IP

Land of Promise: An Economic History of the United States

"In 1823, Warren Delano II sailed to Canton and within seven years rose to be a senior partner in the Boston-based firm of Russell and Com­pany. Having made his fortune, Delano retired in 1851 to Newburgh, New York. He wrote: 'I do not pretend to justify the prosecution of the opium trade from a moral and philosophical point of view, but as a mer­chant I insist that it is a fair, honorable, and legitimate trade. I considered it right to follow the example of England, the East India Company, and the merchants to whom I had always been accustomed to look up to-the Perkins, the Peabodys, the Russells, and the Lowes.' Delano's daughter Sara married James Roosevelt and gave birth to his grandson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

"In the Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860, the British, with as­sistance from the French, invaded China in response to the government's attempts to stamp out the foreign opium trade. Britain and other Western powers imposed 'unequal treaties' that gave them commercial privileges on the Chinese. In 1844, the Treaty of Wang Hiya guaranteed Americans the same terms that were extorted by the British. Following the example of Britain, the United States imposed trade treaties on Japan beginning on July 8, 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet steamed into Tokyo Bay.

"From that point until the Chinese Revolution of 1911, China was a shattered state, riven by warlords and drenched with blood in the cata­strophic Taiping Rebellion of 1850-1864. The historian John K. Fairbank called the opium trade in which American merchants took part 'the most long continued and systematic international crime of modern times.' " 

É por isto que capitalismo não pode ser deixado a governar-se a si mesmo sem regulação e, muito menos, a governar os povos: é que, na sua forma mais dura (a mais pura...?), é incompatível com a moral humana. E o que é o homem sem código moral? Uma besta, sem mais.