Empire: World History - 252. Victorian Narcos: Selling Drugs To The Queen (Ep 6)

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Who was Commissioner Lin and how did he crack down on foreign opium in China? Why was Charles Elliot so hopeless that he landed Queen Victoria with a bill owing millions to drug dealers? What was the Canton factory system and what was it like to live there?  Anita and William meander through the at-times shocking story of how Victorian drug dealers willingly handed over millions of pounds worth of their product to Commissioner Lin, the emperor’s right-hand man. Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, our exclusive newsletter, and access to our members’ chatroom on Discord! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.  Email: [e-mail] Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpowerpoduk.com. And welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William Duremberg. And we continue our Victorian Narco's 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 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. Both these men continue to operate centre stage. I've been reading, in a sense, several episodes ahead. And they continue to be at the centre 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-it-heels aristocrat and clan chief, who come together along with their brilliant Parsi partner. And they almost single-handedly, A, create the crisis, which resolves in the open 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 years, completely racist statements about what the Chinese are. how they're not creating this problem of opium addiction, they're merely servicing and 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 over Iran.

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. In one hand, they're obviously creating addiction and more and more people that 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 medline 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 Dao Guang 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 he even wrote a nice poem about it. Yeah, but not a serious opium adding. But, I mean, his problem was, I mean, we're talking about a rain 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 Jardina Matheson point out, you know, there's so much corruption in the court. you can make 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 and 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. Well, as this episode will show, there are still many strengths to the Chinese system. And I think it's important to recognise 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 tongue dinners. 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 caliber. 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. Oh, that's really interesting.

Because initially, I mean, the ones who go out are sort of the sons of friends. Yeah. You know, sort of thick. You like milkshake, thick and sweet and they're not very capable. But then when the competitive exam comes along, you have a whole different cadre of people who are much more effective in the Indian Civil Service. 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 at this period.

And I think there is a strong argument to be made that it is on the Chinese model. Tell me about Commissioner Lin, because I'm absolutely fascinated, because he 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's issue, who certainly seems like a man of great capability who rises through the ranks. 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 these.

India Company. It's often those people who've fallen on relatively hard times but have memories of grandi who send their kids out to India with a view to reestablishing the family fortune. So this is very much what Lin Zhe Xu is doing. His family are from Southeast China, a declining landholding 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. 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 Lynn, who becomes a very celebrated figure and is again now a celebrated figure. There's actually a statute 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 and a broken down three-room department with the north wind howling angrily, one lamp on the wall, young and old were sit 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 1811, 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 Lynn, clear as heaven. He's regarded as incorruptible,

as incredibly honest. And he is the equivalent of the topper in the ICS exams. 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 as metal as an administrator. I mean, they're not glamorous jobs, but they're ones that you need to really be on top of everything in 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, we really need to look at what is effective for the greatest number of people. So people begin to know his name, Lynn, clear as heaven.

And he becomes very quickly one of the emperor's favourite ministers. And what is the rank that you get when you're a favourite of the emperor? Commissioner. So that's as high as it gets. 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 drug issue. On opium on what to do with this growing criminalisation, with this loss of silver and with this growing problem with 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 Dauguan. And he, in the first round, suggests encouraging Chinese farmers to grow poppies and legalize it as you're not selling 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 Elliott, who's another key character in this episode and who will become the man who has to grapple with the brilliant Commissioner Lynn. And this is the same Charles Elliott 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. Exactly. And this character is given a post that is created at the moment that the East Indy Company loses its monopoly. Up to this point, the East Indy Company has had a monopoly of trade with China. And so the only legal representative of the British is the East Indy Company. But after the East Indy Company lose that position, the government has a step in and appoint someone to be in charge of this sort of raucous bunch of Scottish brigands who,

were 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 who are And often more influential. You 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 child? That is a very fair assessment. 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 a geography teacher, than anything else, sort of white-haired, staring off into the distance, a slightly weak chin. He doesn't strike a, you know, a ferocious image. 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.

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 can. Which is why. when he reads Commissioner Lynn's paper saying we should legalise 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 in their right mind really wants to take on. And he forwards Commissioner Lynn's paper, can't we all just get along?

And he forwards the Commissioner Lynn's paper to Palmerston with a letter that says, these documents are remarkable as a series of papers as has 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.

You're quite right. It is out of date. By the time Elliot 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. to be and I can just navigate this trait. 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 Juzet, I hope I said it right, has submitted another memorial on APM and he has a whole new approach of tackling it. What he says we should do is not legalize it, Commissioner Lin. That's not the answer. That is not what we do. We need a ruthiest 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 can get rid of them, then there would be no foreign interference and no foreign trade going on here. He's quite hardcore, Huang Zee. He is like draconian punishments. I mean, tell us what he was

saying should happen to those people who take drugs. He proposes a one-year grace period where everyone can wean themselves off their opium. Basically, get clean or we get mean. And after that, not just get mean, anyone who's found smoking opium should be executed. Okay, that's quite mean. That's fairly mean. You kill the trade by killing the consumers.

Right. Okay. Good. 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 smokers.

problem like we do, they're saying, because they just kill them. Now, this, of course, isn't the case, but it goes down very well at court. And the Dauguan 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 was 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 that up in the palace. So he endorses this and Lin-Shay-Zu, 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 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. It's probably what he's thinking, because the proposal is pretty black of light. When they see their bosses changing their opinions, they very quickly change their opinions too. And he then comes up with his own detail plan to support suppression. And what he suggests, what Linus-Shay-Sheu 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. This sounds just like American prohibition, by the way, smashing stills, invading speak-easies, you know, arresting anybody who's peddling booze anywhere. I don't think in prohibition, it's just an executing whiskey trick. You have a year to dry out or would kill you. No, that's true. They don't go as far as that. But there is the whiff of that kind of prohibition will smash everything up. So this thing doesn't exist anymore.

It's not a problem anymore. Commissioner Lynn comes up with the very sort of liberal ideas. He wants to establish hospitals to treat users and this sort of thing. He's a subtle man, and 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 favoured.

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 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. 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 Barbertson saying. They're going to legalise it. It's all going to be fine. It's all going to be fine. Commissioner Lynn is on his way south with sort of extraordinary powers to smash everything up. Just reflecting on what you said before of it, you know, who 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 legalisation because it doesn't go away. You know, Lynn writes the initial memorial on this thing,

I think we should legalise 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 it? about taxes. Can we just have a chat about it? And the emperor does, I mean, you know, for a week emperor, he takes very decisive action and he just weeds them all out of court. So Lynn has jumped to the right side just in time, really, because this is 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

Eliot, they may have got this wrong. Well, Charles did that have you got any idea of what's about to hit him. And instead, Lin-Shay-Zu is making a sort of imperial progress with all his assistant. 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 his 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 She-Chan.

And Bao advises him to clear a muddy stream, you must purify the source. To put a law into effect, you must feel. first create order within. And Lynn 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 metaphorical materials begin to hit the fan. I was going to think of the same thing. Yes. It's like this is the moment. You just heard it. Yes. This is it. Okay. 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. I think everyone's known who's been dealing with it. Yeah, it's not a secret. You know 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.

And we're wearing very expensive silks, round them up as well. Yeah. 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 it in a week. Wow. Okay. It's a real round-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 APM. So, so Canton is in the dock, 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, you know, and actually says, 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 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. 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 bureaucrat. So, you know, 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 in the bowels to press. So when you all kind of almost blinkered that way, you can't look at foreign policy.

You're not a foreign policy, Mandarin, if you like. But on December the 3rd, 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. Yeah, a factory. 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 the 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 the 12th, a small body of soldiers appear in the plaza area in front of the factory, not on the river side, but on the backside of the factory compounds. And they rather ominously erect a wooden cross in preparation for an execution. Crucifiction? I mean, why a cross?

I think he's going to be certainly tied up on the cross, but he's going to be strangled rather than crucified. Right. 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 Lynn wants the foreigners to know that they're in the cross hairs now. And so this cross is erected and a scuffle takes place because apparently it's some sailors take offence 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 sedatives begin to shove the crowd and they hit the people with sticks. And that's the point in 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 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 the stage, several thousand people are pelting foreigners, 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. So we're talking about Chinese soldiers who come to maintain order, right? Yes, there are no British soldiers at this moment anywhere near here. 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 the British interests in the factory. 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 Elliott turns up, because he has got ships and he's got his armed sailors and 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. evening time, everyone's gone home and 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, you know, the Iranians breaking into the British embassy in Tehran. and it was it in 1979, but they would be an overrun. And so Elliot realizes this is now a

very serious escalation that had a gun as 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 it, in the days after the riots, he issues a proclamation ordering all British vessels carrying opium to depart the inner waters of Canton immediately. 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 their 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 the 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. So James Matheson, who never is one to shut up if he can possibly create a ruckus, writes that Elliot has adopted the novel course of assisting the government of China against his own countrymen. He's 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 Elliott, is going to be sort of the night and shining armour and sort it all out. Instead, it's going to be trampled under the feet of the people he despises, who are the ruffians who never listened to him anyway. But actually he's right, because this is a crisis point. This is the moment when Commissioner Lin has realised that he now has to do something specifically against the foreign factories. This is one of my favourite moments. So Commissioner Lynn, who is an orderly fellow as we know and likes to do things by the book. First of all, in a very civilised 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 open production in her dominions. Can you quote the letter? Because the letter is a thing of beauty. 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-Sha-Shu. And then the next day,

having issued this morning, 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. 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 he abhorred the excesses of Bertie, her son, who was, you know, drunk. most of the time. There may have been some sympathy of, you know, what are we doing? 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. It has been, 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 offence. against this letter. He says we understand. Somehow, it's not your fault, but. Yeah. Okay. So, so what happens with this three-day automatim? So that's not long to resolve the matter or actually let it climb into a huge conflagration. 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 Mathisans are absolutely not going to give their opium away. But then Lin-Shakshakshu realizes that it's time to step up the pressure. So he announces that no foreign merchants would be allowed to leave the factory.

until all the opium is surrendered. And they've got a sign a bond promising never to trade it ever again. So at each stage he's ratcheting up 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. Well, they're not pleased with what happens next, which is that the Commissioner Thin 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 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. 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.

Welcome back. So just before the break, you've got basically a face-off, which is now a face-off between two 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? 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. I was thinking omelets. Yes, yes, yes, yes. 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. I mean, I feel the same way when my valet's not here. Yes, it's pretty tricky. What to do?

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 home 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. And this is, remember, the height of imperial power. This is, you know, the British at their most impossible in 1830s with Palmerston 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 a blind panic by now. Certainly the Chinese Hong merchants are. And they resist this, but it's clear that Commissioner Lin, means business. So by the following day, the 22nd of March, the suggestions that 4,000 chests of opium are going to have to be handed over in order to keep Commissioner Lynn from killing their friends. Then one of the British officials who, I think, was charged with pulling down the

cross of the execution or 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 very 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, Dean doesn't want to go in very obviously for a very good reason. Understandably. And just to add to the pressure, the two Hong merchants who are up for execution the following morning are paraded in chains with iron collars outside the gate. So Lynn 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 Elliott comes to the compound on the 24th of March. Just to remind people, Charles Elliott is the 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. And this is typical of Evelius. He's always doing this one. He comes in and says, I'm here to protect Lancelot Dent. I will remain with you to my last gas, he says.

They all sort of groaned around it 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, it'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 just been sort of smuggled in. So no one's starving. It's not like there. So it 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 any of it 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 that. And he doesn't seem to realise, because he's this sort of sort of do-goody character who's been wrestling and slaves. Did you discuss this? Did you focus group this with anybody at all? He doesn't realize that the total cost of the opium sitting in Jardine Matheson's locker is $10 million. dollars. Oh my word. Oh my word. So he's gallantly come long. I'm going to save everything.

No worry. No worry. Just tell me how much I owe you. She'll sort this out. It'll be fine. You'll get your money. It'll be fine. You can just imagine that the slight 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. It's my idea. Since you're buying it. Here we go. I have no problem with that. All these guys... 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. But at the end of four days, no less than 20,283 chas of opium have been delivered into his care. Can I just say, Lynn did offer to let them go for 4,000 chests. 20,000. This is some of the worst bargaining

in the history of debilbert. We should love by 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, is the result of this mess. But the people who, of course, who are delighted are Jardini Matheson and their mates the smugglers. 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. Jardy Mathisans 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. Brilliant.

She's our... Best customer to Queen Vic Who's just brought all of our drunks Hooray God save the Queen Just a decade's worth of opium Do you know what though

Just 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's going to fling in his face And go you what We haven't got ten million dollars

To buy your opium In the mid-19th century 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. Poor guy.

It would have been in his shoes. 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 over me so they can do whatever they want. However, he's trying to do the right thing. What else is he going to do? It isn't just the Brits so happy. Apparently even some of the American houses have surrendered opium saying someone's got some British connection.

Since you're paying, your majesty, we've heard you're in the market. For some opium. We've got some opium. You can have ours as well. Result. Okay. Anyway, Commissioner Lynn, of course, can't believe his luck when 20,000 chess of opium turned up following. Well, yeah, I know.

He's one. Right. He's one. I mean, a hand, absolutely blinding game. He's basically cleansed canton of opium. I mean, it's amazing, actually. As far as Commissioner Lin and the Chinese in Canton are concerned, this is games that match, they've won this round.

Being the gentleman that he is, and always exquisitely plight, having written his nice letter to Queen Victoria's saying it wasn't her fault that she didn't know because she's a foreigner. However. Don't blame you. 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. Polite but very finger-waggy. It's annoying. It's good to annoy them, isn't it? 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 Baloo, puns with the phrase promotion guaranteed.

So it's a sort of literary pun. And Lynn, again, being the kind of perfect gentleman, kowtows to the robot meat nine times. And he's in such a good mood that he composes a poem to Lichies, which are in flower at that moment. Such a weird story. Can I read it? Yes, I'm so weird.

Yes, go on. Mists and reigns from foreign seas, darken Lin Tin. suddenly I received a carved platterful of stars, aating, smiling young ladies, your kindness refreshes like the green of the lichies. 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 its custody

from all over the place? What happens to that? Well, in retrospect, you know, it would have been in Commissioner Lynn's interest if he just tucked it into a warehouse somewhere, so that he can, you know, 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. The Tigers Mouth, when you say Tiger's Mouth is a bay in Canton. Is it just a place where you can lean over and look at the sea? Okay. And he crushes the opium balls and wards. 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 apologising for polluting the river. He's got a lot of time for poetry

for a busy man. 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 civilised world this. And so it looks like game set and match to Commissioner Lynn. Elliot's in deep trouble. Jardine and Matheson as ever also feel that they've won. They've sold all of their drugs to the Queen. What's not to be happy about? As has 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 in apologising, writing poetry to apologise to the water, fine. But what about those people who are in there? 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 Matheson and more specifically. It's like looking at the end of the month going, I didn't buy this.

What? 28,000 Chessamon. What is this? I did not I did not buy this. Not me, Gov. Exactly.

Uh-huh. So this, we're laughing, but this is the becomes the cause of the appellate. This is what causes the opinion. This ridiculous decision by Elliot to just go ahead

and pay everybody full whack for their opinion, 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 Lynn cannot be allowed to remain. So next episode, we'll see what happens. Yes. I mean, if you can't wait, you know, as I always say, when we do these mini-series, 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. Empirpoduk.com is where you have to go. Empirepodukuk.com. It's very good. There's a Discord community. You get early access to things. And you don't, 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've joined during our Ireland 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 Narcos' best title for a 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 Arnhon. Goodbye from me, William Drupal.