虎门销烟19世纪上半期,英国为牟取暴利将鸦片输入中国,鸦片的输入严重摧残了国人的体质和加剧了中国的贫弱,“因鸦片的输入而引起的白银不断外流,开始破坏天朝的国库收支和货币流通”(见《马恩选集》四卷本,第二卷,第139页),到鸦片战争爆发前一年,鸦片为英国在印度的殖民政府提供了五百一十九万多两的白银收入,这对当时的清政府来说是个相当巨大的数目,当时清朝有见识的大臣林则徐看到鸦片对中国造成的 In the first half of the 19th century, Britain imported opium into China for reckless profits. The import of opium severely damaged the physique of the people and exacerbated China’s weakness. "Silver continued to drain due to the opium importation and began to undermine the treasury of the Heavenly Kingdom (See the Fourth Volume, vol. II, p. 139). By the year prior to the Opium War, opium provided the British colonial government in India with 591 The silver income of more than 10,000 was a considerable sum for the Qing government at that time, when the enlightened Minister of the Qing Dynasty Lin Zexu saw the opium caused to China