从英国议会文件看英国外交官关于鸦片贸易合法化的密谋活动

British Diplomats' Conspiracy to Legalize the Opium Trade in British Parliamentary Papers

从1841年2月26日巴麦尊训令乔治.懿律促使中国解除鸦片禁令开始,一直到1858年11月8日中英两国代表签署《通商章程善后条约:海关税则》正式承认鸦片贸易合法化为止,英国的这一外交图谋的最终实现经历了将近18年的时间。通过系统阅读英国议会文件,并参考中文档案资料,我们可以很清楚地看到,参与向中国官员施加压力的英国官员中,既有英国首相,又有外交大臣;既有英国驻华公使、商务监督,又有驻广州、厦门和上海的领事官。由此可见,逼迫清朝官员承认鸦片贸易合法化是19世纪中叶英国政府既定的一贯坚持的对华外交方针和政策。

On February 26,1841,Lord Palmerston,the British Foreign Secretary,ordered British Superintendent of Trade in China Charles Elliot to force the Chinese government to end the prohibition of opium.Eighteen years later,the Rules and Regulations of Commerce between Britain and China formally legalized the trade of opium on November 8,1858.Consulting the British parliamentary papers and the Chinese archives from the intervening years,we find clearly that among the British officers who exerted pressure on China,there were not only the Prime Minister,the Foreign Secretary,the British ambassador to China and the Superintendent of Trade in China,but also the consuls in Guangzhou,Xiamen and Shanghai.The documents above indicate that the conspiracy to legalize the opium trade in China was a consistent diplomatic guiding principle of the British government in the mid-19th century.