Analysis of Chinese/British Trade

Just by looking at the table of Chinese/British trade at Canton from 1835-1836 we can see that Britain relies heavily on its opium exports. Opium makes up about 60% of British exports to China. We can also see Britain's reliance on opium because besides cotton, it doesn't really make much money from other exports. They had to come up with an "all other items" label to show the rest of the money Britain made from exports because basically its opium and nothing else. If you cut out Britain's opium exports entirely, they would have a $10 million trade deficit with China. Instead Britain has an $8 million surplus, bolstering their economy while weakening China's.

Also, millions of Chinese people became addicted to opium and their officials became corrupted. Opium was illegal and so the officials were often bribed to allow opium to be smuggled into the country.

In reality, dependence on opium was what really "poisoned China," as opposed to Hong Xiuquan's claim that the Qing being from Manchuria was what brought down China.

The idea of one good, or idea, or weapon or whatever, that gave Britain the edge over China can be applied to the Industrial Revolution and to the Ming Dynasty's famed fleet. The IR and China's inability to modernize gave Britain a huge advantage that tipped the scales away from China towards Europe and especially Britain. Back in the day, the main reason why the Ming Dynasty was the most powerful nation in the world at the time was because of its enormous fleet. Both countries at one points or another had that one irreplaceable quality that gave them the edge.