termiv_international business_book review_ river of smoke

7/29/2019 TERMIV_International Business_Book Review_ River of Smoke

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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 .

termiv_international business_book review_ river of smoke

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