quality:corruption
First Opium War

In earlier centuries, opium was utilised as a medicine with anesthetic qualities, but new Chinese practices of smoking opium recreationally increased demand tremendously and often led to smokers developing addictions. Successive Chinese emperors issued edicts making opium illegal in 1729, 1799, 1814, and 1831, but imports grew as smugglers and colluding officials in China sought profit. Some American merchants entered the trade by smuggling opium from Turkey into China, including Warren Delano Jr. and Francis Blackwell Forbes; in American historiography this is sometimes referred to as the Old China Trade. By 1833, the Chinese opium trade soared to 30,000 chests, that is, 2,310 tonnes (5.1 million pounds).