Thread by @sidart_misra

🧵How a Company, in order to solve their problem of Trade Deficit (arisen due to a newfound addiction), will end up running a drug cartel. How Birth of Israel is related to Opium, all this in this Thread on the JOY PLANT

1/26
Sumerians, the mysterious folks from ancient Mesopotamia started cultivating something which they named as Hul Gil (“joy plant”). Later Greeks associated it with their three Gods: Hypnos (sleep), Nyx (night), and Thanatos (death). They named it as ópion (juice of a plant)

During Islamic Golden Age, it was rediscovered as a medicine, so much so that Ibn Sina (famous alchemist) proclaimed it as Allah's gift. As the Arab were the driving force of the World trade (of that time), they would then introduce this to India, with Baghdad as Epicenter.

By 15th Century a Swiss physician <Paracelsus’s theory: “what makes you ill, may also be used to cure you.”>. He created and named a pill as laudanum, and thus re-introduce opium to Europe. He is also credited for Homeopathy-as an alternative medical practice <feeding Poisons>.

4/26
Anyways, Cat (JOY) was out of the bag now. While Europe will come to know that this New Pill was not curing anyone but was just Making Them Feel Good, after a long time. God’s Medicine was a rave and was going hand-in-hand with the development of Wester Medical Science

Alchemist-2-Chemist, they started isolating and mixing it with other elements. In 1805 German pharmacist Friedrich Sertürner, created a powerful painkiller and named it as Morphine (after the Roman God of Dream)

6/26
Let's go back a few decades. South Sea Bubble had happened and as a result, had almost created a Bengal Bubble (1769). East India Company was under huge pressure to prove that they are a Solid Biz, not just a Bubble. Read more

https://twitter.com/sidart_misra/status/1261288805849391105

One of the Key item they were bullish on was Opium, which they started cultivating in their controlled land of Bengal. They decided to intensify the production and exports back in Britain. Soon, Patna in India will become the Epicenter of this “ghulami ki kheti" (a slave’s crop).

8/26
For the next 100 years, EIC will act as the Biggest Drug Cartel in Human History. Warren Hastings will start shipping opium to China by 1781. It will be used to treat wounded soldiers in the American Civil War.

Trade Triangle: Britain was addicted to Tea, which was only grown in China and who wanted Silver in return of their Tea. The balance of trade was adversely affecting EIC, since the Silver was coming from Spanish <via their New world Colonies>

Qing Empire had banned the import in 1729 itself. But as they say, Supply creates its own demand. So, EIC decided to push their shipments of Patna Opium into China. They simply auctioned opium to Smugglers and Traders. Canton was the only Chinese port open to foreign traders.

11/26
EIC-a Private enterprise with their courage, audacity and deceit, was changing the Human and Business History. The trade balance of the Tea imports which could have made China a rich nation was now suffering to their biggest crisis, and we were the mute contributor

1839, in order to act strong China, closed the Canton port & took hostage all the British Traders. A ship carrying the Opium was attacked in a covert attack. All this was a good reason for EIC to start an Opium War. China lost both the wars & EIC was now Scott free in their trade

13/26
1840s Britain: a lot of information had been written on the possible bad impacts of this God’s Drug. Gradually, people began to turn against it, though it wouldn’t be until 1868 when a new Pharmacy Act regulated the sale of opium-based products.

All this further intensified the Opium Push to China, and there were a bunch of Indian Traders who were acting as partner-in-crime. While the Bombay's Parsis were minting a lot of money (including the House of Tata). There was someone else also

15/26
The Bagdad Connection: For centuries Baghdad was the Epicenter of Opium. By 1871, a refugee from an affluent Baghdad merchant family would come to India. As He had a great domain knowledge about the quality of Opium, it would not take much time to make a mark

David Sassoon soon dominated the India opium trade, at time they controlled ~70% of the total trade. He claimed to be descended from King David, and come from the family of the opium traders of Mesopotamia.

17/26
His company will soon be the successor to Jardine- Matheson & Company, controlling auctions to shipping of the Opium in China. At the same time, he was pitching for Opium as Cure in Europe. So he even opened a leprosy hospital in Britain.

Such was his power that when Rutherford Alcock, as an ambassador to China wanted to discourage Opium by enhancing the Duty, Sassoons ensured that Parliament ignored it. The House will become too big to fail by that time.

19/26
They will diversify into Cotton mills (like the fellow Parsi Opium Trader), later help in setting up of Bank of India (1906), and Victor Sassoon will do a lot of development in Shanghai (Hotels). Today one of his Mansion houses the People’s Armed Police office.

Infact, one can connect the creation of a Nation with this family. Rachel Sassoon Beer married a German-English banker and converted to Christianity. And, soon was an Editor. She fought for Alfred Dreyfus and

21/26
Later it was the Dreyfus Affair<it took him 12 years to get the justice> that was one of the key trigger points in inspiring Theodor Herzl to ask for the State of Israel. Having fed up living the life of refuge in different nations.

Coming back to China, Opium entered in their Royal Courts by 15th C via Dutch and Portuguese as an art of alchemists and sex enhancer for court ladies, was by the end of Second Opium war was legalize for trade.

23/26
At the start, fraudulent assurance was given to their public that opium was a “cure” for a variety of diseases, and was extensively fed to Sex slaves. At peak, 90% of the male population in the coastal areas were addicted to smoking opium

To undo the ‘century of national humiliation’ <they had lost many Ports to EIC and were also forced to pay an indemnity of $20>. Taiping Rebellion got started, followed by the Nien Rebellion. Over 20 Million people will be killed.

Today the history of opium is a major theme in modern Chinese history. But then the World of Action-Reaction is often amusing. As today’s China which was devastated by an act of Mad Political Economy, now wants to do almost the same to the rest of the world.

Today India is the ONLY nation allowed to extract gum opium. But in the end, all this Trade Triangle almost only helped Britain. By the time EIC was dissolved, Britain’s economy was double the size of those of China and India, a complete reversal of the situation from the 1600s.