Opium talk: American capitalism in transition

Jonathan Levy

economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, 2025, vol. 27, issue 1, 4-18

Abstract: In 1878, a Chinese writer named Zhang Changjia published the book Opium Talk about his addiction to smoking opium (McMahon 2005). China had little experience with opium, until European traders brought it to Southeast Asia. By the early nineteenth century, the British were growing opium in colonial India for export to China. Before, there was little from the West that China had sought to buy besides silver, the Chinese fiscal base, mined from Latin America. The opium trade replaced silver, reversing Britain's negative bilateral trade balance.

Date: 2025
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