Post on 03-Apr-2018
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RIVER OF SMOKE
-Amitav Ghosh
Group 2
A r n a b | A n k u r | S o h a m | S u d i p | S h r i k a n t
To the world at large, the
whole fact that 90 % of the
opium that went to China
came from India that itself
was very little known. In
general, the reality of the
opium trade, the part it
played in forming modern
capitalism and the modern
world, is just obscure and
occluded."
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Book The River of Smoke
Author Amitav Ghosh
Part ofIbis trilogy (Volume 2 of the trilogy)
Genre Fiction
Sub-genre - Alternate history/ Literary fantasy/ Realistic fantasy
Major characters Bahram Modi, Robin Chinnery, Lin Zexu, Neel, Vico, Chi Mei, Fitcher Penrose, AhFatt, Paulette Lambert
Set in Fanqui town
Narrative point of view
Alternating first and third person narrative
Narrative voice
Character voice
Narrative tense
Past tense
Mode of narration
INTRODUCTION
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Three ships get caught in a raging storm of the coast of Canton. They escape their ships and manage to reach
Canton. The book traces their lives Set in mid- 19th century China, it contains a rich collection of characters from varied cultures and geographies
glued by their common intent to trade with China
Bahram Modi is a Parsi trader who hails from Mumbai. He owns the ship Anahita, one among the three ships
in the book, the others being Redruth and Ibis. He sets off on one final voyage to China despite embargo on
trade by Chinese authorities
Robert Chinnery, one of the great Chinese artists is also a central character in the book
Fanqui town, a small enclave, populated by traders, is at the center-stage
Using many languages and a dense description the author paints a great
open-air market ruled by Opium trade
Behind the scene is the larger political arena The British desire for tea,
growing riches in England, India and Chinese traders, the trade embargoimposed by the Chinese government which itself is cluttered hierarchical
mix of the Emperor, many Mandarins and influential people.
Just when too much of history starts to gets boring, the author sprinkles it
with colorful tales of the characters. Humor, though not absent, is a rare
artifact
The text which is never fast-moving, almost stalls when traders wait for
the Chinese reaction when the Imperial government closes the harbors fortrade
The novel which ends in
1939, leads straight up to
the Opium war where the
British faced with the lossof trade wreck havoc on
China force them into a
unilateral submission to the
Nanking treaty of 1942
Building the book
Staging the bookhe lead-up
RIVER OF SMOKE
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Bahram Modi
Main character of story, Opiumtrader from India, Father-in-law
well established capitalist
Foresees the potential forInternational Business withChina in trading Opium,business florishes
Finds himself caught betweenthe conflict of opium trade
Fredrick Penrose
Noted nursery man and planthunter
Nursery named Penrose andSons, Falmouth, UK
Reputed for Chinese imports ofcommercial value
Captain of the vessel Redruth
On an expedition to China tocollect rare plants
Paulette
Daughter of a French botanistIn search for the rare GoldenCamellias
Supporting role in the novelknown through the letterwritten by Robin
Several other characters ( Deeti, Ah Fatt, Zachary Reid, Vico etc .) dangling between India and China bring cultural
diversit
Robin Chinnery
Character of a parallelstory
Son of George Chinnery;friend of Paulette
Deep bonding with theCantonese people
Letters written to Paulettegives an different artisticperspective
Neel
Once regal landowner
Escaped prison sentence
in Mauritius and became aMunshi under Bahram
Serves the reader stillanother angle on theaffairs of Canton
Zadig Karabedian
Half-Armenian, half-Egyptian
Watchmaker, do not dealwith opium
Assumes less risk andretains a clean conscience not concerned in makinghigh profit
THE CHARACTERS
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Route for Botanical Trade Amitav Ghosh depicts the search for an
exotic Chinese plant, The Golden
Camellia known to an Englishman Mr.
Fredrick Penrose aka Fitcher only
through its representation in a painting. In the sea of Poppies, Ghosh had shown
Paulette's history as the daughter of a
botanist.
In River of Smoke she goes to work for
an English nurseryman who wants to
import Chinese plants to Europe and
America.
Through letters to Paulette from an(Robin Chinnery) living in the foreign
enclave at Canton, we hear about art,
plants, gardens, the layout the city, the
local society of the inhabitants.
At one point, memory carries Bahram and his old friend the watchmaker Zadig back to the time their ship stopped on StHelena and their meeting with the imprisoned Napoleon.
Great Nicobar Islands
Birds- hinlene found on the island
Source of wealth due immense value of their nests at other countries like China
Nests called yan wo in Canton, chinese people boiled the nests and ate them
Highlights the concept of village headman Omjah Kurrah who ensures equitable division of proceeds emerging from
business activities
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THE OPIUM TRADE ROUTE
The Pearl river was like a funnel through whichgoods entered and exited China. The landscape
is like a triangle . At either end of the mouth of
the Pearl river, and Hong Kong at the other
end. As one goes inland, the Pearl river
narrows and grows more crowded until it
reaches Guangzhou, which is Canton.
Mumbai to Guangzhou :
the opium trade route
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Canton System forbade Europeans from
entering the country and restricted business to
one port, Canton, on the mouth of the Pearl
River.
The East India Company, under a charter from
the Crown, had a monopoly of trade with India
and China. The E.I.C. purchased silks and tea
from the Chinese but had little to offer in return
except silver .
Attempts by the British, the Dutch , Russia and
the British yet again to negotiate access to theChina market were resounding failures.
Two Opium Wars, also known as the Anglo-Chinese Wars, were fought between the British Empire and China from 1839 to 1842, andfrom 1856 to 1860. The genesis of the war can be traced to Tea.
The humongous demand for TEA in Europe caused a
massive economic deficit as European nations
bought it with large quantities of silver. By 1817, the British hit upon counter-trading in a
narcotic, Indian opium, as a way to both reduce the
trade deficit and finally gain profit from the formerly
money-losing Indian colony.
Two developments in the 1830s undermined this
relatively stable 'Canton system':
the significant expansion of opium smuggling
the rise of free-trade imperialism.
THE CANTON SYSTEM REASON and the START
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THE OPIUM TRADE ECONOMICS
The Qing government tolerated theimportation of opium because
it imposed an indirect tax on
Chinese subjects,
Allowed the British to double
tea exports from China to
England, which profited the
monopoly for tea exports of the
Qing imperial treasury and its
agents.
However, by 1820, the planting of tea
in the Indian and African colonies,
along with accelerated opium
consumption, reversed the flow of
silver
Since the Chinese government had repeatedly banned opiumsmoking, the E.I.C. preferred to sell its production at annual
auctions in Calcutta to licensed private firms so as not to
jeopardise its legal trade in tea.
The profits from the E.I.C.'s auctions contributed
significantly to the revenue of the government of British
India
From the 1820s onwards British trade with China was in surplus,
as the huge outflow of silver used to buy opium greatly exceeded
the money the traders paid for Chinese tea.
By infiltrating the system and creating an enormous demand for the
drug, which fetched huge prices, Western traders set up a
sophisticated smuggling operation that frayed relations between the
two powers and escalated into war.
The BRITISH Side The CANTON Side
Some competition came from the newly independent United States, which began selling Turkish opium in the
1820s. Portuguese traders also brought opium from the independent Malwa states of western India
However by 1820, the British were able to restrict this trade by charging "pass duty" on the opium when it was
forced to pass through Bombay to reach an entrepot.
COMPETITION IN THE OPIUM MARKET
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ROLE OF THE PEARL RIVER The Chinese did not exercise authority on offshore islands. The mainland was strictly under their control but they
considered a lot of the islands interstitial and did not try to extend their authority to them.
The mouth of the Pearl river is dotted with thousands of islands, which in those days were used by pirates. TheBritish took big ships to Lintin island (Small island at the mouth of the pearl river), anchored them there, took off
their masts and left the hulls.
The hulls became 'receiving ships' -- they were like floating platforms. The British and Indians would pick up opium
from Bombay and Calcutta, take it to Lintin Island and offload it onto these ships.
Lintin island is not far from the shore and from those ships, the merchants would carry away the opium in fast-
crabs, which were very fast boats with about 60 oarsmen.
The opium would be taken to the mainland but the merchants had their hands clean.
Ingenious and Sophisticated Smuggling Operation
The Viceroy of Guangdong began efforts to constrain
the trade, but due to large increases in the supply of
opium, the large coast line of South China, andcorruption these efforts failed
A formidable bureaucrat Lin was sent to Guangdong
as imperial commissioner by the emperor in late
1838 to halt the illegal importation of opium .
He made a huge impact on the opium trade within a
matter of months. He arrested more than 1,700
Chinese opium dealers and confiscated over 70,000opium pipes.
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It is often said that the 'Opium War' was not fought over opium but in the name of free trade
The concept of Laissez-faire was eulogized by the Europeans after the industrial revolution
Pros & Cons of Free Trade Comparative
Advantage
Threats to domestic
industries
Protectionism leads to
increase in prices
Exploitation of infant
industries
Healthy competition Endangered Security
Interdependence of
nations
Loss of historical
industries ( Cultural
Imperialism)
Economic growth of the
region
Trade used as a policy
tool
Introduction of capital
and technology
Too much dependency
on few products
Democratization &
transparency
Development of
powerful trade blocs
China: After the Opium WarsFirst Opium war broke out in 1838
1842, Nanjing Treaty signed, severe clauses leviedon China
Britain gets the favored nation status
1856: spread of imperialism, renegotiates clausesof treaty
Break out of 2nd Opium War
1911 downfall of Qing Empire
CONCEPT OF FREE TRADE OPIUM WARS AND CURRENT CONTEXT
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The opium trade was not considered illegal by the Christian Church due to the fact In Europe opium was uses as a
mode of medication.
Due to the cultural difference the Christian community not able to identify the usage of opium as a drug in China
and surrounding countries.
It led to spread of Christianity in the Indian sub-continent. Christianity became synonymous to opium trade
Opium became a major contributor to the revenue of the EIC. Economic vs ethical debates arose leading to the
formation of the anti- opium regime in Europe
Critique Has tried to revive the past in the form of a dialogue
No one sided portrayal of the situations, open for interpretation by the reader Canton shown as a mix of cultures and language, has highlighted the beauty of the city amidst the opium menace
Usage of mixed languages, 1st and 3rd person makes the depiction more real
Has built a bridge between fiction and history
ETHICS OF OPIUM TRADE
Usage of anachronistic cynicism.
Democracy is a wonderful thing, Bahram
observes to a British merchant. It is a
marvellous tamasha that keeps the
common people busy so that men like
ourselves can take care of all matters of
importance. I hope one day India will also
be able to enjoy these advantages and
China too, of course.
Do you think they will remember what we went through?
Bahram muses as he watches young Indian Parsis playing
cricket in Canton. Will they remember that it was the money
we made here, the lessons we learned and the things we saw
that made it all possible? Will they remember that their
future was bought at the price of millions of Chinese lives?
That is a haunting question. And there will be more,
undoubtedly, when the final instalment of the Ibis trilogy
arrives.
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THANK YOU
The illegal sale of opium became one of the world's most valuable single commodity trades and has
been called "the most long continued and systematic international crime of modern times .