Beeching THE CHINESE OPIUM WARS 1830 - 1860 Taku Fort PEKING Burning Summer Palace
Item History & Price
The Chinese Opium Wars
by Jack Beeching
This is the 1975 First Edition
Front cover and spine Further images of this book are shown below
Publisher and place of publication Dimensions in inches (to the... nearest quarter-inch) London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd 6 inches wide x 9½ inches tall Edition Length 1975 First Edition 352 pages Condition of covers Internal condition Original red cloth gilt. The covers are slightly rubbed, with some fading along the top edge; otherwise still quite bright. The spine ends and corners are bumped. There is a previous owner's name inscribed in ballpoint on the front free end-paper, dated 17th February 1977. There are no other internal markings and the text is clean throughout. The edge of the text block is dust-stained and lightly foxed (particularly the top edge). Dust-jacket present? Other comments Yes: however, the dust-jacket is scuffed, rubbed and creased around the edges with one tear of approximately half an inch on the top edge of the front panel. The dust-jacket has discoloured generally, and particularly the rear panel where there is a noticeable line of discolouration. This is an internally clean example of the First Edition in a discoloured dust-jacket with one tear. Illustrations, maps, etc Contents Please see below for details Please see below for details Post & shipping information Payment options The packed weight is approximately 900 grams.
Full shipping/postage information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing. Payment options : UK buyers: cheque (in GBP), debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal
International buyers: credit card (Visa, MasterCard but not Amex), PayPal Full payment information is provided in a panel at the end of this listing.
The Chinese Opium Wars Contents The Course of Events
1 The Red Barbarians
2 Napier's Fizzle
3 Commissioner Lin
4 Playing at War
5 Soothe the Barbarian
6 Pirates and Rebels
7 The City Question
8 Taku Back and Forth
9 The Burning of the Summer Palace
A Note on Methods and Sources
A Guide to Sources and Further Reading
Index
Illustrations
Frontispiece map 1 Emperor Ch'ien Lung arrives in state for his meeting with Lord Macartney at Jehol.
2 Western gate of Peking.
3 Frigates Andromache and Imogene forcing the Bogue
4 Macao.
5 Commissioner Lin supervises the burning of opium
6 The Emperor Ch'ien Lung
7 His Excellency the Earl of Macartney
8 Commissioner Lin
9 Admiral Sir Charles Napier
10 The Bridge of Nanking
11 The city of Nanking
12 Opium clippers off Lintin Island
13 The European factories at Canton
14 The Royal Navy attack the fort at Chuenpi 7th January 1841 {National Army Museum)
15 William Jardine
16 James Matheson
17 The Rev. Dr Karl Gutzlaff
18 Howqua
19 Whampoa from Dane's Island
20 HMS Columbine attacking Chinese pirates
21 North Taku forts immediately after capture 21st August 1860
22 Taku fort
23 The bombardment of Canton
24 Baron Gros
25 Sir John Bowring
26 Sir Henry Pottinger (The Oriental Club)
27 Ch'i-Ying (Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts Boston)
28 The state entry of Lord Elgin into Peking 1860
29 The signing of the Treaty of Tientsin
30 The Summer Palace Peking
31 The Eighth Earl of Elgin
32 A self-portrait of George Chinnery
33 Prince Kung (National Army Museum)
34 Lord Palmerston
35 Rear Admiral James Hope
36 General de Montauban
37 General Sir James Hope Grant
The Chinese Opium Wars From the dust-jacket: "China was opened up" say the books, as if this ancient civilisation had been a large and juicy oyster. The Chinese oyster was in season during the nineteenth century, when British businessmen were under pressure to pay for China's tea and silk by sending there something the Chinese would find themselves obliged to go on buying. The knife that opened China's closed shell was opium. By guile, bribery and violence the drug habit was so successfully implanted by British and American traders that by the middle of the century opium became, in cash terms, the largest single commodity traded in the world. Millions of Chinese introduced to a foreign drug their government had made illegal, became helplessly addicted. Although in Britain a handful of enlightened Christians and radicals fought a stubborn fight to stamp out this evil, traditional Chinese society, already under stress in the modern world, began to collapse into war and revolution.
The China coast in those days was wilder than the Wild West. Smuggling, piracy and kidnapping were rife, the immensely profitable drug trade corrupting everything it touched. Between 1830 and 1860 "opening up" China led to a series of small wars, now hardly remembered by the victors, after which Russians and Americans, British and French were able to take what they wanted from China; much of what they laid hands on they still keep. The Chinese call these conflicts the Opium Wars, and what happened to China then is still vivid in the minds of China's leaders today, profoundly affecting their attitude towards the West.
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Jack Beeching's fascinating study is the first popular history of the Chinese Opium Wars which makes a serious effort to be fair to all sides. He tells a story of adventure, corruption, courage and wickedness. Beautifully and entertainingly written, this is a story to make you think.
Jack Beeching was born in Sussex and brought up between the two World Wars. As a very young poet at the end of the Thirties, he began to publish verse which was marked by the political awakening of the time. During the war he served in the Fleet Air Arm and elsewhere; then after a false start teaching history and briefly working in publishing and advertising, he decided to try his hand at writing. A car smash in the mid-fifties obliged him to live abroad in a dry climate and, except for a stay as Poet in Residence in an American university he has lived ever since around the Mediterranean and in Latin America. His numerous books, biography, popular history, fiction and translation are usually pseudonymous, but he has signed The Chinese Opium Wars judging it worthy of taking its place with the books of verse, scholarly texts and novels which bear his name.
Please note: to avoid opening the book out, with the risk of damaging the spine, some of the pages were slightly raised on the inner edge when being scanned, which has resulted in some blurring to the text and a shadow on the inside edge of the final images. Colour reproduction is shown as accurately as possible but please be aware that some colours are difficult to scan and may result in a slight variation from the colour shown below to the actual colour. In line with eBay guidelines on picture sizes, some of the illustrations may be shown enlarged for greater detail and clarity.
U.K. buyers: To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the postage figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from postage and packaging. Postage can be combined for multiple purchases. Packed weight of this item : approximately 900 grams Postage and payment options to U.K. addresses: Details of the various postage options can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments” option at the head of this listing (above). Payment can be made by: debit card, credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex), cheque (payable to "G Miller", please), or PayPal. Please contact me with name, address and payment details within seven days of the end of the auction; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the auction and re-list the item. Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (postage, payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me.
International buyers: To estimate the “packed weight” each book is first weighed and then an additional amount of 150 grams is added to allow for the packaging material (all books are securely wrapped and posted in a cardboard book-mailer). The weight of the book and packaging is then rounded up to the nearest hundred grams to arrive at the shipping figure. I make no charge for packaging materials and do not seek to profit from shipping and handling. Shipping can usually be combined for multiple purchases (to a maximum of 5 kilograms in any one parcel with the exception of Canada, where the limit is 2 kilograms). Packed weight of this item : approximately 900 grams International Shipping options: Details of the postage options to various countries (via Air Mail) can be obtained by selecting the “Postage and payments” option at the head of this listing (above) and then selecting your country of residence from the drop-down list. For destinations not shown or other requirements, please contact me before buying. Due to the extreme length of time now taken for deliveries, surface mail is no longer a viable option and I am unable to offer it even in the case of heavy items. I am afraid that I cannot make any exceptions to this rule. Payment options for international buyers: Payment can be made by: credit card (Visa or MasterCard, but not Amex) or PayPal. I can also accept a cheque in GBP [British Pounds Sterling] but only if drawn on a major British bank. Regretfully, due to extremely high conversion charges, I CANNOT accept foreign currency : all payments must be made in GBP [British Pounds Sterling]. This can be accomplished easily using a credit card, which I am able to accept as I have a separate, well-established business, or PayPal. Please contact me with your name and address and payment details within seven days of the end of the auction; otherwise I reserve the right to cancel the auction and re-list the item. Finally, this should be an enjoyable experience for both the buyer and seller and I hope you will find me very easy to deal with. If you have a question or query about any aspect (shipping, payment, delivery options and so on), please do not hesitate to contact me. Prospective international buyers should ensure that they are able to provide credit card details or pay by PayPal within 7 days from the end of the auction (or inform me that they will be sending a cheque in GBP drawn on a major British bank). Thank you.
(please note that the book shown is for illustrative purposes only and forms no part of this auction) Book dimensions are given in inches, to the nearest quarter-inch, in the format width x height. Please note that, to differentiate them from soft-covers and paperbacks, modern hardbacks are still invariably described as being ‘cloth’ when they are, in fact, predominantly bound in paper-covered boards pressed to resemble cloth.
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