i had a revelation today during esherick's lecture.

think about the late 19th century around the time of opium war. huge amount of products, mainly tea and also porcelain, was exported from china to britain. naturally huge amount of silver (actually mined in the new world) flowing into the middle kingdom. apparently, as much as 50% of the mexican silver that the europeans obtained ended up in china. to balance the trade, the british tried very very hard to pursuade the Qing emperors to open up ports so that they could sell the products of their industrial revolution, such as textile, knives and forks and clocks. but self sufficient as the Qing empire was in the nineteenth century, the chinese people wouldn't buy any, cos obviously they didn't need any. so the british smuggled in opium, a product that had a promoting demand, and, when challenged by the chinese prohibition of opium, waged a war. thus modern chinese history starts.

and then i thought, look at the trade. tea into britain and opium in to china. the former is a neuro-stimulant and the latter a neuro-depressant. it is no wonder why the former nation grew and the latter fell. how lousy a trader is britain!