Message from mpailes

[Anonymous]

I thought this was an interesting lecture, partly because we are moving closer and closer to the time when my grandparents and great grandparents lived. I thought the information about the British East India Company was particularly interesting, especially how they basically propagated the Opium Wars for England. My grandmother's father was a high-level customs officer in England (for the Crown) after The Opium Wars, but not too long after. What a sad state of affairs that after almost three centuries we still throw money in the wind trying to "fight" drugs. I thought the economic information regarding copper coins and silver tael's was fascinating as well. In 1729 there were 200 chests of opium brought into China. A little more than 100 years later there were 23,570 chests brought in. I wonder how many are being brought in now...