Customer Reviews

Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade 1750-1950 (Asia's Transformations)

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This book is an excellent study of the infamous opium trade, `the most long-continued and systematic crime of modern times'. And who committed this crime? The pious, canting, hypocritical Christian rulers of the British Empire!
Throughout the 19th century, the British ruling class paid for its ever more expensive empire by producing opium in India and exporting it to China. The British state promoted, protected and profited from the trade. Revenue from the opium trade financed all its governments in Southeast Asia.
By the 1830s, opium was the largest commerce of the time in any single commodity. In 1860, the British Indian government legalised India's narcotics trade with China as a government monopoly, run by the Opium Department. It became the Indian government's second largest source of revenue.
Trocki wrote, "So long as there was considerable profit in the drug, the enterprise was protected and given a safe haven in British India. ... the continued legal production of the drug in British India effectively prevented the eradication of drug use elsewhere." "if Britain did not provide a safe and legal haven for the trade, it could not flourish."
"The records show that the Indian government and the Colonial Office were constantly at pains to maximize profits and to protect, at almost any cost, the opium revenue of India. ... British authorities fought tenacious battles throughout the 1890s and into the twentieth century to preserve the opium system against reformers or opponents. So long as the British government profited from and perpetuated the opium industry, there could be no stopping it. It was the persistence in protecting the trade and preserving the revenues that seems the most reprehensible element of British policy during these years."
He concludes, "without the drug, there probably would have been no British Empire." "In their dreams, the empire, the Raj, was a great and glorious enterprise. It was also a global drug cartel which enslaved and destroyed millions and enriched only a few. The image of the Raj was itself a delusion created by opium."
And now the present pious, canting, hypocritical Christian rulers of Britain have the gall to praise the global drug cartel that was the Empire!

Most histories are about countries, cultures, or some social unit tightly bounded in space and time. Following the history of opium allows Trocki to show the inherent connection between regions (Europe, India, Southeast Asia, China), policies (free trade, monopoly, war), development of capitalism and the material basis of colonial exploitation, and the European hand in the creation of the Third world. Trocki's great strength is that he tells the story with evidence: numbers, charts, photos, and documentation. The result is that a complex, organic, and fascinating world opens up to the reader.

This is not a polemical work. However, its evidence and narrative undermine what ever is left of the European claim to bringing civilization. Trocki opens and closes the book with Joseph Conrad's peerless vision into the European heart of darkness.

If you are one of those who appreciate sweeping generalizations, unsubstantiated declarations, and retrospective morality this is the book for you. One has to give Trocki credit for a concerted effort, and it is clear that he chases his mission with a vengeance. The thesis is controversial to say the least: "Without opium there would have been no British Empire." Many will be turned off by such a bombastic declaration, and, knowing this, Trocki does go in with all guns blazing. But no question, he shoots wide of the mark.

Besides the simple question of layout and direction of argument (which does not support the declared thesis) there are out-of-context and simply wrong quotations both of secondary authors and his own primary sources. Trocki makes extensive use of sarcastic remarks to drive home is own (presumably Marxist) political views and they can really irritate, especially when he is factually wrong. Trocki is not a historian but has tried his hand at historical research, and from this point alone he certainly made a poor impression.

To be fair, some of his later chapters are thoroughly interesting, as they concentrate on the author's own research area of South East Asia where he has undeniable expertise. Also, unless you reject post-modern historiography out of hand, it is always interesting to see a scholar attempt to create an entire weltbild out of his research and tie it in to other major developments worldwide. Personally, I think this is what historical research should be about. Trocki, however, could easily have damaged the entire budding genre with this book. If you want to read about British-Indian opium production, stick with Singh, or better yet, Amar Farooqui's new book 'Smuggling as Subversion.'