he, in the first round, suggests encouraging Chinese farmers to grow poppies and legalise it, as you're not sending the money out. And what's interesting is that although the British at this stage don't have a very good intelligence network, or indeed any means of assessing what the court opinion is, this memorial gets to Canton and it gets into the hands of a man called Charles Elliot, who's another key character in this episode and who will become the man who has to grapple with the brilliant Commissioner Lynne.
- [09:50]
William Dalrymple
And this is the same Charles Elliot who's the British superintendent of British trade in China. So, I mean, this is, you know, this is right in his backyard, because this is the most important trade that's going on at the moment.
- [09:59]
Anita Anand
Exactly. And this character is given a post that is created at the moment that the East India Company loses its monopoly. Up to this point, the East India Company has had a monopoly of trade with China. And so the only legal representative of the British is the East India Company. But after the East India Company lose that position, the government has to step in and appoint someone to be in charge of this sort of raucous bunch of Scottish brigands who are busy with smuggling rackets and so on, but at the same time trying to organize an honest trade with tea. This is always the two way trade. They're selling opium and buying tea and so one half of their trade is covered and one side of their trade is overt. So he's there as the British Superintendent of British Trade in Canton and it's a thankless task because he's really there to control these free traders who are richer than him and better paid and.
- [10:53]
William Dalrymple
Who are often more influential, who don't listen to anyone. And what I've heard about Charles Elliot is that he is quite nervy, not very strong, doesn't like a conflict, would rather sort of bumble his way through something rather than tackle it head on. Is that a fair assessment of Charles?
- [11:09]
Anita Anand
That is a very fair assessment.
- [11:10]
William Dalrymple
Well, I'm interested though. Elliot is actually not born in Britain though he's born in Dresden. Why is he born in Dresden? But he does certainly come back and he joins the British Navy aged 14. So I mean it's just an interesting aside, probably leads us nowhere just looking at him in photographs because we have photographs now. I mean he looks distinguished, he looks like, he looks like a geography teacher more than anything else. Sort of white haired, staring off into the distance, a slightly weak chin. He doesn't strike a, you know, ferocious image.
- [11:41]
Anita Anand
And he's had these slightly hopeless and thankless tasks all his career. He's previously been a protector of slaves in Guyana. So he's one of the officials whose first job as a young man is to keep an eye on would be slavers coming off the west coast of Africa. So twice in his life he's basically put in charge of stopping British brigands from breaking the rules that have been established. And he quickly becomes very unpopular among the likes of Jardine and Matheson who don't want to obey this man. They can't see why they have to have some Brit stopping them.
- [12:15]
William Dalrymple
And they kind of do swat him away. And there's not much he does about it at first. I mean there's not much he does.
- [12:20]
Anita Anand
Which is why when he reads Commissioner Lynn's paper saying we should legalize opium, he's thrilled with it because that's going to solve his problems. If opium is legal, he doesn't have to fight with Jardine and Matheson, who are two complete rottweilers or pit bulls and no one.
- [12:36]
William Dalrymple
Eliot's like, no, I don't want to fight, I don't want to argue. Can't we all just get along?
- [12:40]
Anita Anand
And he forwards Commissioner Lyn's paper to Palmerston with a letter that says, these documents are remarkable as a series of papers as ever emanated from the government of this country in respect to foreign trade. And he wants to believe it, so he does believe it. He presents it to Palmerston that the drug is about to be legalised, that opium is going to suddenly become an uncomplicated commodity like any other. But by the time that he is reading this and has had it translated and has sent it on to Palmerston, it's already outdated.
- [13:11]
William Dalrymple
You're quite right, it is out of date by the time Eliot is saying to the government, this is great, it's going to be legalised. We're going to be fine. Happy days. I can actually be the bureaucrat I was born to be and I can just navigate this and I don't have to deal with assholes anymore and they can't shout at me and they can't threaten me. And it is completely wrong because another high ranking commissioner in the Imperial Chinese Court, Huang Xuze, I hope I said it right, has submitted another memorial on opium and he has a whole new approach of tackling it. What he says we should do is not legalise it. Commissioner Lin, that's not the answer. That is not what we do. We need a ruthless campaign of suppression. We need to target Chinese consumers saying, actually, you know, they're the ones who are the problem. We need to go after them. And if there were no users, if we could get rid of them, then there would be no foreign interference and no foreign trade going on here.
- [14:07]
Anita Anand
He's quite hardcore Huangjin.
- [14:09]
William Dalrymple
He is like draconian punishments. I mean, tell us what he was saying should happen to those people who take drugs.
- [14:15]
Anita Anand
He imposes a one year grace period where everyone can wean themselves off their opium.
- [14:20]
William Dalrymple
Basically get clean or we get mean. Right.
- [14:22]
Anita Anand
And after that, not just get mean. Anyone who's found smoking opium should be executed.
- [14:27]
William Dalrymple
Okay, that's quite mean. That's fairly mean. You kill the trade by killing the consumers. Right, okay, good.
- [14:34]
Anita Anand
It stands to reason Fab and he incorrectly believes that Western countries like Britain already have a death penalty for opium smokers. So he says we should just do what they do, that's why they don't have an opium problem. Like we do, they say, because they just kill them. Now, this, of course, isn't the case, but it goes down very well at court. And the Daguang emperor circulates this memorial, and before long it becomes the new court policy. The old idea of possibly legalizing, finding a way around this is put on hold. Particularly, I think what has really upset the Emperor is the fact that Silver's running out. He's very worried by this. He thinks the whole system's going haywire and he can't make his sums add up in the palace. So he endorses this. And Lin Shayzou, seeing the way that the wind is blowing, also endorses this proposal and makes a shift. And now sort of joins, if you like, the War on drugs, the Chinese 19th century version of you sort of.
- [15:33]
William Dalrymple
Say he sees which way the wind is blowing. I mean, what we know about him and being quite a moral man, I mean, I suggest he's probably convinced by it that, you know, my way is probably not right. My way won't work and we can have this sorted in a year is probably what he's thinking. Because the proposal, you know what bureaucrats are like.
- [15:50]
Anita Anand
When they see their bosses changing their opinions, they very quickly change their opinions too. And he then comes up with his own detailed plan to support suppression. And what he suggests, what Lin Shixu says is you've got to confiscate and destroy opium pipes. There should be moral campaigns by officials, public education on the evils of opium, the suppression of opium dens and corrupt officials.
- [16:16]
William Dalrymple
This sounds just like American prohibition, by the way. Smashing stills, evading speakeasies, you know, arresting anybody who's peddling booze anywhere.
- [16:25]
Anita Anand
I don't think in Prohibition suggested executing whiskey drinkers.
- [16:30]
William Dalrymple
You have a year to dry out or we'll kill you. No, that, that's true. They don't go as far as that. But there is, there is the whiff of that kind of prohibition. We'll smash everything up. So this thing doesn't exist anymore. It's not a problem anymore.
- [16:40]
Anita Anand
Commissioner Lynn comes up with some very sort of liberal ideas. He wants to establish hospitals to treat users and this sort of thing. He's a subt. We see this throughout his career. And he goes to work where he's initially posted, which is in Hunan, and he sends all these reports to the emperor detailing the collection of thousands of pipes and thousands of ounces of opium. And he's very pleased with how it's going. And by 1838, which is when the crisis begins, to set in, he is now the favored son of the Chinese civil service. So when the order comes that they've got to crack down at the source, which is obviously Canton, and when there's a large opium seizure, that highlights that all the opium is actually coming from Canton. And there's one portal that they can, if they can control, they can stop opium entering the country. This is the moment that Commissioner Lin is appointed as Imperial Commissioner, granting him extraordinary powers to act on the Emperor's direct behalf, answerable to no one locally. He's acting directly on the Emperor's orders. He's given command even of the naval forces near Canton. All the local officials have to support him. And so in January 1839, even as our friend Charles Elliot is optimistically writing letters to Lord Barbest, I'm going to legalise it.
- [18:10]
William Dalrymple
It's all going to be fine.
- [18:12]
Anita Anand
It's all going to be fine. Commissioner Lin is on his way south with sort of extraordinary powers to smash everything up.
- [18:19]
William Dalrymple
Just reflecting on what you said before, that, you know, he saw which way the wind is blowing. I mean, you may be right, because there is a very public display from the Emperor of punishing any of those who do still push for legalization, because it doesn't go away. You know, Lin writes the initial memorial on this saying, I think we should legalize it, we'll make more money. He then abandons it. But there are others still in the court who say, actually, can we just talk instead of putting people to death in a year, could we maybe just talk about taxes? Can we just have a chat about it? And the Emperor does. I mean, you know, for a weak emperor, he takes very decisive action and he just weeds them all out of court. So Lin has jumped to the right side just in time, really, because his sort of, you know, his war on drugs happens about the same time. So he's rising and rising. When does it dawn on Charles Elliot, they may have got this wrong.
- [19:08]
Anita Anand
Charles Elliot got any idea what's about to hit him? And instead, Lin Shuzu is making a sort of imperial progress with all his assistance and his new grand office. And he leaves Beijing in early January 1839, and he visits all the officials that he's sort of jumped over in this rapid promotion on the way. And he's a modest enough man to go to each of them on the way and ask for advice. And in particular, his old boss is a guy called Bao Shichen. And Bao advises him to clear a muddy stream. You must purify the source, to put a Law into effect, you must first create order within. And Lin interprets this as meaning that he should first arrest the corrupt officials and then completely cut off the foreign opium imports. So that's what's in his mind when finally, in March 1839, and this is now when the metaphorical materials begin to hit the fan.
- [20:06]
William Dalrymple
I was thinking the same thing. Yes. It's like this is the moment you just heard it. Yes, this is it. Okay.
- [20:13]
Anita Anand
Yeah. And so 10th of March, he arrives in Canton and rather like sort of Trump getting into office and creating complete mayhem from day one. This is what happens in Canton. The day he arrives, he initiates a mass arrest of all known Chinese opium dealers. Because I think everyone's known who's been dealing with this. These guys are big men, you know.
- [20:36]
William Dalrymple
Where to buy from. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're getting rich. I mean, basically round up the people with the biggest houses over the last five years anyway. Anyone wearing very expensive silks, round them up as well. Yeah.
- [20:48]
Anita Anand
So he's going after the dealers, he's going after the corrupt officials and then he begins to go after the materials. So he confiscates thousands of pounds of raw opium and tens of thousands of pipes. He just takes them and breaks them up. And he arrests five more people for opium crimes than the previous governor had done in the last two years. He does in a week. What, two years?
- [21:15]
William Dalrymple
It's a real round'em up situation. Can I point out one thing? He also issues these proclamations which blame Canton as an entity, saying, you have poisoned the nation, Canton. We find you guilty, Canton, of making the whole Chinese nation addicted to opium. So Canton is in the dark, which is, I mean, quite comical. It is such an extreme thing that, you know, the man who gave him the clear and muddy stream speech. Hang on, I didn't mean that. What are you doing? That's not what I meant. As he's rounding up relatives and everybody else. You know, this is not what I said. But Lin is undeterred and he has.
- [21:57]
Anita Anand
Realised by December, what is blindingly obvious, but I don't think the penny had completely dropped, that it's obviously the British that are behind all these problems. He'd always been focused on the sort of Chinese end of things. He's very much a local Chinese official and he's dealing with the Chinese people.
- [22:14]
William Dalrymple
I've got a theory about this. Do you want a theory? I mean, it seems blindingly obvious that you want to stop the source. If you want to stop the source, you're not growing the stuff. Okay, so where is it coming from would be the obvious question. But this man is a domestic bureaucrats. So you know, when it. When I sort of mentioned that he sort of rises to power dealing with water and flood relief and stuff, what he knows is domestic. What he knows is domestic policies and the valves to press. So when you all kind of almost blink it that way, you can't look at foreign policy. You're not a foreign policy Mandarin, if you like.
- [22:41]
Anita Anand
But on December 3, a small shipment of opium is captured right outside the British factory compound. I remember from the last episode that you have this very small area of Canton Riverfront which is where the foreigners have been penned into for 200 years.
- [22:59]
William Dalrymple
Yeah, a factory.
- [23:00]
Anita Anand
And yeah, they're called the factories not because things are made there, but because it's full of factors which are the East India Company officials. And one by one they're lined up on the riverbank with the national flags. The French, the Americans. But the biggest one is the British. And on December 3rd, they make this enormous capture of a shipment of opium. And in response, they decide they're going to make a demonstration in front of the British factory. So on December 12, a small body of soldiers appear in the plaza area in front of the factory, not on the riverside, but on the backside of the factory compounds. And they rather ominously erect a wooden cross in preparation for an execution.
- [23:47]
William Dalrymple
Crucifixion. I mean, why a cross?
- [23:49]
Anita Anand
I think he's going to be certainly tied up on the cross, but he's going to be strangled rather than crucified.
- [23:55]
William Dalrymple
Right.
- [23:56]
Anita Anand
And the guy in question is the proprietor of a local opium den who's very well known. He's Chinese. He's not anything to do with the foreigners. But Lyn wants the foreigners to know that they're in the crosshairs now. And so this cross is erected and a scuffle takes place because apparently it's. Some sailors take offense at the idea of a sort of crucifixion and they try and tear the scaffold down. And a large crowd gathers and watches these sailors dismantle the gallows. And then the more rowdy sailors begin to shove the crowd and they hit the people with sticks. And that's the point at which the crowd says, hang on, we're not standing for this. So the crowd pushes back, someone throws a rock and it becomes a riot. And so things are not looking good. And the British and the Americans who have got involved in this what had been a scuffle and is now a full scale riot, have to run back into their factory compounds and lock the gates. And by this stage, several thousand people are pelting foreigners with hail of rocks and bricks from outside. They are hitting the windows and the Venetian blinds of the factory. It's a real mess. Anyways, soldiers arrive.
- [25:10]
William Dalrymple
So we're talking about Chinese soldiers who come to maintain order, right?
- [25:14]
Anita Anand
Yes. There are no British soldiers at this moment anywhere near here.
- [25:17]
William Dalrymple
Can you just clarify that? Is that because in the factories you're not allowed British soldiers? Or, I mean, there's no armed presence to look after?
- [25:25]
Anita Anand
I would presume there must have been some sorts of guards, but they're probably in the pay of the government. And one of the things that's very interesting is that the British do not own their own factory. It's not exactly like an embassy compound where, you know, you have your own soldiers and your own laws. So by the time that Charles Eliot turns up, because he has got ships and he's got his. His armed sailors, marines, and he turns up that evening, having heard this having come, I think he's been in Macau. And so that evening he turns up with 120 armed sailors and all is actually peaceful. Everything has calmed down by the stage. It's evening time, everyone's gone home having their dinner. But he realizes that this is a crisis point and he's quite shaken by the scale of the riot. And apparently one of the British sailors or one of the British traders inside the compound had fired a pistol and he missed his target. But Elliot writes a letter that night saying that if it hadn't missed, he was worried that there would have been a scene, rather like the Iranians breaking into the British Embassy in Tehran. It was in 1979, they would be overrun. And so Eliot realizes this is now a very serious escalation that had a gun is fired. Luckily, no one's actually been killed. But unless he takes firm action against smuggling, he now needs to intervene. So controversially, and this is the beginning of what will be a charge sheet that is put up against him in the days after the riots, he issues a proclamation ordering all British vessels carrying opium to depart the inner waters of Canton immediately.
- [27:01]
William Dalrymple
So this is a powder keg because you have been doing deals with ruffians. I know, I know, Elliot, you don't like talking to Jardine and Matheson and all the assorted, you know, hoodlums who are doing this. If you're suddenly telling them to stop and leave, they haven't been listening to you the whole time anyway. They probably have it in their Minds that they're doing a great service because they're bringing, you know, sort of loot back to Britain. And they also probably, in their back of their minds, think, you know, we are British. Why aren't you protecting us? We could have been overrun. We could have been massacred. Where the hell are you? You've got gunships. Do something about this.
- [27:39]
Anita Anand
So James Matheson, who never is one to shut up if he could possibly create a ruckus, writes that Elliot has adopted the novel course of assisting the government of China against his own countrymen.
- [27:51]
William Dalrymple
His own countrymen, right. So, I mean, you know, Elliot, who's never liked these people anyway, sees it might be a good way to get rid of them, still thinks there's going to be a legal trade which he, Charles Elliot, is going to be, you know, sort of the knight in shining armour and sort it all out, instead is going to be trampled under the feet of the people he despises, who are the ruffians who never listen to him anyway.
- [28:11]
Anita Anand
But actually, he's right, because this is a crisis point. This is the moment when Commissioner Lyn has realized that he now has to do something specifically against the foreign factories. This is one of my favorite moments. So Commissioner Lin, who is an orderly fellow, as we know, and likes to do things by the book, first of all, in a very, very civilized mandarin matter, gives a warning. So he drafts a lengthy letter to Queen Victoria, who he holds responsible for this, and he tells her that she must eliminate opium production in her dominions.
- [28:46]
William Dalrymple
Can you quote the letter? Because the letter is a thing of beauty.
- [28:48]
Anita Anand
I now give my assurance that we mean to cut off this harmful drug forever, which has already been manufactured. And your Majesty must immediately search out and throw to the bottom of the sea what Queen Victoria would have said had she ever read this is not recorded. Of course, our heavenly court would not have won the allegiance of innumerable lands if it did not wield superhuman power. Do not say you have not been warned this time. This is addressed to her Majesty in a very peremptory manner by Lin Shu Xu. And then the next day, having issued this warning again, he's behaving absolutely by the book, according to all the established protocols. On the 18th of March, 1839, he issues an edict ordering all the British merchants to surrender all their opium stocks within three days.
- [29:39]
William Dalrymple
Ultimatum. Okay, so ultimatum. So just unpacking that letter, because I think it's a marvellous letter. On the one hand, knowing what we do know about Queen Victoria and how much she abhorred the excesses of Bertie, her son, who was, you know, drunk most of the time. She. There may have been some sympathy of, you know, what are we doing? Oh, what, sorry, we're exporting opium. Why? But the moment you issue an ultimatum like that to the Crown, the Crown and the government of Queen Victoria will respond in kind. You don't talk to us like that. You don't push us around like that.
- [30:11]
Anita Anand
I have said it's a very polite letter. And it starts by initially forgiving her for being ignorant about the Qing Empire's recent measures against opium. So she has no right to take offense against this letter. He says, we understand somehow it's not your fault.
- [30:27]
William Dalrymple
But. Yeah, okay, so what happens with this three day ultimatum? So that's not long to resolve the matter or actually let it climb into a huge conflagration.
- [30:39]
Anita Anand
So this is bad enough for the Brits, but it's even worse, of course, for the Hong merchants, who are the Chinese merchants who have to deal with the British because they are not protected. And Commissioner Lin hauls them all in, regards them as traitors, berates them as such and threatens them with execution. Now, a lot of these men are extremely rich men. They are doing as well as anyone out of this, all this trade. And initially, of course, the Jardines and the Mathesons are absolutely not going to give their opium away. But then Lin Shingxu realizes that it's time to step up the pressure. So he announces that no foreign merchants will be allowed to leave the factory until all the opium is surrendered. And they've got to sign a bond promising never to trade in it ever again. So at each stage he's ratcheting up.
- [31:30]
William Dalrymple
The pressure, but that is, in effect, if you're not letting them leave, that's a hostage situation now, isn't it? That's a whole different ballgame. You've got British nationals, you're saying they can't leave unless they acquiesce to what you're saying, which is not only hand over the drugs, but promise you'll never darken our doorstep with your drugs again and we won't let you leave. And Jardine and Matheson aren't going to cave to this?
- [31:54]
Anita Anand
Well, they're not pleased with what happens next, which is that the Commissioner then, then orders all the Chinese servants out of the factory buildings. So all the valets, the porters, the cooks, the linguists, the bed cleaners and the, you know, all the people doing the cooking, and he tries to shut off supplies of fresh food in fact, they continue on. People find ways of getting food into the compound so they're not actually starving. And finally, on the same day, 19th of March, he threatens to execute two of the leading Hong merchants, who are very grand senior figures, you know, with enormous establishments if his demands are not met within three days again, and threatens to besiege the factories.
- [32:36]
William Dalrymple
Well, let's take a break there because we're on quite the precipice because now it's showdown at the OK Corral. Who's going to blink first, basically? Join us after the break and find out.
- [32:49]
Anita Anand
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- [33:51]
David McCloskey
I'm David McCloskey, former CIA analyst turned spy novelist.
- [33:55]
Gordon Carrera
And I'm Gordon Carrera, national security journalist.
- [33:57]
David McCloskey
And together we're the hosts of the Rest Is Classified, where we bring you brilliant stories from the world of spies.
- [34:03]
Gordon Carrera
This week, we're talking about one of the most significant stories of the 21st century, Edward Snowden, and how he orchestrated the biggest leak of classified secrets in modern American and British history.
- [34:13]
David McCloskey
Snowden revealed that the American government was mass collecting data on its own citizens. And it was really the first time that Americans and so many others around the world understood the extent of the US Government's mass surveillance.
- [34:27]
Anita Anand
That's right.
- [34:27]
Gordon Carrera
It's a story I covered at the time. And it also really gets to wider questions about what privacy means, how technology has changed our lives, and what the government and companies can do with data we might have thought was private.
- [34:39]
David McCloskey
And we'll take you through the whole story, from Snowden's early career in the CIA and the NSA to his life in exile in Russia.
- [34:46]
Gordon Carrera
So to hear more, search for the Rest is classified wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:57]
William Dalrymple
Welcome back. So just before the break, you've got basically a face off, which is now a face off between to governments, not just somebody trying to impose something locally. You're saying, you know, you Brits, we can starve you out if that's what you want. You're not leaving until you do what we say. And you've got, you know, the Brits inside who are saying, hang on a minute, we don't belong to you. Your authority does not extend to, you know, whether we can leave or not. Who the hell do you think you are? It's not good. What happens next.
- [35:29]
Anita Anand
So things are obviously now getting a bit tricky in the factory compound because I think it's a pretty good bet that neither Jardine nor Matheson have even boiled an egg for the last 30 years.
- [35:39]
William Dalrymple
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
- [35:41]
Anita Anand
And now they haven't got anybody to help them dress or put on their silk stockings or make their beds or cook them dinner.
- [35:50]
William Dalrymple
I mean, I feel the same way when my valet's not here yet.
- [35:55]
Anita Anand
So there's a big meeting in the factory on the 21st of March, and the Hong merchants come into this meeting because two leading Hong merchants are about to be executed imminently. And under this pressure they begin to buckle. And it's the first time that the British have buckled. This is, remember, the height of imperial power. This is, you know, the British at their most impossible 1830s, with Palmerston as, as Prime Minister, sending off gunboats all around the Mediterranean. Anyone even hiccups at a British Citizen. And on the 21st of March, the Hong Merchants advised them that if they were to hand over just 1,000 chests of opium, which is a lot, this will stop the executions of their colleagues the next morning. I mean, it's a real, you know, everyone's in blind panic by now. Certainly the Chinese on merchants are, and they resist this. But it's clear that Commissioner Lynn means business. So by the following day, 22nd March, the suggestions that 4,000 chests of opium are going to have to be handed over in order to keep Commissioner Lin from killing their friends. Then one of the British officials who I think was charged with pulling down the. The cross of the execution of the scaffold. But the guy called Lancelot Dent and he is named by Commissioner Lynn and called in for interrogation, and everyone remembers that the only time this happened before was in 1760, which is 70 years earlier, when a character called James Flint, who was an interpreter, was called into the city and he was executed there. And then no one around him. So Lancelot Deane doesn't want to go in very obviously for very good, reasonably. And just to add to the pressure, the two Hong merchants who were up for execution, the following are paraded in chains with iron collars outside the gate. So Lyn is not letting anybody relax. And this is the crucial moment. This is where everything that follows in the rest of the year is dependent on this decision. So Charles Eliot comes to the compound on the 24th of March, just to.
- [38:05]
William Dalrymple
Remind people, Charles Eliot is a slightly chinless wonder who's managed to let Jardine and Matheson trample all over him, who has insisted this is going to be a legalised trade, who's insisted, I'm in control, I'm in control, everything's fine, nothing to see here.
- [38:20]
Anita Anand
This is typical of Ovellio. He's always doing this with. He comes in and says, I'm here to protect Lancelot Dent. I will remain with you to my last gasp. He says they all sort of groan around him because this is the last person they want to be protected by. And there are now, they notice, soldiers stationed outside the factories to prevent anyone leaving. So on the evening of the 26th of March, there's now a week with these guys about to be executed. Everything very, very tense. For a week now, they haven't officially been allowed any servants. People actually have been letting food in quietly around the back and chickens and the odd goat have been sort of smuggled in. And so no one's starving. It's not like they haven't eaten for a week. And on the 27th of March, without any consultation with the British government, obviously, you know, the Telegraph doesn't exist at this point as far as Canton, so there's nothing much Eliot can do and he has to just sort of react as best he can. And he realizes it's going to be on him if Dent or anybody else is arrested or killed. I mean, potentially the army could march in and arrest and either lock up or kill the whole lot. So at this point he realizes he's got very few cards in his hand. And so he takes the decision and he issues a notice ordering all foreigners in the factories in possession of British owned opium to surrender it to him as the Superintendent of Trade in return. And this is the crucial thing, in return for promissory notes guaranteeing payment for its fair market value by the British government. Now, he's got no authority to do.
- [39:55]
William Dalrymple
That.
- [39:58]
Anita Anand
And he doesn't seem to realize because he's this sort of rather sweet Sort of do goody character who's been wrestling slaves.
- [40:05]
William Dalrymple
And did you discuss this, did you focus group this with anybody at all?
- [40:11]
Anita Anand
He doesn't realize that the total cost of the opium sitting in Jardine Matheson's locker is $10 million.
- [40:19]
William Dalrymple
Oh my word. Oh my word.
- [40:21]
Anita Anand
So he's, he's, he's. He's gallantly. Come along. I've got to save everything. Don't worry, don't worry.
- [40:25]
William Dalrymple
Just tell me how much Victoria is going to here. She'll sort this out. It'll be fine. You'll get your money. It'll be fine.
- [40:33]
Anita Anand
You could just imagine the horror as it dawns to Elliot because over the next 24 hours, all the representatives of all the British and the Parsi firms turn up, all with thousands of pounds.
- [40:43]
William Dalrymple
Here's my opium. Since you're buying it. Here we go. I have no problem with that.
- [40:48]
Anita Anand
All these guys.
- [40:49]
William Dalrymple
All I ever wanted to do was sell it. Here you are. I don't care who buys it. You want to buy it, it's fine.
- [40:56]
Anita Anand
But at the end of four days, no less than 20,283 chests of opium have been delivered into his care.
- [41:07]
William Dalrymple
Can I just say, Lyn did offer to let them go for 4,000 chests.
- [41:12]
Anita Anand
This is 20,000.
- [41:15]
William Dalrymple
This is some of the worst bargaining in the history of diplomacy.
- [41:18]
Anita Anand
We should laugh about this. Because this error of judgment, this idiotic promise by Elliot to try and save the day and save British face and all this sort of thing results in the months that come into tens of thousands of deaths. What follows? The horrors that follows. And they are horrors as a result of this mess. But the people, of course, who are delighted are Jardi de Matheson and their mates, the smugglers.
- [41:43]
William Dalrymple
We just wanted to sell it. That's what they said. We weren't going to sell it all in one go. This is great. We sold it in one shipment. Yeah.
- [41:52]
Anita Anand
Diardi Mathesons have got this sort of house newspaper called the Canton Register, which basically covers their views. And it reports in a fit of jollity the following morning, that quote, the health of the young and lovely Queen of England has been drunk in flowing cups on Her Majesty now being at the present moment the largest holder of opium on record.
- [42:16]
William Dalrymple
She's our best customer to Queen Vic. Just bought all of our drugs. Hooray.
- [42:26]
Anita Anand
God save the Queen's worth of opium.
- [42:29]
William Dalrymple
Do you know what though? Just a second, just a second, just a second. Because we're laughing. Because Elliot is just hopeless and has just done something that you know The British government is going to fling in his face and go, you what? We haven't got $10 million. $10 million to buy your opinion in.
- [42:41]
Anita Anand
The mid 19th century.
- [42:42]
William Dalrymple
Are you mental? But the thing is, the thing is Elliot is seeing a situation where people are going to die. I mean, to be, you know, and there is no telegraph and there's nobody to ask and he has to do something and it's. No, it's not. I would not be in his shoes. I mean, you know, I would have noticed that there was a problem a bit earlier perhaps potentially, and not had my head so stuck in the ground that I didn't notice. And I wouldn't have let Jardine and Matheson ride so roughshod, you know, over me. So they can do whatever they want. However, yeah, he's trying to do the right thing. What else is he gonna do?
- [43:15]
Anita Anand
It isn't just the Brits who are happy. Apparently even some of the American houses have surrendered opium, saying somebody's got some British connection.
- [43:26]
William Dalrymple
Since you're paying, your Majesty, we've got, we've heard you're in the market for some opium. We've got some opium. You can have ours as well. Result. Okay.
- [43:38]
Anita Anand
Anyway, Commissioner Lin, of course, can't believe his luck when 20,000 chests of opium.
- [43:43]
William Dalrymple
Well, yeah, no, he's wonder, right, he's.
- [43:45]
Anita Anand
Won, I mean, hand, absolute blinding.
- [43:48]
William Dalrymple
Basically cleansed Canton of opium. I mean, it's amazing actually, as far.
- [43:53]
Anita Anand
As Commissioner Lin and the Chinese in Canton are concerned, this is game, set, match. They've won this round. Being the gentleman that he is and always exquisitely polite, having written his nice letter to Queen Victoria saying it wasn't her fault that she didn't know because she's a foreigner.
- [44:09]
William Dalrymple
However, don't blame you.
- [44:11]
Anita Anand
However, he writes a lovely letter back saying the real sympathy and sincerity thus shown are worthy of praise. He says to Charles Eliot, right now is the time for foreigners of all nations to repent their faults.
- [44:27]
William Dalrymple
Polite, but very finger waggy. It's annoying. It's going to annoy them, isn't it?
- [44:32]
Anita Anand
And the Emperor is completely thrilled by this and he sends a gift of the foie gras of the Chinese court, which is roebuck meat, which in its Chinese name, which is Bao Lu, puns with the phrase promotion guaranteed. So it's a sort of literary pun. And Lin again being the kind of perfect gentleman, kowtows to the roebuck meat nine times. And he's in such a good mood that he composes a poem to lychees which are in flower at that moment.
- [45:03]
William Dalrymple
Such a weird story.
- [45:04]
Anita Anand
Could I read it to you?
- [45:06]
William Dalrymple
Yeah. So weird. Yes, go on.
- [45:08]
Anita Anand
Ships and rains from foreign seas darken Lintin. Suddenly I received a carved platter full of stars. 18 smiling young ladies. Your kindness refreshes like the green of the lychees.
- [45:22]
William Dalrymple
It's nice that he feels poetic. Can I ask, though, because we're coming to the end of this episode, what does he do with the shit ton of opium that is now in his custody from all over the place? What happens to that?
- [45:36]
Anita Anand
Well, in retrospect, it would have been in Commissioner Lynn's interest if he just tucked it into a warehouse so that he could give it back or do something with it if needed. But he doesn't. He's such an efficient commissioner that he destroys all the opium and over a three week period, he builds a special site near the tiger's mouth.
- [46:02]
William Dalrymple
The tigersmith. When you say Tigersmouth, is a bay in Canton, is it just a place where you can lean over and look at the sea? Okay.
- [46:08]
Anita Anand
And he crushes the opium balls in water filled pools lined with lime and salt. Allows it to decompose before draining the liquid into the river. And again, the exquisitely polite Commissioner Lynn even composes a sort of prayer poem to the God of the sea, apologizing for polluting the river. It's got a lot of time for.
- [46:28]
William Dalrymple
Poetry for a pity.
- [46:30]
Anita Anand
This is very much part of the whole sort of Mandarin culture. They're very literary. They drink tea, they do calligraphy. I mean, it's all a very civilized world, this. And so it looks like. Game, set and matched. Commissioner Lynn Elliot's in deep trouble. Jardine and Matheson, as ever, also feel that they've won.
- [46:48]
William Dalrymple
They've sold all of their drugs to the Queen. Friends, anyone who's ever met them. This is British. No, no, really, it's British. We're American, but it's British. Okay, but are they allowed out of the factory? I mean, have they been granted, Lynn's got all of their chests of opium and is dumping it into the sea and apologizing. Writing poetry to apologize to the water. Fine, but what about. But what about those people who are in there?
- [47:15]
Anita Anand
The pressure is off. Yes, they're allowed to go off, I think. They depart to Macau, the lockdown ends, the servants are allowed back in. They don't have to keep boiling their own eggs. But there's now this massive problem that Queen Victoria owes Jardine and Madison and.
- [47:30]
William Dalrymple
The credit card statement at the end of the month. I didn't buy this, what, 28,000 chests. What is this?
- [47:42]
Anita Anand
I did not.
- [47:43]
William Dalrymple
I did not buy this.
- [47:46]
Anita Anand
Not me, Gav. Exactly. So we're laughing, but this is the. Becomes the cause of. This is what causes the Opium War. This ridiculous decision by Eliot to just go ahead and pay everybody full whack for their opium results by the end of the years in thousands of deaths. And ultimately, this is the beginning of the colonization of China and Southeast Asia and concessions and the unequal treaties in the century of humiliation. So because the British now need to get their money back and need to keep their trade going, because the whole of the British system in India is dependent on this opium being sold for a whole range of reasons, this solution, this victory of Commissioner Lyn cannot be allowed to remain. So next episode, we'll see what happens.
- [48:45]
William Dalrymple
Yes, I mean, if you can't wait, you know, as I always say when we do these miniseries, if you can't wait for the normal day when these things come out, all you need to do is join the club and then you get these things all in one big go. So thank you very much for listening. EmpirePoduk.com is where you have to go. EmpowerPoduk.com it's very good. There's a Discord community. You get early access to things and you get, you know, sort of book lists and a newsletter, which is really very, very good. And also do press the follow button if you're new to us. I know a lot of you have joined during our island series and we have loved that and loved meeting you, a lot of you getting in touch about that. So, you know, if you do want to stay with us, we'd love you to stay. Talking about Victorian Narco's best title series ever. The biggest drug dealers in world history. What happens next when Queen Victoria catches sight of her credit card bill? It's not going to be good. Join us. Then it's goodbye from me, Anita Arnan.
- [49:44]
Anita Anand
Goodbye from me, William durimple.
- [49:53]
David McCloskey
I'm David McCloskey, former CIA analyst turned spy novelist.
- [49:56]
Gordon Carrera
And I'm Gordon Carrera, national security journalist.
- [49:59]
David McCloskey
And together we're the hosts of the Rest Is Classified, where we bring you brilliant stories from the world of spies.
- [50:04]
Gordon Carrera
This week, we're talking about one of the most significant stories of the 21st century, Edward Snowden, and how he orchestrated the biggest leak of classified secrets in modern American and British history.
- [50:15]
David McCloskey
Snowden revealed that the American government was mass collecting data on its own citizens. And it was really the first time that Americans and so many others around the world understood the extent of the US Government's mass surveillance.
- [50:28]
Gordon Carrera
That's right. It's a story I covered at the time. And it also really gets to wider questions about what privacy means, how technology has changed our lives, and what the government and companies can do with data we might have thought was private.
- [50:40]
David McCloskey
And we'll take you through the whole, whole story, from Snowden's early career in the CIA and the NSA to his life in exile in Russia.
- [50:47]
Gordon Carrera
So to hear more, search for the rest is classified. Wherever you get your podcasts.