淸代嘉慶・道光期のアヘン問題について

Abstract

There were two different aspects to the anti-opium policy of the Qing 清 government, the neijin 内禁and waijin 外禁 provisions. During the last half of the Jiaqing period through the early Daoguang period, the Qing government regarded opium addiction to be a social problem of habit and morality. Hence, it adopted the waijin policy as its primary weapon against the drug. Needless to say, the waijin policy was intended to prohibit the opium trade. However, in practice, it was used as a means of self-defense by officials in Guangdong 廣東. Under the baoshang 保商 system, moreover, the Cohong 公行 merchants ultimately were forced to take responsibility for its enforcement. Reinforced by the establishment of chajin yapianyan zhangcheng 査禁鴉片煙章程 in 1815, the waijin policy gained its greatest effect when the Ye Hengshu 葉恆樹 incident occurred in 1821. Opium smuggling ships were then driven out of the inner sea and forced to anchor off the Lingdingyang 零丁洋 with the commencement of this new "age of Lingdingyang", the share of Guangdong officials in the enforcement of the policy increased. In 1820, Bao Shichen 包世臣, who was disappointed with the outcome of the waijin policy, advocated the prohibition of foreign trade all together. Economically considered, the opium trade, he reasoned, was the cause of the drain of silver from the country. Cheng Hanzhang 程含章 objected to Bao's proposal. He spoke on behalf of the Guangdong officials and the Cohong merchants, both of whom benefitted from continuing foreign trade. The first opium debate was actually provoked by Bao and Cheng, prior to the better known opium debate of the 1830s.