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• 1 2019-11-18T17:22:55-05:00 Yakou becomes a smuggling depot, attracting extortionists 19 Shi Hou hires employees to facilitate the opium trade with Big and Little Li at Yakou. plain 3481 2020-09-01T23:35:03-04:00 24.6701, 118.63964 1835 Peter D. Thilly

  Original: 海濱民人施猴、施漱寶在該海汊搭蓋草寮一所。顧覓已獲素識之漁船戶詹幅、詹返、詹合，轉顧已獲之林即及在逃之施歐、施梏，每船給錢三千文。前赴外洋向夷船買運煙土，即在草寮囤積轉販。旋因夷船乏水米，施猴等令詹幅等運往接濟。

  The coastal residents Shi Hou and Shi Shubao built a grass hut near the sea locks at Yakou Village for storing and reselling opium. They then hired their longtime acquaintances, the Zhan family of fishermen (Zhan Fu, Zhan Fan, and Zhan He) who in turn hired Lin Ji, Shi Ou, and Shi Gu, offering a flat payment of  3,000 wen [copper cash] per boat to be split among the boatmen.

  The team of men travelled to the outer ocean and bought opium from foreign boats, and then stored and resold it at the grass hut. Soon after, because the foreign boats were lacking in water and grain, Shi Hou ordered the Zhan boatmen to go assist them.

  
  Original: 當施猴等在寮囤販之時，召現獲之民人朱光與該先斥革之泉州府書吏許枕潘知其通夷販煙得利，商同騙局，使同隨至施猴等寮內朱光誆稱本縣訪問令伊同許枕潘拿，如肯出本打點可免無事。施猴以許枕潘曾充府書，熟悉衙門，信以為實。當各送給番銀八十元而散。朱光旋用番銀一百五十元向施猴轉販煙土十塊，帶至他處賣與不識姓名人得利五十元。

  While Shi Hou and his compatriots were storing opium in the grass shack, a neighbor named Zhu Guang (captured) along with the cashiered Quanzhou Prefecture clerk Xu Zhenpan learned of the Shi clan’s collusion with foreigners to smuggle opium for great profit, and came up with a plan to cheat them. Xu and Zhu traveled together to Shi Hou’s grass shack and Zhu Guang deceitfully told Shi Hou that the county inspectors had ordered him along with Xun Zhenpan to arrest Shi Hou, but if Shi could offer some money Xu and Zhu could get them out of the problem.

  Shi Hou knew that Xu Zhenpan had worked in the Quanzhou prefect’s office and was familiar with the government office, so he believed the story and gave Zhu and Xu 80 silver taels each and they departed. Soon after, Zhu Guang returned to the grass shack and used 150 taels to buy 10 bricks of opium, which he resold at various places along the coast for a profit of 50 taels.

  
  
  Source: Junji chu Hanwen lufu zouzhe (Grand Council Chinese-Language Palace Memorial Copies, often cited as LFZZ), Beijing: First Historical Archives, 03–4007–048, DG 18.10.29.

• 1 2019-11-18T17:22:56-05:00 Chimmo (Shenhu) Bay 16 An opium depot on the China coast located between Xiamen and Quanzhou. plain 2020-08-14T20:19:10-04:00 24.65121, 118.67546 1836-01-18 Peter D. Thilly

  “I expect the coast will take off at least 5000 chests of the new Bengal drug, providing we are not interrupted by the Mandareens. Merchants from other ports make a point to come here for their opium."
  
  John Rees in Chimmo Bay to William Jardine in Canton, 1.18.1836*

  Shenhu Bay (深滬灣), known to the British opium merchants as Chimmo (also Chimo, Chimmoo), is an inlet approximately four miles across and strategically situated between the large ports of Xiamen and Quanzhou. The bay is big enough to provide shelter in rough seas, but small enough to defend effectively. It was also far enough away from seats of government power to avoid constant surveillance, but located along a major coastal shipping line between two large ports. With Xiamen twenty-five miles to the south and Quanzhou fifteen to the north, the bay was perfectly suited for Jardine-Matheson's purposes. Shenhu Bay remained an important opium smuggling depot all the way until 1860, when implementation of the 1858 the Treaty of Tianjin de facto legalized the importation of opium.
  
  Though it was located out of the way from the two neighboring ports, the anchorage at Shenhu bay could not have been "secret" in any meaningful way. The area was densely populated, and no local residents would have missed the arrival of foreign opium ships. As the above photograph and this video both illustrate, anyone with access to the water would have seen the British opium ships, which were anchored in the bay every day between 1833 until 1860. Any boats from shore that visited the ships would also have not been able to do so in secret, unless at night. But the Jardine-Matheson archives record daytime sales in abundance. People for the most part felt safe and secure enough to paddle out to the ships in the middle of the day and purchase large quantities of opium. Perhaps they paid an attached fee that made them feel more confident in their security.

   

  
  

  *Source:JM:B2 7 [R. 495, No. 74] Rees to Jardine, 1.18.1836