Silk Silver Opium

The Trade with China that Changed History

By: Michael Pembroke

Narrated by: Michael Pembroke

Silk Silver Opium not only tells the fascinating stories of silk and tea, porcelain, silver and opium, missionaries, mercenaries and trade, but also what became inevitable – war and humiliation.

Much about China's modern relationship with the West is the product of its past interactions, conflicts, victories and humiliations. The South China Sea was the place from where the ultimately destructive European sailing ships arrived. The Ryukyu Island chain was the place from where marauding Japanese pirates preyed mercilessly on China's east coast ports. Taiwan was where anti-Qing rebels established a stronghold in the 17th century. The story of Imperial China's trading relationship with the West is a powerful tale, with clear implications for the future.

©2025 Michael Pembroke (P)2025 Bolinda Publishing

A realistic reflection of a change in world order due to opium

Opium is the longest sustained global crime syndicate for a century, reflecting a thousand year old pursuit to get humans addicted in the path to accumulate wealth that began with sugar then tobacco before 1773 when Britain knew they were losing the USA as a colony with the Boston tea party and gave their east India company the monopoly power to trade in opium. This book presents a realistic view of what how china accumulated wealth by trading silk and other products for 2000 years demanded by Europeans and paid in silver before all profits/silver from 2000 years or trade were extracted to Europe within 100 years by pushing one million tons of opium into china. This is a reference book that also calls for a need to balance innovations with morality.