'A desperate traffic': John Francis Davis, China, the Opium Trade and the First Opium War

Kitson, Peter (2020) 'A desperate traffic': John Francis Davis, China, the Opium Trade and the First Opium War. In: Tribute and Trade: China and Global Modernity, 1784-1935. Sydney University Press, Sydney, pp. 185-206. ISBN 9781743326008

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Abstract

The case of Sir John Francis Davis's troubled involvement with the British opium trade to China is a vexed one. This essay is an attempt to outline and hopefully disentangle some of the contradictions both personal but also governmental that surrounded the much-disputed trade in this most ambiguous commodity, both medicine and poison, taking as a case study Sir John Francis Davis, sinologist and diplomat. It discusses Davis' changing views on the trade from his days as an East India Company employee at Canton (Guangzhou) to his term as the second governor of the new Treaty Port of Hong Kong and beyond.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	opium,opium trade,first opium war,china
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Research Group
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	01 Apr 2018 03:31
Last Modified:	18 Aug 2021 23:48
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/66649
DOI:

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