EDKINS, Joseph.

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Opium: Historical Note, or the Poppy in China. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author at the head of the title page, "To Rev A. Williamson L.L.D., from the writer." Their friendship stemmed from many decades of service in China as missionaries and their commitment to the rigorous study of China's history, language, and culture. For example, Edkins contributed a chapter on Beijing to Williamson's Journeys in North China, Manchuria, and Eastern Mongolia (1870).In this study, perhaps the first of its kind, Edkins (1823-1905) gathered information from ancient and more recent sources on the historical cultivation and consumption of opium in China, positing that the drug was introduced by Arab traders travelling the Silk Road. It followed a report, published in the same series of customs service publications in 1881, on consumption levels in different provinces. The Historical Note was frequently cited by witnesses to the 1893-95 Royal Commission on Opium, and the text was included in full in Volume I of the commission's final submission. A second standalone edition was published in Shanghai in 1898.Edkins arrived in China in 1848 under the auspices of the London Missionary Society (LMS). He spent the next 57 years in the country, first in Shanghai and then in Yantai, Tianjin, and Beijing, retiring from the LMS in 1880 and joining the customs service as a researcher. One of the first Protestant missionaries to reside in the capital, he was proficient in Mandarin,

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