Smoke and Ashes by Amitav Ghosh

The author began the research for his memorable trilogy of novels called the Ibis Trilogy, he was startled to find how the lives of the 19th century sailors and soldiers he wrote of were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean, but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising at all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history was swept up in the story, as was the histories of many families, including Americans. It is at once a travelogue, memoir and a history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India, and China, as well as the world at large. The trade was engineered by the British Empire, which exported Indian opium to sell to China and redress their great trade imbalance, and its revenues were essential to the Empire's financial survival--he describes it as their most successful foreign policy ever. Yet tracing the profits further, Ghosh finds opium at the origins of some of the world's biggest corporations, of America's most powerful families and prestigious institutions--from the Astor's and Coolidge's to the Sackler's--who were, it turns out, opiate drug dealers from way back--I did not connect Arthur Sackler's exquisite collection of Canton art with the opium trade, but it was. they all downplayed their drug money from opium, and some of this history helps to visualize how they justified their practices that perpetuated addiction for profit. The opium trade in the 19th century was the inception of contemporary globalism itself.