KING, Charles William.

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Opium Crisis. A Letter Addressed to Charles Elliot, Esq., Chief Superintendent of the British Trade with China. First edition of this well-known attack on the opium trade and Elliot's overblown response to Chinese crackdowns, written during the author's imprisonment in Canton on entirely spurious charges of opium dealing. King (1809-1867) spent most of his career operating in East Asia and was a partner in the firm Olyphant & Co., one of the few Western houses that steadfastly refused to participate in the illicit trade. This pamphlet, published anonymously, followed King's suggestion in 1838 that foreign opium traders should not be afforded consular protection.

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