Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade 1750-1950 (Asia's Transformations)

Up-to-date, easy to read, and wide-ranging, this is the first comprehensive academic work to explore the growth and development of the opium trade in relation to imperialism and a global economy. The book provocatively links the general expansion of the European empires-from Columbus to Cornwallis to Conrad-and the growth of commercial capitalism specifically to the Asian opium trade. Trocki breaks new ground by considering the production and traffic in tobacco, sugar, alcohol, tea, as well as opium. In an age of awareness of large-scale drug use, this book takes a long look at the history of our relationship with mind-altering substances.