Imperial Twilight

Beginning decades before the fighting of 1839, Imperial Twilight traces the commercial and diplomatic system that connected Qing China with Britain through Canton. Tea imports, the silver trade and the East India Company’s dependence on opium created a relationship in which British merchants demanded wider access while Qing officials attempted to preserve legal authority and control over foreign commerce.

Platt follows Chinese and British decision-makers as negotiation gives way to coercion. Lin Zexu’s campaign against the opium trade, Charles Elliot’s responsibility for British subjects and William Jardine’s advocacy of military pressure all contributed to the crisis. The book presents the First Opium War not as an inevitable clash of cultures but as the result of informed political, commercial and imperial choices.