Posted by Dan Lind on March 30, 2001 at 00:11:21 from 216.129.69.135:
The following was scoffed from a sidebar in the Time-Life series - BRITISH EMPIRE.
For Chinese pirates, as much as for British merchants, the Opium War was a boon: by opening Chinese ports to European trade, it brought a rush of merchant shipping that offered unprecedented pickings for pirates. Since there was no Chinese navy, Britain sent some of the gunboats stationed at the Treaty Ports to combat the threat. These operations were rarely hazardous and often profitable for pirate junks were no match for British warships. And Parliament had offered a tempting incentive: L 20 was paid for every pirate killed or captured. Even if a captured pirate escaped he was worth L 5 to the British crew. Spurred by these inducements, the Navy made sure that the heyday of the pirates was brief. Between 1843 and 1851, when the menace was as good as over, gunboats destroyed or captured 150 pirate junks and headmonney was claimed for 7,500 pirates. In one action, 58 out of a squadron of 64 junks were destroyed and 1,700 pirates killed - all without a single British loss.
I believe Taicoons Chang and Wu had a point!