Name: The Crazy Story of the Opium Wars
Uploaded: 2026-03-31T22:32:18.000Z
Duration: 16 min 17 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

A sigh escapes you as you open the doors and a smell like honey and flowers creeps up your nostrils.

你一打開門，一股蜂蜜和花香的氣味就鑽進你的鼻腔，讓你忍不住嘆了口氣。

On low beds, men sprawl amidst cushions, smiling serenely through the haze.

低矮的床上，男人們癱軟地躺在軟墊間，在煙霧繚繞中帶著寧靜的微笑。

A young woman hands you a tray with dim sum, tea, and a pipe—your usual.

一位年輕女子遞給你一個託盤，上面放著點心、茶和一根煙槍——你平常的習慣。

With the first hit of opium, the edges of your world soften and your guilt evaporates in a warm, weightless cloud.

隨著第一口鴉片入喉，你的世界邊緣變得模糊，罪惡感在一團溫暖、輕飄飄的雲霧中蒸發。

Just today, foreign merchants bribed you, smuggling in the very stuff now curling through your lungs.

就連今天，外國商人賄賂你，走私進來的正是現在繚繞在你肺裡的這些東西。

我們現在在中國，大約是 1839 年，

and this year 40, 000 chests of opium will flow through the port of Guangzhou, making the dealers fabulously rich.

就在這一年，會有四萬箱鴉片透過廣州港流入，讓這些毒販發大財。

And you are a willing accomplice to the world's biggest narco kingpin—the British Empire.

而你，則是世界上最大毒梟——大英帝國——的甘願同謀。

But how did Queen Victoria become the head of a drug cartel?

但英國維多利亞女王又是怎麼成為這個毒品集團的首腦的呢？

By the late 18th century, the British got hopelessly hooked on tea.

到了十八世紀末，英國人已經對茶葉上癮到無可救藥了。

Within a century, demand for energizing leaf water exploded by 10,000%, with tea taxes funding 10% of the entire treasury.

不到一個世紀，這種提神飲料的需求量就爆炸性成長了 10,000%，茶葉稅收更是挹注了整個國庫的 10%。

The problem is, the world's only tea dealer at the time is China, which sees itself as the centre of civilisation and doesn't care for equal partnerships.

問題是，當時世界上唯一的茶葉供應國就是中國，他們自認為是文明世界的中心，根本不在乎什麼平等合作。

Their negotiation partner couldn't be more irritated—it's the British East India Company.

而他們的談判對象，再怎麼不高興也只能忍著——那就是英國東印度公司。

A huge joint-stock company with a state-backed monopoly on trade in the Indian Ocean and a private army twice as big as the British Empire's.

這是一家龐大的股份有限公司，在印度洋貿易上擁有國家級的壟斷權，還有私人軍隊，規模竟然是當時大英帝國的兩倍大。

For now, they are the ones being squeezed.

目前，他們是那個被壓榨的一方。

The Chinese demand silver for tea and don't buy anything themselves—a losing deal that drains the crown's silver reserves.

中國人堅持用銀兩來換茶葉，而且他們自己什麼東西都不買——這是一筆虧本的交易，讓英國王室的銀儲備不斷流失。

So in 1793, London sends ambassadors, hoping fancy words and gifts can nudge Beijing into buying British goods.

所以，在 1793 年，倫敦派遣了大使，希望能用華麗的言詞和禮物來說服北京購買英國的商品。

But the Qianlong Emperor tells them to get lost.

但乾隆皇帝卻直接叫他們滾蛋。

Our celestial empire possesses all things in prolific abundance.

咱們天朝物產豐盈，無所不有。

There is no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians.

根本不需要進口外國蠻夷的貨物。

Desperately, British officials look for something—anything—they can sell to China.

英國官員們絕望地尋找任何能賣給中國的東西。

We get to tell it to you thanks to Displate, who sponsored this episode.

感謝 Displate 贊助本集，我們才能把這個故事說給你聽。

Displate is the perfect partner for us that shares this dedication and brings it to your home.

Displate 是個很棒的夥伴，他們跟我們一樣熱愛藝術，並將它帶到你家。

Their premium posters made from durable, lightweight steel let you showcase your personality and what gets you excited.

他們採用耐用輕巧鋼材製成的頂級海報，讓你展現個人風格和熱情所在。

Displate's collection contains more than two million motives, both from beloved story universes like Star Wars or One Piece and independent artists.

Displate 有超過兩百萬種圖案，包含《星際大戰》或《航海王》等經典宇宙，以及獨立藝術家的作品。

Or you can design your own custom Displate.

或者，你也可以設計你自己的客製化 Displate。

We also share the aim of premium quality production and consistent design.

我們也同樣追求頂級的品質製作和一致的設計。

You can choose between three unified sizes, so all posters look great together, as well as select a matte, glossy, or texture finish with 3D features—all of them sleek and durable.

你可以選擇三種統一尺寸，讓所有海報擺在一起都很搭，還能選擇霧面、亮面或帶有 3D 特色的紋理表面，全都時尚又耐用。

Displate is the perfect gift for any loved one, no matter their interests.

Displate 是送給任何你愛的人的完美禮物，無論他們有什麼興趣。

Once you've made your choice, enjoy their fast delivery and easy mounting system.

選好之後，就能享受他們快速的運送和方便的安裝系統。

Your Displate comes with tool-free magnet hanging that you can assemble in minutes.

你的 Displate 附有免工具的磁吸掛架，幾分鐘內就能組裝好。

Click the link in the description and use the code NIGHTSHIFT for a discount.

點擊說明欄中的連結，並使用折扣碼 NIGHTSHIFT 來享有優惠。

If you find it impossible to choose just one, you can save even more.

如果你覺得很難只選一張，還可以省更多。

Get 26% off for one Displate, 31% off for two, and 36% for three or more Displates.

購買一張 Displate 可享 26% 折扣，兩張享 31% 折扣，三張或以上則享 36% 折扣。

With Displate, you can show the world what you love.

透過 Displate，你可以向世界展現你喜愛的東西。

And every order supports us in doing what we love.

你的每一個訂單，都支持我們做著我們熱愛的事。

Poppy Economics If you slice a poppy seed pod, it bleeds a milky goop packed with morphine and codeine—raw opium.

鴉片經濟 如果你切開一顆罌粟籽莢，它會流出充滿嗎啡和可待因的乳狀黏液——也就是生鴉片。

For millennia, it's widespread in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as a painkiller.

千百年來，它在歐洲、中東和亞洲廣泛作為止痛劑使用。

But in the 17th century, in southern Chinese ports, people find that it hits different when smoked.

但在 17 世紀，中國南方的港口，人們發現用抽的感覺很不一樣。

It becomes a social event for wealthy merchants and a pricey trading good.

這成了富商的社交活動，也成了昂貴的貿易商品。

Conveniently for the East India Company, when they seize control of Bengal in India, they stumble upon a local opium business just waiting to be scaled.

對東印度公司來說很方便，當他們控制了印度的孟加拉後，無意間發現了一個等待擴大規模的當地鴉片生意。

In the late 1700s, they start forcing farmers to swap food crops for poppy, fueling famines that kill millions.

在 1700 年代後期，他們開始強迫農民用罌粟取代糧食作物，引發了造成數百萬人死亡的飢荒。

Like any good cartel, they then launder the business and sell the opium to private merchants in Calcutta, who smuggle it into China.

就像任何一個好的販毒集團一樣，他們接著將這門生意洗白，賣給加爾各答的私人商人，這些商人再將其走私到中國。

and Chinese silver starts running into British money chests so fast that it becomes the empire's financial backbone within a few decades.

中國的白銀開始快速流入大英帝國的錢袋，幾十年內就成了帝國的經濟支柱。

到了 1833 年，情況更是全面失控。

The British government ends the East India Company's China monopoly.

英國政府終止了東印度公司的中國貿易壟斷權。

Ambitious British merchants turn into reckless narco lords with armed smuggling boats, who push the drug into a mass market habit.

野心勃勃的英國商人搖身一變，成了不計後果的毒梟，他們開著武裝走私船，將毒品推向大眾市場。

and many get addicted, although Chinese officials might have overstated numbers to throw shade on this foreign drug.

許多人染上毒癮，儘管中國官員可能誇大數字，來抹黑這種外來毒品。

Contrary to later myths, most users may have used it like many Europeans use wine or beer—socially and in moderation.

與後來的迷思相反，大多數使用者可能和許多歐洲人喝葡萄酒或啤酒一樣，是社交性地、適度地使用。

To the Chinese government, it's less a public health than an economic crisis.

在中國政府眼中，這與其說是公共衛生問題，不如說是經濟危機。

They're bleeding more silver out through opium and other imports than tea and the like bring in.

他們透過鴉片和其他進口商品流失的白銀，比茶葉等商品帶來的還多。

As recession grips the empire, officials use opium as a scapegoat for fading morals and fortitude and decide to crush the trade.

隨著帝國陷入衰退，官員們將鴉片當成道德和堅毅力衰退的替罪羊，並決定打擊這項貿易。

And the stage for this showdown is Guangzhou, the heart of the drug hustle, known to Europeans as Canton.

而這場對決的舞臺，就是廣州，這個歐洲人稱為Canton的毒品交易中心。

The Untouchable It's spring, 1839, in the buzzing port city.

難以觸及的 在1839年的春天，在這座繁忙的港口城市。

And you're on your way to get high with your merchant powers again.

而你又要再次帶著你的商業頭腦去尋歡作樂了。

You're sweating as you stroll through the narrow streets that smell of incense, tea, and frying food.

你走在瀰漫著香、茶和炸物氣味的狹窄街道上，汗流浹背。

But as you reach the den, the doors have been smashed to splinters.

但當你抵達據點時，門已經被砸得粉碎。

Soldiers are dragging the owner away, while others haul out armfuls of confiscated pipes.

阿兵哥們拖走了老闆，其他人則搬出了成堆的違禁煙槍。

As a middleman who's been pocketing mountains of British silver, you feel the noose tightening around your neck.

作為一個中間人，你一直坐擁大英帝國的白銀，你感覺到絞索正收緊。

The man responsible rolled into town only a week ago - Lin Zixu, the emperor's handpicked fixer for the opium crisis, an elite scholar known as "clear as the heavens" for being "incorruptible" in a system drowning in bribes.

造成這一切的男人，一個星期前才剛抵達這裡——林則徐，皇帝為鴉片危機挑選的解決者，一位被譽為「清如天」的精英學者，在一個充斥著賄賂的體系中「廉潔奉公」。

From the outside, China's huge army, population, and

從外面來看，中國龐大的軍隊、人口，以及

century-old dynasty look like a massive porcelain vase - pristine and imposing.

一個百年王朝看起來就像一個巨大的瓷瓶——完美無瑕且令人敬畏。

但它一旦被重擊，也會同樣脆弱。

A population boom has outpaced food supply and bureaucracy, the economy is in free fall,

人口爆炸已超越糧食供應和官僚體系，經濟自由落體，

But to Lin, China remains civilisation's eternal centre - self-sufficient and morally superior.

但在林看來，中國依然是文明永恆的中心——自給自足且道德高尚。

And in that view, a merchant like you getting rich off bribes from barbarians is the absolute worst.

而從這個角度來看，像你這樣靠著蠻夷的賄賂致富的商人，是最糟糕的。

You see Lin's decree pinned to every wall - "Ditch the habit in about a year or prepare for the executioner." And you hear whispers of what Lin said when the biggest Chinese opium trader, one of the richest men in the world, tried to bribe him with a fortune: "The great minister does not want your money.

你看到林則徐的禁令釘在每面牆上——「一年內戒掉這個習慣，否則準備迎接劊子手。」你還聽到了關於林則徐對中國最大的鴉片商人、也是當時世界上最富有的人之一，試圖用巨額財富賄賂他時所說的話：「大員不稀罕你的錢。

I want your head." And Lin isn't stopping here.

我只要你的腦袋。」而林則徐並不會在此停止。

He turns to the source of the opium flood - the foreign traders.

他轉向鴉片氾濫的源頭——外國商人。

They live on a narrow strip outside Guangzhou's walls known as the factories - a mix of offices, warehouses, and

他們住在廣州城牆外的一塊狹窄區域，被稱為「洋行」——混合了辦公室、倉庫和

living quarters they leased from China, and

住所，也是外國人在帝國中唯一合法居住和貿易的地方，

the only place in the empire where foreigners can legally live and trade, designed to keep them under control.

這是為了將他們置於嚴密監管之下。

The British operation is overseen by Superintendent Charles Elliott, a dutiful servant to the crown.

英方的行動由皇家忠誠的僕人，總監查爾斯．艾略特負責。

He personally finds the opium smuggling a bit distasteful,

他個人覺得鴉片走私有點令人厭惡，

but gets its economic necessity and lacks the legal authority to stop it anyway.

但也明白其經濟上的必要性，而且反正他沒有法律權力阻止。

Lin sends them an ultimatum - "Surrender all your opium and pledge never to trade it again or else." His soldiers brick up the doors, march through the streets,

林則徐向他們發出最後通牒——「交出所有鴉片，並保證永不再交易，否則後果自負。」他的阿兵哥們封鎖了門，在街上遊行，

with messages between China and London taking months, Elliott panics and makes a fateful decision.

中國和倫敦之間的訊息傳遞需要數月時間，艾略特驚慌失措，做出了影響深遠的決定。

He orders the traders to hand over all 20,283 opium chests, promising that the crown will pay them back.

他命令貿易商交出全部 20,283 箱鴉片，並承諾王室會賠償他們。

They can hardly believe their luck - in one stroke, their entire stock is sold.

他們簡直不敢相信自己的好運——一夕之間，他們的全部庫存都賣光了。

She might not know it yet, but this makes Queen Victoria the biggest drug lord on the planet.

她可能還不知道，但這讓英國維多利亞女王成了地球上最大的毒梟。

Elliott doesn't realise the world-altering debt he just created for her.

艾略特沒意識到他為她創造了多麼影響世界的債務。

The opium is worth 4% of the entire British state budget.

這些鴉片的價值相當於整個大英帝國預算的 4%。

Today that share would be about 55 billion pounds, close to the UK's defence budget.

以今天的價值計算，這筆錢大約是 550 億英鎊，接近英國的國防預算。

這時候的林則徐，可說是意氣風發。

He alone stopped the crisis and seized the opium.

他一人化解了危機，並繳獲了鴉片。

Chest after chest is hauled to huge trenches by the river, dumped into brine mixed with lime and flushed out to the sea.

一箱又一箱的鴉片被運到河邊的巨大溝渠，倒入混合了石灰的鹽水中，然後沖入大海。

The Bill, Please By August 1839, the news reaches London and buries the foreign minister's desk under a mountain of letters from merchants, all asking for the queen to pay their IOUs.

帳單，請。到了 1839 年 8 月，消息傳到倫敦，淹沒了外交大臣的書桌，堆滿了商人們的信件，他們都在要求女王支付他們的欠條。

The most powerful merchants launch a lobbying campaign, arguing that China's market is a goldmine locked behind an annoying bureaucracy just waiting for liberation.

最有權勢的商人發起了遊說活動，聲稱中國的市場是一座金礦，只不過被一個惱人的官僚體系鎖住了，正等著被解放。