Queen Victoria (1882)
Marijuana for menstrual pain, opium as a painkiller, cocaine for a high. The queen consumed everything and her empire grew rich on drugs in the 19th century — it even led to war.
Before the Escobares, El Chapos and El Menchos of this life there was the British empire, especially during the government of the “Grandmother of Europe”, the Queen Victoria.
The monarch presided over a global-scale and highly profitable opium trade system, very well protected by state power and fundamental to the empire’s finances.
But be careful: the Queen never hid her business, as major contemporary drug dealers do. And it even went completely against the supposed number 1 rule of the modern drug dealer (never get attached to your own poison). What made the queen one of the biggest drug traffickers of all time was, in fact, her coldness in the face of the suffering that her Empire caused on the other side of the world.
Vitória and drugs
For those who see the image of the queen as a dear and innocent old lady, don’t be fooled. Vitória’s “crazy life” began as early as her responsibilities, in 1837, at the age of 18, when she ascended the throne. There he was already consuming drugs that were legal and socially accepted on the European continent, starting with opiumfirst thing in the morning. Laudanum, a mixture of opium and alcohol widely used in the 19th century to alleviate pain and ailments, would be present on the monarch’s breakfast table.
The infamous cocaine it had not yet been banned, to the delight of the queen, who consumed it in the form of chewing gum and wine — she even consumed them with a young Winston Churchill, says .
The sovereign also wore cannabisbut he didn’t smoke it like most users of the world’s most popular drug do today. Vitória drank it, under medical advice, to alleviate menstrual symptoms. But there is more: associated with dramatic kidnapping scenes in films, the chloroform He was the British Queen’s best friend during childbirth.
“Queen Victoria, I believe, wherever she went, loved drugs“, summarizes historian Tony McMahon, in .
Far beyond the queen
This love for narcotics may have had another reason, besides the queen’s personal well-being, as the imperial opium trade solved a serious British economic problem.
At the beginning of the reign, the United Kingdom faced a strong trade imbalance with China. The British consumed large quantities of Chinese tea and imported silk and porcelain, but had difficulty finding products that the Chinese wanted to buy in return. And so British silver “flew” to China and little or nothing went the other way.
O opium produced in India (then under British control through the influence of the East India Company) would have been the end of British frustration. It was abundant, there was a lot of demand and, above all, it created dependence: whoever consumed it always wanted more, whatever the price.
Opium was already being sold before Queen Victoria, but it was with her on the throne that the United Kingdom’s trade deficit was reversed, according to the . Opium became so important that its sales represented between 15% and 20% of annual revenue across the British Empire.
From smoke to war
Socially, in China, the drug (which was already illegal) was beginning to cause concern. Emperor Daoguang decided to put an end to the use of drugs once and for all through a high-ranking official and respected academic, named Lin Zexu, who initially sought the diplomatic route.
Zexu reportedly wrote directly to Queen Victoria, appealing to British ethics and questioning why China exported useful goods to the United Kingdom, such as tea, silk and ceramics, and received in return a destructive drug that was ruining millions of people at the time.
The letter (which can be read) did not produce the desired effect, nor is it known whether it was even read by Queen Victoria, which led Lin Zexu to roll up his sleeves.
In the spring of 1839, he ordered the seizure of a large shipment of British opium and ordered that the drug be destroyed, that is, thrown into the sea: 2.5 million pounds of opium would have been disposed of by the Chinese authorities. It was this “declaration of war” that led the queen to react with military force: the British declared the First Opium War (1839-42).
British forces devastated the opposing army and killed tens of thousands of Chinese citizens. The emperor is forced to accept the Treaty of Nanking which does little to favor the Qing dynasty, which, for example, cedes Hong Kong to the United Kingdom, opens Chinese ports to British trade and grants legal immunity to British citizens in Chinese territory.
Chinese reputation would be one of the biggest ones affected, after a major defeat against a European power. China’s “century of humiliation” began here.
Tomás Guimarães, ZAP //
