essay check writing and footnotes

Lai:

Chinese Opium Trade and Manufacture in British Columhia, ¡858-I90S .tow. July 1999. Vol. 38, No. 3 — 21 Chinese Opium Trade and Manufacture in British Columbia, 1858-1908 David Chuenyan Lai Opium and the Chinese are so closely associated in our minds that the mention of one calls up thoughts of the other. Visitors to Chinatown . . .

usually express disappointment at the fact that they did not see at least one haggard, parchment-col- ored wretch staggering on the street under the influence of the pipe.' T HE IDENTIFICATION of Chinatown with opium dens is not surprising. Until 1908, the import, manufacture, and use of opium was per- fectly legal in Canada. It was a significant source of govemment revenue and an important part of the econo- my of Victoria's Chinatown.

The history of the opium trade and manufacture in British Columbia can be traced to the cultivation of opium in India and its export to Hong Kong. Papaver Somniferum, commonly known as the poppy, was wide- ly grown in British plantations in Malwa, Benares, and Behar (or Patna) in India during the eariy 19th century.- Early every moming, the capsules of the poppy were incised. White milky juice exuded from the incisions throughout the day and was concreted into a dark brown mass by the sun's heat. In the evening, the mass was scraped off, thickened, and made into balls of gum-like raw opium.' Once placed into wooden chests varying in weight from 125 to 140 pounds and bearing the name of origin (Malwa. Benares, or Behar), the opium was shipped to Hong Kong and other ports in China. In 1837, for example, about 40,000 chests, valued at $25 million were exported there.^ After China was defeated in the Opium War (1839-1842), the export of opium from India to China increased to nearly 75,000 chests a year by 1858.' The East India Company, which monopolized the opium trade, made tremendous profits, and the opium trade generated vast revenues for the British colony of India. In the 1880s, for example, a 140-pound chest of opium cost about £127 of which £85 in export tax went to the Indian government's coffers." The British colony of Hong Kong was one of the greatest opium importers in China. The Hong Kong govemment usually issued licenses to any local mer- chant who wished to manufacture opium. However, in 1874 it changed its policy and called for tenders for the exclusive right of opium manufacturing. The Yen Wo Company and the Chop Sing Company secured the first and second four-year leases respectively by paying the Hong Kong government an annual fee of about $150,000.' When the second lease expired in 1882, the Sing Wo Company outbid other tenders and obtained the third lease for $130,000 per year. When the lease expired in 1886, some Singapore merchants formed the Fook Tuck Company and secured the lease by bidding $180,000. The Sing Wo Company then moved its operation to Macao where it manufactured the "Tai Yuen brand." This, the finest type of opium, was commonly imponed by Chinese merchants in Victoria, Canada.

Opium Imports and Revenues Like tea, rice, and other Chinese merchandise, opium was a common and legal import from China. Its arrival was routinely reported in the trade columns of local newspapers or advertised in city directories.** Opium could even serve as collateral. For example, in 1886, Kwong Lun Hing Co. in Victoria deposited ten boxes of opium with the California Safe Deposit and Trust Co. as security for a loan of $5.500.

Opium smoking instde an opium den m Chinatowti, Saturday, Sunset, Oct. 10. 1908 22 — .lOW. July 1999. Vol.

38.

No.

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Chinese Opium Trade and Manufacture in British Columhia, ¡858-1908 CORMORANT & OOVERNMENT STREETS, - VICTORIA, B. C.

RICE, SUGARS, Opium, Cliiiia*w"are and.

Imported Direct irom China.

Curios An advertisement of a Chinese company in Victoria.

Provincial Archives ot British Columbia FimiHIIIIIIIIUIUIIIUIIIII MM IIWI—!• |W«H CORPORATION VICTORIA CITY.

An opium license issued by the City ot Victoria, 1886.

Utiiversity ot Victoria.

Dept.

of Geography, Victoria, B.C.. Canada Table 1 Duty on Opium Imported into British Columbia, 1872-1899 Selected Years Amount of Duty 1874 1875 1876 1881 1887 1889 1890 1891 1892 1894 1895 1897 1899 $2,493 4,836 15,331 13,668 53,172 101,244 137.050 146,760 144,593 91,843 36,506 51.580 39,704 Source: Canada. Tables of the Trade and Navigation. Dominion of Canada.

Ottawa There were no regulations on the opium trade in the colony of Vancouver Island until March 1865.

That month.

Dr.

John S, Helmcken.

a member of the Vancouver Island legislature, introduced a motion to levy a tax or license fee of $100 on opium sellers." In Novetnber 1866, Vancouver Island was merged with the mainland colony, British Columbia, un- der the name of the latter. Since most sellers were Chinese, the license fee would make them pay their share of taxes and in- crease government revenue.

Dr, James Dickson, another legisla- tor, said this heavy tax would financially harm the three or lour western druggists in Vic- toria. Accordingly, the motion was amended to exempt drug- gists who sold opium by pre- scription.

In other words, only Chinese opium dealers were taxed and fmed if they sold opium without a license. When Dr. Helmcken introduced the motion, he did not have the slightest idea of how tnuch rev- enue it would raise for the colony.

While the license fee con- tributed to the local treasury, import duties on opium (see Table 1) imposed by the Canadian government after BritishColumbiajoined the Confederation in 1871 were an even greater source of government revenue. Opium destined for foreign ports did not have to pay the duty but had to be shipped in bond, and could not enter the local economy. Some idea of the volume of opium pass- ing through Victoria is indicated by Customs House records in Victoria.

In 1871.

for example, nine cases of opium weighing 1,440 pounds and valued at $4.050 were being held in bond.'" In the 1870s, after coal and fur, opium was British Columbia's third largest export to the United States." The opium trade was indeed impor- tant.

Local governments also earned revenue from the opium trade through license fees and fines.

In 1894, for example, of the $9,139 the City of Nanaimo derived from license fees, $500 came from opium licenses, sec- ond only to liquor licenses.'- In 1886, the opium license fee in Victoria was $250. Nine opium factories paid $2,250 to the city that year. Although information is scattered, fmes also contributed to municipal coffers.

In Lai:

Chinese Opium Trade and Manufacture in British Columbia, ¡858-1908 JOW. July 1999. Vol. 38, No. 3 — 23 1865, for example, a Chinese man was found guilty of selling opium without a license. His 74 cans of opium were imme- diately confiscated and sold for $290." In September 1874. in the Cariboo mining community of Van Winkle, Ah Chong was fined $30 for selling opium without a license.'"' Opium Factories The Kwong Lee, Tai Soong, and Yan Wo Sang companies were Victoria's first three opium importers. They set up factories to refine raw opium and operated opium dens where addicts lay smoking on beds. In the factories, the gum-like raw opium was dis- solved, boiled, roasted, and transformed into prepared opium, an extract suitable for consumption. Prepared opium sold for about $7 per pound during the 1860s; by the 1870s the price had increased to $10 per pound.

The Chinese population of British Columbia increased in the 1880s as con- tractors for the Canadian Pacific Railway imported Chinese laborers. More opium factories were built. All were located in Victoria, the only port of immigrant entry on Canada's Pacific Coast. The number of opium factories rose from about six in 1881 to eight in 1884.'- These were Kwong Lee, Tai Soong, Kwong On Tai, Lun Chung.

Kwong Chung, Bow Yuen, Tai Yune, and Fook Yen. In 1885, the Sing Wo Company of Macao set up a Victoria branch under the name of the Sing Won Chan Company.'" In an attempt to capture business from other established opium factories, the new com- pany reduced the price of prepared opium from $10 to $7 per pound, and promoted the sale of its famous "Tai Yuen brand." It lost $40,000 in its first three years of oper- ation, and its undercutting strategy reduced the business of other opium dens. Nevertheless, by 1888, 13 opium factories had an annual output of neariy 90.000 pounds at $15 per pound." Most were located on Cormorant Street between Govemment and Store streets (now Pandora Avenue), then the business center of Chinatown.

Opium Smuggling The growing Chinese population in British Columbia was but one reason for their success. Victoria was also the center for smuggling operations on the west coast of Canada. On November 17, 1880, the United States and China entered into a treaty by which the citizens or sub- jects of each country were prohibited from importing .tiid sltûiild Iki said HOlt, Of any pari i/urcnf, or the Merrsl ID ¿rate ¿ta Ihtttaii, ret dur a-id ii'ipaid after Hit saitu shauld lia:v becH paid, arcordmg lu Ihe lenor ef said ab!\

d &!¡¡rorni3 Safe Deposit an

of iJic abave-desirtbtd properly, or any purl ikereof, L-il/iiml precious ¡lolirr la ^-i^_.of aiiy ¡1.1/1 ¡aJr, i Ihe lo pity Ihe of dtlérii sl.

c/mr^c Ihe and Ihe cash of cs.

span demand, •tel valut of the ;dn Ike ml of .M af va/it defau/t th,eh dispûst í-ith ar Ig l/itrcfro^ nd ihe bttiaiiee, tj any, to pay e^ on of any of Ik promise and ag }ly in prnporlinH lo ¡ink delerioratwn ar deeru /¡all be (onsidered due under Ihe abme slipidalion.

¡lood.

if recourse is kad la Ihe iollalerats. any excess of col/alerah itpo, «pplkab/e la any other ¡lolt or claim held by said Company agniiist -T:.*-^ and m case af any ejcliange of or .iddilum la Ihe tol/alerals abo-je named, t/teprcnnsioHS of this not,- and agreement ¡ha// extend to siu/i iifa' or (idditmia/ cä/tdera/s. On the paytnetU of t/ie abitr note, interest and ¡/larga.

according to the terms thtreof, ihn agreement shall be void, and t/it above.described scianhes returned lo sah hl ih ll t/ii /fd under- s/lil/l be A security note by Kwong Lun Hing Co. to the California Safe Deposit and Trust Co., May 27, 1886.

University of Victoria Dept. of Geography, Victoria. B.C.. Canada opium into the other country."* As a result, Chinese opium merchants in the United States could no longer import opium directly from China and had to rely on opium merchants in Victoria or elsewhere. Smuggling from Victoria was common mainly because the duty on opium was $5 a pound in Canada but $10 in the United States." The prepared opium sold at $10 in Victoria but was worth $12 in London. Ontario, and $25 in Chicago.

Many smugglers were sailors, stewards, cooks, or petty officers on vessels that plied between American Pacific ports and Victoria. They formed pools to raise money to buy ten pounds of opium in Victoria.-" then hid it in secret places on board their vessels. Another common technique was to take the opium to the beaches at Ten 24 — JOW. July 1999. Vol. 38, No. 3 Lai; Chinese Opium Trade and Manufacture in British Columbia, 1858-1908 • If Vrt S'M.S^; ÍX S2f il? .in ÍV -^ i?2 nsGUARD OI'lliM lACTORIES Sing Wo Clmn KingTye TaiYkk Chu Chung Hip Lung Kwong On lai Lun Chung Sing Kee Kwong Chung Kwong On Lung Bow Yuen Tai Yune Fook Yen Opium factories in Victoria's Chinatown, 1888.

Y\c\orm Depl ot Geography.

Victoria. B.C., Canada Mile Point near Victoria and ship it at night across the Haro Strait to San Juan (about 7 miles or 11 kilometers) or other nearby islands. Once landed on the American islands, the opium could be easily shipped to Port Townsend and other coastal towns in Washington State.-' The amount of opium smuggled into the United States by boat, however, was far less than that carried by the Canadian Pacific Railway, which runs close to the American border. Opium was generally billed as Chinese wines or merchandise and shipped from Vic- toria to Vancouver from where, according to an Ameri- can customs officer, opium was transported by rail and smuggled across the American border by five major routes." The westernmost route was from Vancouver to the Simiikameen mining district in British Columbia's southern interior. Since only one American customs officer guarded about six trails leading from the mines into the United States, large amounts of opium could be easily smuggled across the nearby border. The second smugglers" route was by rail to the Kootenay and then by rail and river and lake steamers to Bonner's Ferry, Idaho. From this point, opium could reach the Northern Pacific Railroad by a dozen different ways. The third route was via rail to Winnipeg and then south to Mon- tana, North Dakota, or St. Paul and Minneapolis. Minne- sota. The fourth route was via Windsor. Ontario, and Detroit. Finally, opium could be taken by rail to Mon- treal and then smuggled across the border.

The Canadian government was aware of this smug- gling but made no effort to stop it because the trade helped promote the manufacture of opium and generate revenue for the govemment. When the Earl of Aberdeen.

the Governor-General of Canada (1893-1898). visited Victoria in August 1895. he and Lady Aberdeen were taken to an opium factory and Chinatown.'' In her jour- nal, Lady Aberdeen wrote . . . our first visit was to Tai Yuen, an opium refin- er. We were shown all the processes from the time it is brought in its raw state, made up into balls of the size of the cocoa nut, covered with a mass of dried opium leaves. Then it is split open, put in pans and boiled and stirred and left to cool, and then boiled again. Up to a year ago a great deal of opium was refined here for the purpose of smug- gling it into the United States.'" Opium Suppression Since the East India Company introduced the habit of smoking opium to China in the 1790s, millions of Chinese had become addicted to this poisonous drug.

For over a century, this fearful desolating pestilence per- vaded all classes in China, wasted people's money, enfeebled their mental faculties, ruined their bodies, and shortened their lives.-' Once addicted to opium smoking, even a strong man would be reduced to a shrunken shiv- ering figure with a hunched back and drawn up shoul- ders.

So great was the evil of opium smoking, it had the potential of destroying the country. Eventually, on March 24, 1906, the Manchu government issued an Imperial Decree that the growth and use of opium, both foreign and native, would be totally suppressed within ten years. The next year the Manchu government Lai:

Chinese Opium Trade and Manufacture in British Columbia. ¡858-1908 JOW. July 1999. Vol. 38, No. 3 — 25 A view of Haro Strail from Wedgewood Estate, Ten Mile Point, Victoria.

D'Arcy Island (sitp of former leprosarium) Below: Tai Yuen Opium Factory, lavishly decorated to weloome the visit of the Governor General and his wife, 1895.

Public Archives of Canada. Ottawa San Juan Island ^^i^^ffl^i S t r ait CANADA ^"'^- obtained Great Britain's consent to an agreement where- by the government of India would annually reduce its opium exports by an amount equal to 10 percent of the total amount then exported, provided that China would reduce its opium production in equal proportion. In addition, the British House of Commons passed a reso- lution on May 6. 1908, to diminish the sale of opium for export and to take steps to terminate the licensing of opium dens in all British colonies.-*' In response to the Imperial Decree to suppress opium smoking, T. T. York and other conscientious Chinese community leaders formed an Anti-Opium League in Vancouver on March 28. 1908.- Soon, Chinese commu- nity leaders in New Westminster, Victoria, and other British Columbia cities formed branches to discourage opium smoking among the Chinese and to urge them to stop using opium voluntarily. At the same time, the Canadian government was moving to ban the opium trade and manufacture in Canada. This step was prompted indirectly by claims of financial losses as a result of the anti-Chinese riot in Vancouver's Chinatown on September 7, 1907.-' The riots forced Chine.se mer- chants to board up broken windows and close business for several days."' After the riot, the federal government sent Mackenzie King, Deputy Minister of Labour, to Vancouver to assess losses sustained by the Chinese and to make recommendations for compen.sation. In examin- ing the claims, he was surprised to discover that the manufacture of opium was legal. Two opium manufac- turers entered claims of $600 each because the riots forced them to close their factories for six days. One fac- tory had been in business for ten years and the other for 21.

Each paid an annual license fee of $500."* Further investigation showed that large amounts of crude opium were imported annually into Canada. For example, the amount of opium imported in fiscal years 1905-1906 was valued at $251,943; the value increased to $262,818 in the first nine months of 1906-1907. There were at least seven opium factories in Vancouver, Victoria, and New Westminster; their annual gross receipts amounted to about $650,000 in 1907. The prepared opium was consumed in Canada by Chinese and white people, but King found 26 — JOW. July 1999, Vol. 38. No.

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Chinese Opium Trade and Manufacture in British Columbia, IH5H'190H strong reasons for believing that mueh of what is produced at the present time is smuggled into China and the coastal cities of the United States." While Mackenzie King was in Vancouver, three Chinese representatives of the Anti-Opium League asked his assistance in obtaining the federal govern- ment's help in their efforts to discourage and prevent the manufacture and sale of opium. After he retumed to Ottawa, King submitted a report in July 1908 to Governor-General Eari Grey recommending a ban on the importation, manufacture, and sale of opium. In enacting legislation to this end, he said, the Pariiament of Canada will not only effect one of the most necessary of moral reforms so far as the Dominion is concerned, but will assist in a woHd movement which has for its object the free- ing of a people from a bondage which is worse than slavery.'- Upon these recommendations. Parliament, on July 20, 1908, passed an Act to prohibit the importation, manu- facture, and sale of opium for other than medicinal purposes." By this Act, any person who imported, man- ufactured, or sold opium would be liable to imprison- ment for three years and/or a fine of $50 to $ 1,000.

Summary Manufacturing and trading opium was legal in Canada because of its economic importance to Britain and the British Empire. The government of British Columbia considered it an important source of revenue.

Unlike the narcotic business today, the opium business was not an underworid activity intertwined with prosti- tution, gang fights, and crimes. Most Chinese opium merchants were also labor contractors, employers, and importers and exporters of Chinese merchandise. They were leaders in Chinatown and belonged to its elite class.

The prosperity of Victoria's Chinatown was part- ly due to the lucrative opium trade and manufacture, and its economy was undoubtedly affected by the prohibi- tion of the opium business after 1908. Despite its ad- verse effect on Chinatown's economy, however, the opium ban benefited the Chinese community by elimi- nating the sinister dens and a drug that had poisoned the Chinese for over a century.

NOTES 1.

Lewis R.

Frcetnan.

"The Romance of Opium-Smuggling." Brit- ish Columhia Magazine.

8 (1912):

107.

Nathan Allen.

The Opium Trade As Curried

Walker, 1853).

Allen, The Opium Trade.

6-7.

¡hid..

19.

W. W.

Willoughby. Opium as an ¡nternationcd Prohlem (Balti- iiiore. MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1925).

11.

6. Hartmann H.

Sullzberger.

ed..

All About Opium (London:

Can- non Street. IK84).

144.

Victoria Colonist.

May 8. 1888.

8. Cfj/mif.îi, Aug.

10. 1865.

^.Colonist. Mar. 2A.

1865.

10.

"Goods in Bond al Victoria." British Columbia. Legislative Assembly. Jcwnifl/i. 1871.58.

\\. Colonist, iw.

21. 1872.

12.

Vancouver ,VH/I, June 30. 1971.

13.

Colonist, kug. in.

1865.

14.

The Carihoo Sentinel. Sept.

12, 1874.

15.

O;/('m5i. Feb.

15, 1881.

16.

Cí)/wí/.v/.

May 8.

1888.

Colonist.

May 8. 1888 and Henderson's British Columbia Directory atid Street Index (Victoria, 1890).

18.

Willoughby. Opium.

435.

19.

O)/0íím. Aug.

5. 1887.

20. Colonist. Sepl.

1888.

21.

Colonist.

Dec.

1885.

22.

¡hid.

23.

Colonist, Aug. 21, 1895.

24.

James K.

Nesbitt, "Lady Aberdeen's Joumal." Colonist, Mar.

13, 1966.

25.

Allen.

The Opium Trade.

34.

26.

Willoughby. Opium. 14-15.

27.

Victoria Times.

Mar.

31.

1908.

28.

Vancouver Province. Sept.

1907.

29.

PrOT/mT. Sepl.

25. 1907.

30.

Canada. Report of Losses Sustained by the Chinese Population of Vancouver.

B.C. on the Occasion of the Riots in that City in September 1907 (Canada. Sessional Papers. 1908.

no. 74f).

31.

Canada, Report by W.

L Mackenzie King on The Need for the Suppression of the Opium Traffic in Canada (Canada. Ses.sionat Papers. 1908.

no.

36b).

32.

Report.

. .

on the Need for the Suppression ofllit Opium Traffic.

33.

Canada, Statutes.

7-8 Edward VII.

chap.

50.

An Act to Prohibit the Importation. Manufacture and .Sale of Opium for Other than Medical Purposes.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING The best overview of Victoria's Chinatown and an introduction to Chinatowns througbout Canada is David Chncnyan Lai. Chinatowns:

Towns Within Cities in Canada (Vancouver:

UBC Press. 1988).

For botb armchair travelers and real visitors. Lai"s The Forbidden City within Victoria: Myth. Symhol and Streetscape of Canada's Earliest Chinatown (Victoria: Orea. 1991) is an indispensable guide.

The •"standard" bistory of the Cbinese in Canada is Edgar Wick- berg, ed.. From China to Canada:

A Histoiy of the Chinese Commun- ities in Canada (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. 1982).

A shorter general bistory. Gold Mountain:

The Chinese in the New World (Van- couver:

New Star. 1983).

is of particular interest because its author, Antbony B, Chan, uses il in part to tell the story of bis family, begin- ning wiib his grandfather who came to Victoria from China In 1887.

David Chuenyan Lai.

who teaches in the Depart- ment of Geography at the University of Victoria, has written extensively on the history of Chinese commu- nities in Canada.

His most important book is China- towns: Towns within Cities in Canada (Vancouver:

UBC Press, 1988).

He has been extremely active in heritage conservation, par- ticularly in Victoria where be has been named an hon- orary citizen. Among his many other honors arc mem- bership in the Order of Canada, the Applied Geography Citation Award of the Association of American Geographers, and.

most recently, from the provincial government, the 1998 Minister's $10,000 Heritage Award.