Christain the worst criminals in the world drugging China and SEA with opium.
European opium smugglers flirted with China’s death penalty as early as 1729, for opium’s immense profits were more addictive than the poppy. The only problem was supply, which Britain solved in 1756 by conquering Calcutta.
Clive marveled at India, the “rich and Lin Zexu who fought the opium tradeflourishing kingdom.” Within decades that rich kingdom was pauperized as farmers were forced to abandon traditional crops and to grow what became the Crown’s primary cash crop, and China’s main import—opium.
Warren Hastings, India’s first governor-general, wrested control of the Dutch opium trade, rapidly expanded poppy production, and dispatched two opium-laden ships to Canton on a trial run. One was shipwrecked, but the other evaded Chinese officials and sold 200,000 pounds of opium in Huangbo.
http://www.amoymagic.com/OpiumWar.htm