Tientsin, the largest commercial city in Chih-li, the metropolitan province of China, is situated at the junction of the Peiho and the Hun-ho, which is connected by the grand Canal with the Yangtsze-kiang. It is a prefectural city, and has, since the conclusion of the foreign treaties, become the residence of the viceroy of fee province during a great portion of the year.

The importance of Tientsin has been enhanced by the railways connecting it with Peking on the one hand and with Shanhai-kwan and Manchuria on the other. The British concession, in which the trade centres, is situated on the right bank of the river Peiho below the native city, and occupies some 200 acres. It is held on a lease in perpetuity granted by the Chinese government to the British Crown, which sublets plots to private owners in the same way as is done at Hankow. Besides the British concession the French, Germans, Russians, Japanese, Austrians, Italians and Belgians have separate settlements, five miles in all, the river front being governed by foreign powers.

In 1853 Tientsin was besieged by an army of T’aip’ing rebels, which had been detached from the main force at Nanking for the capture of Peking. The defences of Tientsin, saved the capital, and the rebels were forced to retreat. Five years later Lord Elgin, accompanied by the representative of France, steamed up the Peiho, after having forced the barriers at Taku, and took peaceable possession of the town. Here the treaty of 1858 was signed.

But in 1860, in consequence of the treacherous attack made on the British plenipotentiary the preceding year at Taku, the city and suburbs were occupied by an allied British and French force, and were held for two years. The city was constituted an open port. On the establishment of Roman Catholic orphanages some years later the pretensions of the priests so irritated the people that on the occurrence to an epidemic in the schools in the year 1870 they attacked the French and Russian establishments and murdered twenty-one of the foreign inmates, besides numbers, of their native followers. The Chinese government suppressed the riot, paid ?80,000 in compensation and sent a representative to Europe to apologize for the outbreak.

It is unnecessary here to give the full terms of the Treaty of Tientsin, but one of the provisions of the Treaty, that of legalizing the opium trade, calls for some remarks as it had much to do with the commercial life of Shanghai.
After the first war with Great Britain, the trade in opium had been declared illegal. In the American Treaty of Wanghsia, 1844, as Mr. Cushing pointed out, it was expressly stipulated that “In regard to opium, which is not directly mentioned in the English treaties, it is provided by the Treaty of Wanghsia, that citizens of the United States engaged in this or any other contraband trade shall receive no protection from the American Government, nor shall the flag of the United States be abusively employed by other nations as a cover for the violation of the laws of China.”

The attempt to keep out opium resulted in a disastrous failure, and led to smuggling on an extensive scale, in which American ships played no small part. At Shanghai, but moored at Woosung, were a large number of receiving ships. Up to 1854 there were ten; four for opium consigned to British firms, four to Jewish or Parsee firms, and two to American firms. In 1854 the two American ships were withdrawn from service.

Swift and well-armed clipper schooners carried the opium from point to point along the coast. The arming of these ships and of the receiving ships was not for the purpose of forcing the noxious drug on the people, as some hostile critics have stated, but for the purpose of guarding against pirates. The drug was in great demand and found ready purchasers, who obtained it from the receiving ships. The officials connived at the illegal traffic, inasmuch as they could obtain large revenue by taxing the smugglers.

In October 1856, Guangzhou police boarded the British ship Arrow and charged its crew with smuggling. Eager to gain more trading rights, the British used the incident to launch another offensive, precipitating the Second Opium War. British forces, aided by the French, won another quick military victory in 1857. When the Chinese government refused to ratify the Treaty of Tientsin, which had been signed in 1858, the hostilities resumed. In 1860, after British and French troops had occupied Beijing and burned the Summer Palace, the Chinese agreed to ratify the treaty. The treaty opened additional trading ports, allowed foreign emissaries to reside in Beijing, admitted Christian missionaries into China, and opened travel to the Chinese interior.

The Chinese Government, having become convinced that it was impossible to prohibit the importation of opium, and that the attempt resulted in lawless smuggling, adopted a change of policy. In the negotiations carried on for drawing up the Treaty of Tientsin, Lord Elgin proposed the legalization of the opium trade to the Chinese deputies.

To this they agreed on the following terms:
“Opium was to pay Taels. 30 per picul import duty.
The importer was to sell it only at the port.
It was to be carried into the interior by Chinese only, and only on Chinese property; the foreign trader would not be allowed to accompany it.
The passport and transit dues were not to be extended to it, and the transit dues were to be arranged as the Chinese Government saw fit.
And tariff revision was not to apply to opium.”

The opium traffic, whether carried on legally or illegally, resulted in great harm to China, and we have arrived now at a time when specious arguments are no longer used to defend it. Condemned, both on moral and physical grounds, the great problem confronts the nations as to the best way of limiting the drug to its legitimate uses in all countries. China has never been able to deal with the problem effectively.

Prohibition led to smuggling. Legalization of the trade led to the more rapid spread of the habit throughout the country, and to the planting of the poppy in China itself. The agreement on the part of the British Government in 1908 to restriction of the importation of Indian opium into China, and to ultimate prohibition led for a time to a crusade for the suppression of the planting of the poppy. Recent years, however, have brought a recrudescence of its cultivation, and although for many years Great Britain has prohibited the export of Indian opium to China, opium still remains one of the great curses of the country.

Tag: The Treaty of Tientsin