Supposedly Jewish merchants were the main players in the Opium Wars. Very reminiscent of the Sacklers and the Opiate trade today.
(From his personal Wiki): "David Sassoon (October 1792 – 7 November 1864)[1] was the treasurer of Baghdad between 1817 and 1829. He became the leader of the Jewish community in Mumbai after Baghdadi Jews emigrated there."
"During the 1860s David Sassoon & Co. started to dominate the opium trade between India and China. By purchasing unharvested crop directly from Indian producers it was able to undercut British competitors which had obtained supplies from middlemen"
"The opium trade was legal within China between 1858 and 1917. Jewish entrepreneurs who had immigrated to China via India were deeply involved in the trade in this addictive, highly debilitating narcotic drug. Although plying a legitimate trade they were the targets of trenchant criticism, most notably from missionaries. Anti-opium groups spurred on by missionaries protested against the opium trade for reasons of ethics as well as fear that all trade with China might be stopped, as indeed had happened in 1839. This paper focuses on the nineteenth-century background to the opium trade, the anti-opium movement, the British government's attitude to the Baghdadi merchants and the end of the opium trade."
As you note, Sassoon only became a leader of the Opium trade after it was legalized following the Second Opium War.
Before it's legalization, there were the Opium Wars.
At the time of the Opium Wars (before legalization in China), Jardine Matheson were the leaders of the Opium Trade and actively lobbied Lord Palmerston and others in London.
Supposedly Jewish merchants were the main players in the Opium Wars. Very reminiscent of the Sacklers and the Opiate trade today.
(From his personal Wiki): "David Sassoon (October 1792 – 7 November 1864)[1] was the treasurer of Baghdad between 1817 and 1829. He became the leader of the Jewish community in Mumbai after Baghdadi Jews emigrated there."
"During the 1860s David Sassoon & Co. started to dominate the opium trade between India and China. By purchasing unharvested crop directly from Indian producers it was able to undercut British competitors which had obtained supplies from middlemen"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sassoon_%26_Co.
"When Jews were kings (and opium lords) in Shanghai"
https://forward.com/culture/442250/when-jews-were-kings-and-opium-lords-in-shanghai/
"The opium trade was legal within China between 1858 and 1917. Jewish entrepreneurs who had immigrated to China via India were deeply involved in the trade in this addictive, highly debilitating narcotic drug. Although plying a legitimate trade they were the targets of trenchant criticism, most notably from missionaries. Anti-opium groups spurred on by missionaries protested against the opium trade for reasons of ethics as well as fear that all trade with China might be stopped, as indeed had happened in 1839. This paper focuses on the nineteenth-century background to the opium trade, the anti-opium movement, the British government's attitude to the Baghdadi merchants and the end of the opium trade."
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1462169X.1999.10511922
As you note, Sassoon only became a leader of the Opium trade after it was legalized following the Second Opium War.
Before it's legalization, there were the Opium Wars.
At the time of the Opium Wars (before legalization in China), Jardine Matheson were the leaders of the Opium Trade and actively lobbied Lord Palmerston and others in London.
I see. I didn’t know there were so many Opium wars.
Yes. Two.