ABSTRACT
The first war was provoked by the British stand and by the Chinese Emperors antagonism to the trade in this pernicious article. It ended with the Treaty of Nanking which provided for the opening of the treaty ports, British control of Chinese customs, and the continued, unabated importation of opium. The Opium Wars of the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese immigration, and less specific fears of social pollution and poison thrust a new genre of reportage into the public arena: that of the experiences of those who had visited the two foreign countries of China and of Darkest England. The Anti-Opium Society had been formed in 1840, the Edinburgh Committee for the Suppression of the Indo-Chinese Opium Traffic had appeared in 1859, but it was the Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, formed in 1874, which had the greatest influence on public perception and political action. Anglo-Oriental was later omitted from the title.
