The Opium Lord's Daughter by Robert Wang

Author:Robert Wang [Wang, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2019-06-02T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Canton, early 1839

Special Emissary Lin paced in front of the kneeling hong merchants he’d summoned. “Shame on you all! You are letting this foreign poison ruin our beloved Celestial Empire,” he lectured. “I know most of you are only interested in legitimate export of our products to this faraway land, but you know very well that the British barbarians use opium as currency, so even if you’re not dealing in opium directly, you are complicit in what it is doing to our empire.”

“Honorable Big Lord Guan,” Howqua, the leading hong merchant said, “we are only interested in glorifying our empire by selling our excellent wares to these barbarian lands—”

“You dare patronize me with this nonsense?” Lin interrupted. “You have never, not once, turned away a foreign ship carrying opium, even though you are supposed to vouch for all vessels entering our kingdom. You allow these barbarians to use your factories for opium trading instead of whatever legitimate business they claim to be conducting. You accept bonds for our own silver—used to purchase opium—in exchange for your tea and silk. Please, Lord Howqua,” Lin glared down at the hapless merchant, “explain to me how you are glorifying our beloved empire with these practices!”

“Honorable Big Lord Guan, we are unwilling victims of the opium trade!” protested Howqua.

“And are you also unwilling victims when you collect the profits from dealing with these barbarians, knowing opium drives the entire business?”

There was silence in the room.

“And where is this taipan they call the Iron-Headed Rat, Lee Shao Lin’s supplier? I want him arrested immediately!”

“He is on his way back to his home country, never to return, Lord Emissary,” ventured one of the merchants.

Lin was secretly a little relieved to hear this. He wanted to punish the most notorious smuggler to send a message to the others, but he was unsure what the response from the barbarian kingdom would be if he executed one of their most prominent citizens. “Well, that is unfortunate,” he snapped. “Chief Inspector Cheng, you will please read the edicts aloud now.”

“Edict Number One,” read Cheng, “to be delivered to your British trading partners. All foreigners are to surrender any opium aboard any ship in Chinese waters, and they are to agree in writing that no further opium is to be shipped to China.

“Edict Number Two, to the attention of all hong merchants. You are all complicit in every aspect of the opium trade: You have provided boats to carry opium ashore and floating warehouses to store it; you have used Lintin Island to hide the ships anchored offshore; and you have committed money laundering by moving precious silver out of the Celestial Empire, even providing special standardized boxes for transport.

“You have acted as traitors to the Celestial Empire, and if you do not arrange for all your foreign trading partners to surrender their opium within three days, the special emissary will commence executions. You all know that Special Emissary Lin has conducted a long and thorough investigation of the opium

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