The Opium WarsBertrand Russell once said: Power is sweet; it is a drug, the craving for which increases with habit. Power addiction is equivalent to a drug, once you get used to the same amount you want more. In the 1840s, England and China had two different ideas about what trade and power meant to them. England wanted China to see them as equal trading partners and China was the main exporter at the time. Before the opium trade began, Britain traded silver for silk and tea; although after a while England had no more silver to give to China. To remain close to the main empire and be seen as an equivalent trading partner, England traded in opium that was grown on the Indian subcontinent and then shipped to China. The opium trade intensified the violent conflict between China and Britain, which resulted in short-term and long-term effects. After receiving the drug for a while, the Chinese government and society began to revolve around the after-effects of addiction. The effects of the drug have affected much of China, including the government and the entire society. How can a drug have the ability to cause so much harm? According to Frank Dikötter, “Opium could be alternately or simultaneously a medical product, a recreational object, a badge of social distinction, and a symbol of elite culture [later transformed into the most addictive narcotic with the capacity to bring down an entire nation ]” (46). The drug changed the way China was viewed, opium was now seen as a sign of wealth and power. If you could get hold of this drug, you would have the upper hand in society. Just as in trade, Britain wanted to have the upper hand in trade with the rest of the world. In Travis Hanes' study of...... paper countries......, the little drug of opium still managed to leave its traces for the whole world to know. Works Cited Dikötter, Frank, Lars Peter Laamann and Xun Zhou. Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Print, accessed February 17, 2014. Hanes, William Travis, and Frank Sanello. Opium Wars: The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2002. Print. Accessed February 23, 2014Lin Wen-chung kung cheng-shu, vol. 2, roll 3. This letter was dated August 27, 1839.Merwin, Samuel. Drugging a nation, the history of China and the curse of opium; a personal investigation, during an extensive tour, into the current conditions of the opium trade in China and its effects on the nation. New York: F.H. Revell Company, 1908. Print, accessed March 4 2014.