Letter translated from Chinese about opium, 1836

Transcript

Of those who use it to great excess, the breath becomes feeble, the body wasted, the face sallow, the teeth black: the individuals themselves clearly see the evil effects of it, yet cannot refrain from it. It is indeed indisputably necessary to enact severe prohibitions in order to eradicate so evil a practice.

On enquiry, I find that there are three types of opium: one is called Company’s, the outer covering it is black, and it is also called ‘black earth’; it comes from Bengal; a second kind is called ‘white-skin’, and comes from Bombay; the third kind is called ‘red-skin’, and comes from Madras. These are all places belonging to England.

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Formerly, the barbarian merchants brought foreign money to China; which, being paid in exchange for goods, was a source of pecuniary [financial] advantage to the people of all the sea-board provinces. But latterly, the barbarian merchants have clandestinely [secretly] sold opium for money; which has rendered it unnecessary for them to import foreign silver. Thus foreign money [i.e., silver] has been going out of the country, while none returns.