Jardine-Matheson: How Opium Wars Founded Hong Kong
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- Опубліковано 29 лип 2024
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The new Kings and Generals animated historical documentary will cover the rise of the Jardine-Matheson, a British conglomerate that started as an opium smuggling company, causing the Opium Wars in China and playing a crucial role in the foundation of Honk Kong.
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The video was made by Yağız Bozan and Murat Can Yağbasan, while the script was researched and written by Leo Stone
This video was narrated by Officially Devin ( / @offydgg & / @gameworldnarratives )
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#Documentary #HongKong #OpiumWars
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Make a video over recapture tunis 1574 and Ottoman -Safavid war 1578-1590
Good video. Not gonna recommend anything all ready tired just make what your patron wants.
Will you guys be covering the Opium Wars?
@@realgamer1099 i think the next ottoman vid is about the recapture of tunes 1574
@@thesceptilegod3581 But this video will be short
Teacher: Remember kids, crime never pays!
Schoolchildren in Hong Kong: _Turn to look at the massive skyscraper owned by a drug cartel_
It's free real estate 😂
The Jardine building isn't very big. Also looks out of place in central.
The building of a thousand assholes.
@@andrewphillips8341 We mean the British empire exactly.
Immature , simplistic , dishonest view . Go back to reading the guardian and living in a simpleton s fantasy world .
@@arthurjohnson2416 Uhh… You know it was a joke right? Or are you replying to someone else?
It may have been in bad taste to drink cup after cup of mass-produced black tea to caffienate myself while I wrote this script...
I don't know how to react, is there a God? Will there be justice?
E gad...
I mean, the narrator is British (not sure if same person as writer). May as well lean into it.
@@shalomjoseph5125 nope... no such thing
@@gixmax *tips fedora*
The British Empire, the biggest narco state in history lmao
before the CIA/NSA came to be...
Lol not surprising
@Wuanslm It's the USA you need to check 2020 control of afghan and columbian cartel by CIA.
At last something to be proud of 😉 👌
wrong it was taken over by the CIA, who addicted the USA. Much bigger now
Pablo Escobar : "Im the greatest drug dealer in history".
William Jardine : "Hold my opium".
@@andrewphillips8341 I guess the CCP learned their lessons well from the British then.
@@andrewphillips8341 Russian girls? Haha
@cortes Juan Fue el mascaporongas!
"Get on one's level!" -- Jardine-Matheson
@@andrewphillips8341 Dude, you would love to see a weak China, wouldn't you? You brits need to stop day dreaming, it's not gonna happen. As they say 'Big fucks small' and China is much bigger than England by every metric
The HSBC bank, which stands for "Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation", was founded in Hong Kong by the Brits to handle the finances of this gigantic drug smuggling operation.
Still a pack of international money-launderers, they're no more reputable today than they were back then!
Slight loss in translation there. It's clearly 'Happy Smack Banking Combine' in the original.
Never knew that. Immediately googled and you are right!
HSBC was founded by Thomas Sutherland of Aberdeen Scotland, thus the Aberdeen in Hong Kong. Disproportionally we Scots built the British empire but the English get the blame HaHa. That's what the English & others get for referring to Britain as England.
Kevin K I never knew that. Thank you.
The "Honorable" in the East India company's name is the most cynical thing ever to happen.
Opportunistic would fit better.
Cyberpunk has nothing on the "Honourable" East India Company. Better to think of the title as branding. Kinda like "Honest" Joe's Pawn shop...
when u insist that others refer 2 u as 'the honourable east india company', u know u have no honour. just like Darius of Persia called himself the 'Legitimate King' b/c he knew he was a usurper. or trump calling himself a 'stable genius'...
Hongster Hong Orange man bad
Back to 17 century, they were pretty honorable.
Pablo Escobar: I have the biggest drug empire
Some Scottish Boys: Hold my opium
Compared to the "Gentlemen of Cali",Pablo Escobar was small potatoes.
The Cali Cartel controlled 90% of the world´s cocaine traffic in the 90´s.
Pablo is just more famous because he started a war with the colombian government and killed more people than the shitty beer flu.
extremely lame such is Persian humor
@@mishmohd what makes you think I'm Persian? Yes I'm fluent in Persian (Farsi), but I'm not Persian ethnically. Don't assume things and make hypocritical comments, thank you :)
Im Scottish and its funny so many people want to blame all this shit on the English and play victim when Scots were super over represented in Empire. The 'honourable' East India company was packed with Scots.
@@stevenmackintosh8160
Not to mention the army generals, navy officers, House of Commons, explorers, Prime ministers, colonial governors, Victorian inventors, Glasgow shipyards/industry and Edinburgh scientists/engineers.
And so many Scottish civil servants moved to England they began to complain.
Ah, imagine Cartels these days being like this! "Hey, you destroyed all my coke! You owe me compensation!"
Such a different world.
Not really u if the president lost a load of coke the cartels would get paid for it
@@josephsmith6777 That is not correct.
@Loredan
Part of me wants to believe this is meant as a joke, quite a fun one.
Buuuut, this is the internet...
"Such a different world?"
Me: Not from the British Empire
@Von Staufenberg
I meant 'But this is the internet so you're probably calling me naive to be a cunt.'
No, the original joke doesn't imply that I think analogous things don't still happen... I mean, why the fuck would it.
16:59 The Qing Army suffered not just from technology and addiction to opium, but there was a variety of issues such as the decline of the Eight Banner Army (Ethnic Manchu forces who grew complacent after conquering China) and distrust of the ethnic Han forces (Green Standard) who mostly acted as a local police force and are not sufficiently trained or paid. All branches of the army suffered from corruption and poor discipline which has more to do with the decay of the government's integrity than opium alone
I agree. The opium was certainly immoral and the major catalyst to the Qing government's further decline, but the decline was longstanding due to many of those internal issues you highlighted. Unlike Japan, the Qing court was just utterly incompetent in dealing with the growing Western influences and incursions.
Memeter NOHK seems to me the only mistake the British made was not abolishing the Chinese government and making it apart of the British Empire.
098765 Craper they managed to do so in India a country with a similarly large population im not saying it would have been easy but I am saying if they used the model they did in India for China IE use locals to oppress other locals it could have worked
@098765 Craper Qing army led by Mongol man. His name is Sengge Rinchen. Why Mongol man led Macnhurian QIng army ? Because Qing army consisted of Manchu&Mongol cavalry. Qing dynasty never chinese.
@@gamingforever9121 well that's not how it works, countries have limits, at least the British do, you can't just colonize everything, because if Britain could, they would.
Pablo Escobar, Juan Chapo Guzman got nothing on William Jardine, he was able to bring one of the mightiest and culturally rich state to its knees
I mean when you have the Royal Navy to support your drug empire then there are not many people who can match you
@@TheIceColdBikeDestroyer they got the US and UK armed forces in Afghanistan
State sponsored drug smuggling, this is what's lacking in today's druglords. You want that to happen again ?
@@TheIceColdBikeDestroyer your statement is absolutely correct, without the Royal Navy helped on the British East Indian to smuggle ILLICIT OPIUM DRUG into China, the British probably couldn't win the OPIUM WARS, the British Empire was an drug empire, IT WAS AN EVIL EMPIRE, INDEED.
@@pointlessupdate Just because other people do it does not make it acceptable for you to do it
In HK, schools rarely teach these history (am Hongkonger). Thanks so much for covering HK and taught me this. Btw, a bit extra info, we refer Jardine as 渣甸(pronounced as ja-din) in hK, and we even have a mountain and a road named after him.
My aunt lived on Ja-Din Taam. I stayed with her during the handover in 1997. My cousin still lives in The New Territories. An extraordinary place.
@@z54964380 I mean the schools usually focus on HK history after 1997, before that is not focused a lot in the curriculum
@EmperorJuliusCaesar The same could be said of Caesar...
Regardless he and his family made Hong Kong.
@EmperorJuliusCaesar Dont be jealous. Maybe if you found one of the richest cities in the world you will have your street aswell.
@@allnameoccupied-us9eh how come you guys support these criminal drug dealers..... they ruin a sovereign nation. They killed so many. These criminal should be hang to death.
The fact they still use his name for the conglomerate Jardine Matheson just takes the cake. Imagine an Escobar Corporation that is listed on the NYSE with billions in revenue today.
"Hello Chang, would you like a spot of the old ultra hard drug?"
"No"
"I beg your pardon??"
Opium ultra hard? Someone needs to get out more.
@Jurg Schupbach that is what The Chinese sell to the West.
@EmperorJuliusCaesar I think he's a bit mental, must be the effects from quarantine.
@@saint_matthias We need another opium war to destroy China
.....Today, the Chinese have modern weapons as many as the the British, American, the Japanese and other Western countries have. China has more than 1.4 billion people, do you think the British, the American and their allies combine force able to defeat the Chinese like during the Qing Dynasty ? Man....today 's Chinese people, they are so nationalistic and think as ONE, nobody dare on earth to push them around anymore, including the lone World Super Power, the U S A.
@@saint_matthias During World War Two, the German had the best weapons in the world, but they lost the war because the massive numbers of inferior weapons and soldiers from the British, American and the Soviet Union defeated them.
The sponsor of this video should have been HSBC 😁
Interestingly, the HSBC headquarters in Calcutta was on the site of a former opium warehouse :D
What's the relation between Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC?
@@user-ec5oc6pu6g Thank you for the information.
HSBC & JM doesn't get along with each other typically when the situation becomes critical from time to time haha
Ironic.
That's the currency they swapped with in their vaults.
Heartless Sl*ve Br*the Cult
Well paid indeed.
I literally can't believe that Jardine Matheson is still in business lol
My god...
scumbags
They gave up the opium business after they got a favorable trade deal with the Emperor....In fact the company later helped the Emperor deal with internal rebellions because a new Emperor would have meant negotiating a new deal..
Welcome to the real world, Shane.
@@nathanmoore101 don't worry you're not
They are a normal business like any other now-the red and blue ground vehicles at VHHH are theirs, for instance.
Just visited the Jardine-Matheson website. They don't even mention opium under their history tab...
Bronoculars hahahahaha
Whitewash
A year ago or so I tried to state that undisputed fact making an addendum in the Jardine Matheson entry in Wikipedia, with proper quotes and references. It lasted less than a day. So much for Wikipedia.
@Kj_mast_er Thats because the British did the small pox blankets. Granted the British are part of our history.
@@farerolobos9382 I just looked (May 15, 2023) and it mentions smuggling illegal opium.
I remember reading James Clavell's Tai-Pan. Great story.
AuraDZ GM a good book, Noble House, follows
Bad joss!
@@michaelhunt6388 Vewy savvy!
@Jake Roberts A character from King Rat (based on Clavell himself) is in Noble House.
@@eddiewillers1442 King Rat was a great read!
Next: *Singapore’s Sin Galore: William Farquhar*
Nah cover about Charles Brooke. The White Rajah of Sarawak. The only Englishman who has his own Kingdom in Southeast Asia.
You again
Sound like interesting video topics
How about the English, France Spain and the Royal Dutch shipping company that traded drugs and weapons for slaves.
@@bryon5284 those companies would make for excellent video material, but how about a video done about the cordoba caliphate in muslim spain/ or the adventure of Hasekura Tdunebaga, the samurai who travelled to the new world and met both philip ii of spain and the pope.
The Parsis of India became the richest community due to this drug trade. The house of Tata is one of the biggest. It even bought Landrover and Jaguar a decade ago.
It started a decade after EIC was gone.I don't get how they profited from it.
@@cs-mi8ur The drug trade continued after the EIC was gone. This video talks about that.
Don't forget David Sassoon who had the monopoly on this trade. He wasn't a Parsi or a Brit.
A few families ! = entire community.
Jains(Huttesing family and many more), marwadi(Birlas,Laxmi Mittal) hindus, bengali Pirali brahmins like Tagores and Raja Ram Mohan Roy and many other hindus were also involved in the opium trade with China. The Marwadi hindu firm Tarachand Ghamshyamdas was one of the largest trading companies involved in opium trade with china. They had a stronghold on the entire malwa opium belt.
Tatas prospered because they diversified business into cotton trading and steel manufacturing, they got seed capital from smuggling some opium but they got rich because of cotton and stell business and then later on a larger conglomerate.
@@mator2339 Interesting how your history book leaves out the Sassoons as well! Cohencidence?
Fun fact: the Chinese name of Jardine-Matheson, 怡和（Yihe), ironically means "happiness and peace".
Considering how the first product made you feel (I assume) that's probably not ironic.
Aren't they called Ewo?
@@andro7862 Yihe is the pronouciation in Mandarin
@@zhonghuishi5126 Aha I see, Ewo must be cantonese, right?
Andro A honestly I don’t speak Cantonese but I just consulted a friend who does, and the answer is yes.
Today: War on Drugs
Back then: War for Drugs
Today: war on dugs ... or is it?
@@1terminatorr it will always be war for drugs
Theres a series of novels, by author James Clavell based on Jardine and his descendants. The most famous book is "Noble House" set in the 1960s, but there is also a book about the founding of Hongkong in the 1840s. Really fascinating books. Same author wrote another even more famous novel set in Asia, "Shogun", based on an English Pirate who was an advisor to Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Amazing series 👍
British empire: “we need to find a way to make money, how we gonna do it?”
Opium king: *”The secret ingredient is crime”*
It isn't a crime when the state does it.
The delightful irony of the situation was, about 100 years later the British were trying to stop heroin from being smuggled into hong kong from mainland china
Chinese love them some opiates!
@Harry Paul fuk britain
Fvck users! If no one uses such drugs, there's no demand. The blame is to the ignorant people.
@@superspies32 britain isn't to blame for drugs its a lucrative market that existed long before the act of union
@@masseffect4731
Lol the people who essentially invented human rights, popular sovereignty and ended slavery. All things China today doesn't care about.
For any westerners today to really understand China, you need to start with the Opium War. Thanks a lot for the video!
...what china will never get is that trade ought to be conducted to benefit both Parties. China just wants to deal with everyone else on its own terms, often to the detriment of its partners. The leaders could've easily acceded to the concerns of the brits by importing something from britain (wool?) to offset the silver drain on brit finances.
Westerner do not understand they made modern day China. I look forward to the day when Asia returns to it's rightful place as the center of trade and culture. It is not the Chinese who send ships to Europe or the US..
D dicin deal with ppl on their own terms ? That’s sounds just like the west to me
@@ddicin7759 and what you need to understand is that China did not need to trade with Britain or any western countries you went to their shores they did not come to your country's so yes when in China the Chinese decide the terms on which they trade with you, in the same way when in Britain the British decide on the trade terms it's just common etiquette and decency but leave it to the British to lack any respect to China's sovereignty and quite literally drug an entire nation, then again we are talking about the same nation that instead of going around the world creating friendships and alliances they instead sailed around the world committing mass genocide and stealing anything they could get their greedy little hands on so i guess respect and common decency is a lot to ask from them ✌🏾
Agreed the British and French set the tone for modern day China by starting a war to sell their drugs. Shameful.
Jardine was far from being a military commander, and yet he literally took Sun Tzu's greatest advice of "commander's supreme excellence is to break the enemy's resistance without even fighting" and "seek victory first, then fight" to the whole new level.
Without him, Hong Kong would not exist. he should be considered a hero by everyone.
"The honorable East India Company"
I think I just threw up in my mouth.
They still running the world....
Next they will be telling us that ISIS & AL-QEADA are the good guys........Oh wait, oops...
Lol
@Chong Chong
Exactly right, friend.
The 'Pinheads' in Straya aka Murica Lite protesting for BLM has to be the joke of the century and a 100% Government funded psyop.
The Sheeple Clan are stampeding in Oz.😂😁
"Believe & Obey is the Australian way!"
@@michellemaher6144 No, it's literally in their name. They were officially "The Honorable East India Company" possibly to differentiate from all the other European East India companies that weren't British and therefore were not thought as 'honorable' by the British Government.
And now successors of this two fellows in Jardine Matheson along with Swire, HSBC and couple of chinese businessman's (like f.e. Li Ka-shing) are true tycoons of HK... Thank u for this great episode Kings and Generals!
But they r the bad guys
They were part of the trade.
Li Ka Shing has nothing to do with the drug trade nor had any connection to the descendants that benefited from it, wtf u talking about?
Well you don't understand my comment ... I only connected with a drugs this two fine heroes of movie. I mentioned them at beginning as an examples of men who laid the foundation to HK's elite, which today consist of post-British Tai Pans related with Big Four in companies boards like HSBC, Swire etc. alongside with Chinese self made men like f.e. Li Ka-shing.
PS. I respect very much Li Ka-shing as an example of successful businessman!
@@piekutowski1921 if u wanna make a reference to a movie, u have to name the movie...
You guys do amazing work. This video documentary was awsome.
It is high time for China to ask UK for compensation over illegal opium trade.
The decendants of William Jardine and James Matheson are alice and doing pretty well for themselves. They own the Jardine Matheson conglomerate in Hong Kong and was the basis for some of James Clavells' novels Tai-Pan and Noble House to name a few
Nice
British Empire: Come on China, you want some opium right?
China: No thank you, go away.
British Empire: Ah come now, it's just a little more opium!
China: No, it is destroying our nation, our people are dying and everything is going to hell.
British Empire: *Points gun at China* I am sure you want some more opium right?
*British Empire forces more opium down China's mouth.*
British Empire: Here! You want more opium, don't you?
*British Empire clobbers China senseless, forcing more opium down China's mouth*
*Fixed
Hey, that reminds me of a certain British ex-colony way of doing things. So that is where that attitude came from.
@@acturakaskus9310 The sins of our fathers. Sigh, if only people would leave each other alone.
You can’t force drugs into anyone and China’s done worse to it’s own people. Perhaps chinas crippling poor and corrupt government was the reason Britain just took advantage of a weak monarch
MrStillhot that doesn’t make what Britain did any better. They still caused the death of millions innocent Chinese
@@MrStillhot and that makes it a good thing? Right? If people are weak they deserve to be taken advantage of? Women and children deserve to be trafficked, drug dealers should be allowed to peddle their poisons to the weak minded and the strong should be allowed to prey on the weak. You're just a shining example of morality, aren't you?
When you start a war because everyone is addicted to opium but you loose the war because everyone is addicted to opium.
Hong Kong: We built this city, we built this city on O P I U M
Someone always playing corporation games....who cares when I get my... opium fame.
10:43 "James,you asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. Neither. I'm in the empire business."
Britain be like : *Why should we sell people as slaves when we can sell drugs to the Chinese*
Was the British Empire , a Evil Empire? Reality ,Yes. Same as how much better the US Navy is and always has been.
It was considered a personal choice to use drugs or not. It's not the government to regulate peoples consumptions.
Whereas slavery was considered immoral for forcing people to lose any mastery of themselves etc.
@abcdef Isnt Tea considered a drug aswell? It might have mild effects on the productivity but Chinese got Brits hooked up on tea and Brits got Chinese hooked up on opium. Both abused each others addiction for profit.
Britain ended slavery in western Europe
Britain was the first country to ban slavery, and went on a diplomatic and military crusade to end slavery across the world. Arabs were, and still are the biggest slavers in world history, they kept going. France had to conquer Algeria just to stop slave raiders
Hong Kong: Brought to you by opium.
Well the opium money was used to transform Hong Kong from an inhabited, deserted piece of land to a wealthy metropolis of global trade and today into a beacon of democracy..
@@ameyas7726 Indeed-a lot of good did come of this. But can we keep it going now?
really enjoyed this episode and the one about the Mafia. I'd really like to learn more about criminals, syndicates, cartells and the mob.
He was a hero, not a mobster.
I've read "Tai-Pan" by James Clavel when I was a boy and years later re-read the series. It's nice to know the story of the real Tai-Pan. Thank you!
Can't get enough of this channel, love every second of it, keep it up ❤️
This episode was superb
James Clavell's novel Tai-Pan is set at the founding of Hong Kong, and main character is based on William Jardine. It is a fantastic story. Highly recommended.
I lived in Whampoa for two years. There is a small mall shaped like a boat with two old British cannons outside. It marks one of the first coastal defense batteries established during the early days. Little bits of old Colonial history is dotted throughout Hong Kong. The colonial history of Hong Kong is absolutely fascinating and I collect many Colonial HK era banknotes (which can be found on my channel - shameless self-advertisement). Top video this! Macau, Qingdao, Weihaiwei and Shanghai are definitely worth a look at in a future video!
I think I had a look in there a few months ago.
I'm in Tsim Sha Tsui. Only arrived last year, though.
@@bobs_toys Ah nice, I live close to Diamond Hill. Have you been to the Sai Wan British & Commonwealth Cemetery? There's a good amount of WW2 history knocking around HK too. Better to see it before its all gone.
The Whampoa mentioned in the video is a district in Canton city or nowadays called Guangzhou city. The Whampoa you lived in Hong Kong is just a real estate project developed by Li Ka Shing the richest business tycoon in HK named after the original Whampoa Shipyard that was there which he bought as part of the Hutchison Whampoa Group (originally British owned of course). Much of this video is incorrect and biased and a lot of virtual signalling. Always blaming the west of course because they are always evil. History is history and back then opium was not a controlled substance and the Qing government made lots of money out of the tax revenue from the opium trade. So if there is blame, both the Qing government and the British were to blame.
@@teamaster8686 I wasn't aware that the video was speaking about a different Whampoa. I do share your frustrations with modern interpretations of history. It is also an interesting fact that American merchants dominated the opium trade despite the popular perception that it was the British.
Nice, Hong Kong is my home-city. Thanks for doing me a great honor to depict the history of Hong Kong.
The people of Hong Kong are wonderful. I hope you stay free and hold on to democracy. The rest of the world respects your bravery and honour. God bless you all. And if the Chinese get they’re way please come to Britain. You are all British citizens in our eyes anyway
Too bad Hong Kongers are brainwashed Pro colonialists
@@kevinlification Like the CCP are the better alternative
Great video. I knew of the Opium Wars. What I learnt today was how the UK came to have possession of Hong Kong Island in the first place & then parlay that into more territory over the coming years. Also surprising was the fact at the end that the company is still in business to this day.
2:55 Do not get the wrong idear: The word "honourable" was part of the offical company-name.
It was the most honourable company that I know of.
I think it was sarcasm
no it wasnt. the official company name was: 'The governor and merchants of london trading to the east indies', from 1709 onwards:' The united company of merchants of england trading into the east indies'. Those were the official names given to them. better learn history before talking nonsense ;)
Farmhouses in Scotland were built of stone. Wood was expensive and didn't last. Two walls linked and with the water draining down the middle and a thatch roof
@Unknown2234 Unknown well they went to some effort to draw planks as in an a American house of the time. The reason scots went to the A Erica's was land and resources including wood.
Amazing video as always! Its bleakly funny to know that the Brits addicted the Chinese to opium, while the upper echelons of Britain were addicted to cocaine XD
@EmperorJuliusCaesar I can't say that I have, but it sounds like a quality read xD Have you got a link that you can share?
The sheer scale of British opium trade dwarfed any drug trade in histroy. Brits virtually flooded China with opium.
@EmperorJuliusCaesar the fishes are high no wonder when i catch them they are smiling funny at me
@@vincentsong1355 What about the Turkish opium the Americans imported ? They made the Brits seem like amateurs, are you aware of that ?
As brother Malcolm X put it “imagine waging war on the people of China who refused to be narcotized.
This was awesome!!!! As soon as I get my job back after this pandemic I am going to become a patreon supporter. Thank you this content helping get us through these trying times.
I found this video really interesting. I was listening and watching it while being absorbed.
I learned about the Opium wars last year. It was quite a shock to learn of the real mastermind that involved one man named Jardine. He and Matheson worked together starting a big drug company and colony in Hong Kong. I remember hearing Bruce Lee say that the British occupy Hong Kong. It was really shocking to hear for the first time that there's a company still in Hong Kong that was named after those drug lords. So their descendants still continued to operate under their name.
I've learned about how the English wanted to keep taking goods from China like Tea, Porcelain, and Silk. How they tried to substitute silver with Opium from India to sneak and steal from the Chinese. I wonder how come Queen Victoria didn't reply back to Commissioner Lin. I remember reading about the English demolished the Chinese Boats what they called "War Junk" using the Nemesis. I think there were many parts of the Opium wars that weren't accounted for like how the Chinese were taken as slaves; the number of deaths were unaccounted. There were many parts of English colonial history that tends to be unaccounted and covered up.
China exists
Europe: hey you you wAnNa bUy sOmE dRuGs?
China: *no thanks*
Europe: well now....
The phrase "The sins of our fathers" have never rung more true.
The Chinese definitely wanted the drugs, because they bought them. The Emperor did not want his people wasting money on the drugs, but that was about it.
@@orionstark actually no.
@@saint_matthias lol good luck with that buddy.
@@orionstark Lol what? How the hell do you justify such a response?
Let people smoke themself to death on an opium pipe full of a drug that is extremely addictive and simply shrug it off as "oh well, they wanted it."
There is no justification in this world to support habitual and terminal drug use. It is evil to its core.
"Free trade is important for a free nation"-Adam Smith
"You know what? free trade is important"- Jardine-Matheson
"Not what I ment"-Adam Smith
The hidden hand strikes again!
You guys have always a top notch choice of subjects , with a gorgeous production quality.
Next : The White Rajah of Sarawak, Charles Brooke. An Englishman who own his own Kingdom in Southeast Asia.
The House of Brooke, or other forms of independence, remain on the minds of many Sarawakians even now, given the general neglect & siphoning of resources revenues by KL.
Fun Fact: The Guy that acted as Cao Cao in 1994 also acted as Lin Zexu in the movie about the Opium war.
8:58 The Qing dynasty established the Imperial Chinese Navy in 1861 with bought and locally commisioned steamers. Prior to that, the naval campaigns were made with requisitioned vessels, that is, civilian ships which were outfitted with cannons for military service.
Britain: We want Tea cheap, and are willing to trade for it.
China: You have nothing we want to trade for. Pay up!
Britain: Are you sure about that?
Weird thing is Britain forced Indians to grow opium and collected it. Sold by British to their own trading comany at a 10x price at auction and then went on and sold it to China. There are levels to this corruption.
0pium is their scooby snack
The change from food crops to cash crops also caused many famines in India, mainly Bengal, one of the most fertile lands in the world at the time.
@@mikerodrigues9822 Deccan was even worse because there was cycle of drought and good harvests so most of the system was used to crop accordingly. But the mass introduction of rice as a cash crop on lands wrecked havoc in the system.
Anantha Padmanabhan Lots of Indian merchants, like Jardines associate, became very Rich off that relationship, and bare in mind that at this point in time Britain did not control the Entire of India so the opium relationship was far less one sided. The true imperial Iron rule of british India were yet to happen.
Theres records of Emperors Qianlong's directives to his minsters over Opium Addiction. He urged all state ministers etc not to victimise or persecute the addicts, he urged that they be seen not as criminals but as people who were unwell.
He was amazingly open minded and ahead of his time in that regard. Especially as a very old Ruler of a very old dynasty.
On a side note, the Opium Wars - the catalyst for the CCP's permanent war on drugs.
These events of course lead directly to The Tai-Ping Rebellion.
that thing lol ... so strange
@@jinjunliu2401 I first learnt about it completely by chance. I saw a book on sale about Hong Xiuquan, and having never heard about him or the event decided to read it. It was bewildering. It seems impossible, yet it really happened.
@@WaterShowsProd Sengge Rinchen
Hoping to hear "Because Money."
@Klaidi Rubiku it's a reference to another history UA-camr, History Matters.
He covered the Opium Wars previously, and that was one of the things he said about it.
Or " its just a good business "
was just watching another video of yours with the three kingdom soundtrack in the background, glad you added that in haha its perfect for your videos
Well done as always K&G (sounds like the initials of an honorable trading company to me).
Cheers!
-JJ
This makes it look like the Queen and the PM were oblivious to the whole operation...
yeah they must have known but turned blind eye .
They obviously knew about it and got reports about it but I dont think they cared that much as they were, you know, running a country.
To them, this was just another source of revenue being added by the East India company so I dont think they were complaining.
@@theanglo-lithuanian1768 They clearly cared about it enough to send in the Royal Navy and fight a war over it... twice.
even back then the queen had little influence
This is really the issue with applying modern ethics to the past.
If you do that, almost every single person is an asshole.
Just like 170 years from now, the best of us will be thought of as unbelievable assholes. Those who are lauded as humanitarians will have large parts of our beliefs tactfully ignored.
Drug Empire now! one week ago it was the Sicilian mafia now Scottish drug emperor. plus, founder of Hong Kong
Great work King and General.
This channel is getting better and better with every video, in terms of both animation and content
Your videos are always a delight to watch and learn from. Keep it up gentlemen.
"He's just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war"
- Steve Earle
Spare him from this monstrosity.
Crazy that the Jardine-Matheson corporation is still operating, most companies don't last long after the market changes on their original product.
Diversification is good for long term stability.
If you're ever wondering why China's drug laws today are so harsh and seemingly uncompromising (drug offenders have been executed for even non-violent offenses), now you know.
Drug is the enemy of society....
China is 100% legitimate in its stance on drugs. Interesting thing, now the opioids is a crisis in Western nations and it's started by their own, can't teach an old dog new tricks I guess lol.
@@dglolz7227 Incorrect. First, China currently bans marijuana, even though marijuana is pretty much harmless and has been used for thousands of years in China without any problem. Second, the current opoloid crisis in the West is thanks to the Chinese companies manufacturing massive quantities of cheap synthetic oploids and flooding the marketing by selling to anybody. It has no relation to the Opium Wars of the 1800s - especially since the USA is currently hit the hardest by this crisis and the USA had little to nothing to do with the Opium Wars.
Intranet you are a bafoon. USA has nothing to do with opium wars? There's a country in Middle East that produces the most opium in the world right after us invaded it. How clever.
@@Ace12341 The Opium Wars were wars in the 1800s between the British Empire and the Qing Dynasty you buffoon. Did you even watch the video? The cause of the modern war in Afghanistan had nothing to do with opium production. If you want to call every war that indirectly affected opium production an "opium war" then even the Chinese Civil War was a part of the opium wars too. One of the world's top producer of opium was the golden triangle in South East Asia, which was caused by Chinese generals taking over parts of SE Asia during the Chinese Civil War between their communists and nationalists. Also, Afghanistan had been become a top producer of opium in the 1950s, long before the USA got involved, and even the Taliban supported opium production from 1994 to 2000 and from 2008 to present. And the current drug crisis in the USA is mainly from SYNTHETIC opium that isn't even produced in Afghanistan, but its base ingredients are produced by chemical companies in China. How about actually researching the facts before making up conspiracies based on a superficial understanding of limited information?
Thank you for keeping the good work, Kings and Generals! It helps maintain my (probably others' too) mental health in these times!!!
Evil is evil, lesser, greater, mid-ling, it makes no difference. Now we're still suffering from the horrors of the past. Yes, History repeats itself.
Evil is a judeo Christian fiction. You’re watching history videos you should know that!!
@@j0nnyism No it isn't. Evil is severely immoral behavior. Religion has no monopoly on the concept.
You're so deep.
The name 'Sassoon' is conspicuously absent from this video.
Or the Ezras, the Kadoories, Abrahams and the Hardoons.
Must've paid him to keep the Jews out.
it is astonishing how often the great imperial dog of Britain was so often wagged by little tails like Rhodes or Jardine.
Another great video, especially with all that’s happening right now it’s interesting to know how Hong Kong started
I was just perusing your older videos for something I may have missed and I see this. Praise be!
So prior to the opium menace, "China's luxury goods were considered second to none"...self intuitive object lesson for the ages.
How the mighty fallen.
Yes, but they were talking specifically about Raw Materials, as in Tea, Silk, and the mineral which makes up Porcelain. Not Industrial goods.
Like it or not, they are going back that way though, many low cost high tech products are being produced in China and no one can stand against its competitiveness. Cultural revolution is also one other event that made many China fell on many aspects, many things were banned that time.
They got us hooked on tea, only fair if we get them hooked on opium :)
Klaidi Rubiku I never said anything was junk. We are talking about sentiment.
Please consider making those Opium Wars series video or the sino-french war later on!! Would love to know more about it!
Greetings from Hong Kong! This video is highly informative, but I doubt whether the confiscated opium was literally burned (420 blaze it!). I think it was destroyed with some other substances instead, but I have forgotten where I read about that. Anyways, thanks for the good work!
Iirc they did a mix of both, adding some chemical that nullified the effects of opium and burned them in Great pits before covering them with water or throwing them to sea
It was mixed with other stuff and thrown in to the sea
Another amazing episode here, with beautiful artwork. But I noticed on the maps of the wider Qing territory, you showed several Torii Gates across the country... Torii Gates are the symbol of the Shinto faith which is Japanese, so I found that a bit strange, since this deals with China instead. Just a minor note, but another great episode either way! Especially loved the connection to the modern corporate entity as well, it really brought it full circle.
Five or the Richest American Families made the fortunes dealing opium:
1. The Astor Family. America's first multimillionaire, John Jacobs Astor,
2. The Forbes Family. John Murray Forbes and Robert Bennet Forbes
3. The Russell Family. Samuel Wadsworth Russell
4. The Delano Family. Warren Delano, Jr., the grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt
5. The Perkins Family. Thomas Handasyd Perkins
all made a huge fortune smuggling and trading opium.
Probably Hong Kong would have never become a bustling city without jardine and matheson, but I couldn't see them as the good doers.
Amazing video! Even I live around Hong Komg for years and didn't know this interesting history! Thx 👍
One fellow said " it's just a good business ,jack"
Britain: *Sells Opium*
China: I don't want that.
Britain: Too bad.
*2 Centurys later*
China: *Makes drugs*
Britain: I don't want that.
China: Too bad.
@@EroticOnion23 1 small Island vs Dozens of cities throughout China.
Harry Paul that’s racist
@@miraakprinceofapocrypha7998 lol, funny how people really thought China eat bat, the videos about women eating bat soup not even at China, it is a travel spot in one pecific island country, and the bat shop own and open by Taiwanese, how stupid can people be by brainwashed by media
@@stevej1235 Are you Chinese? It would be really funny if you were Chinese talking about others being brainwashed.
@@jackl2257 Coronavirus, and Tiananmen square disproves your logic.
Although I am not a big fan of story videos, but this one is exceptional, astonishing and amazing.
Kings and Generals getting better with every video! Keep it going
This needs to be a Narco-esque Netflix Series.
that era of history needs to have more series
Good idea but unfortunately I don't think Netflix would be willing to risk upsetting the Chinese. Like most companies these days.
@@BasileusRex actually in a series like this the " bad guys" are the british drug dealers and the Chinese are the innocent victims..... the Chinese would love it
@@BasileusRex only one i found recently was Taboo
@@amittole tbh as a Hong Konger, gotta say Jardine should be regarded as a hero as without Hong kong, most of the Chinese population will be stuck as subsistence farmers or stuck studying confucian studies
How many large corporate entities of today, have connections in the Opium Wars of the past?
lots of corporations had connections with nazis even while wwII was going on, of course they wouldn't shy away from dealing with drug smuggling
Excellent ! Very informative and most instructive Kings and Generals !
I can’t believe a channel like this is free to watch, amazing content
He forgot to mention, the reason why most British households were spending 10% of their income on tea from the east, it’s because that tea had opium in it, and most of the population was addicted to said opium infused teas.
I remember my history teacher teaching us about the opium war he listed off the British forces sent
As well as the supplies they took with them
Including 1600 gallons of rum
Missing a 0 it was 16000 gallons of rum
Amazing video, really interesting. More like this please!
Love the new style! keep it up!
So it was the British who started this whole drug cartel thing
We learn something new everyday
Like all things
@@humo89 so ? what can it solve ? don't focus on the past but on tomorrow , what done is done
@Jacques Matteo de Lusignan u mean Western Europeans Not Eastern
There’s a reason the Chinese have a”hard-on for the UK , see Charles’ speech in returning HK to China 1999.
Tyler Heartsbane and tDrump is helping!
Portugal had been in Macau which is right next to Hong Kong since 1535 - nearly 300 years before the Brits showed up - under the Ming Dynasty. They traded weapons technology like building cannon factories and trained musket gunsmiths just upriver in the Pearl Delta. The Ming were enthusiastic fans of guns and adopted early matchlocks from the Portuguese. While guns were frowned upon by succeeding imperial governments this attitude did not extend to cannons which they figured required expensive and well trained crews to operate. In exchange the Portuguese stayed in Macau and extracted a fat profit from the locals who grew equally wealthy from the monopoly. So the local Chinese were already familiar with foreigners for a long time. Unfortunately for them by the early 19th century the Brits refused to go through the Portuguese middlemen and Portuguese weapons technology was on its way to becoming second rate (by European standards). Actually, the Chinese were interested in trading with the Brits for arms technology but naturally the Brits were not interested in arming potential enemies. Portugal sat out the First Opium War reluctantly but jumped on the bandwagon by the end to extract additional concessions.
Wow this a great video, I learned a lot from this video a big thanks to you guys. Hey would you guys please make a video about the battle of soissons which took place in 486 AD.