-Poul Anderson, "Time Patrol" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-53 AT 3, p. 20.
Michael Portillo is on British TV explaining how the East India Company traded Indian opium for Chinese tea. Thus, tea came into the British Empire and later, in another timeline, to the Merseian Rodhunate. Sometimes, everything connects, in this case:
our history;
Portillo's various excellent TV series;
two major sf series by Poul Anderson.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And I only wish something or someone could have prevented the assassination of Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo in our timeline! But I can well imagine Time Patrol agents being absolutely forbidden to interfere with that crime, because to do so would abort the history leading to the Danellians. So all agents like Manse Everard could do was get drunk, to stave off thinking of how Sarajevo led to such catastrophes as WW I and II, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and all other horrors of the 20th century.
Ad astra! Sean
Incidentally, note that in the 19th century opium and its derivatives were perfectly legal in Britain -- you could start an opium den in London, and some did. There were laudanum addicts.
It just wasn't very popular; people preferred booze.
So when the British peddled opium in China, they were doing something that was absolutely kosher in their own homeland. There was no legal impediment to a Chinese building a ship, sailing to Portsmouth, and selling a cargo of puggle -- or shaojiu -- to the locals, once he'd paid the customs dues.
Incidentally, there were no legal restrictions on actually immigrating to Britain in this period either: you could come from anywhere and, after 5 years, be automatically naturalized -- that didn't change until 1906.
After that there were restrictions on foreigners, but none on British subjects.
Anyone from, say, Bengal or Natal or Jamaica could come to Britain, step ashore and have all the legal rights of anyone born in the Three Kingdoms, including voting, owning property, or marrying the heir to the throne, provided they were Protestant.
There were Indian-born MP's in the 1890's.
That didn't legally change until after WWII.
There wasn't much immigration from those places essentially because people there didn't -want- to move, or didn't have the price of a ticket, or both.
And I want unrestricted freedom of movement now - the freedom of anyone to go where the work is or where other opportunities are. Immigrants enhance the economy and enrich society. They maintain the British National Health Service. When I took a temporary factory job late in life, I was working next to a Polish guy. When I asked, "Why not stay in Poland instead of come here to work in these conditions (an 11-hour production line shift with only one half-hour break)?," he replied, "The money's better here." Sheila taught English to Polish immigrants who would walk long distances to an evening class. They included a Jehovah's Witness who asked her what "justification" was. Sheila was able to help with the language but not with the theology. Krishna monks hand out free curry on the street as part of their religion (appreciated by secularist students and demonstrators). We all benefit from the presence of people who are not like us.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling and Paul!
Mr. Stirling: Very interesting, what you said about both drugs and immigration/emigration. I kid know of "old timey" medications like laudanum, often used for relieving pain. E.g., I've read of how George IV used laudanum for pain in his last years.
The problem with exporting opium to China was, that by the 1830's, opium addiction had become a disastrous problem there. So, efforts by the Ch'ing gov't to stop or reduce the opium trade would clash with Anglo/Indian interests. Hence the Opium Wars.
And it would have been good for the Chinese if they had built their own sea going ships and started trading themselves.
I had not known out and out foreigners could simply live in the UK for five years and be automatically naturalized without needing legal documentation and taking a formal oath of allegiance. And it made sense that anyone from any part of the British Empire could move to the UK and have the same legal rights and privileges as anyone born in the Three Kingdoms. And it's intriguing that there were Indian MPs in 1890's.
Paul: While I agree on the value of cultural diversity SOMETIMES being enriching, I still disagree with you about unrestricted immigration. First, as a statement of principle, SOVEREIGN nations have every right to set the terms and conditions by which foreigners can move in and become citizens/subjects. And I don't think a fairly minimum waiting period of five years and then taking an oath of allegiance to one's new country is too to ask. Nor do I object to a nation vetting people to weed out criminals and terrorists.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Criminals and terrorists should be weeded out of the resident population as well. That is a different issue.
Paul.
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