Chapter 03
Contains spoilers
Summary
- Brock and two of his colleagues, who trade with China, are on the beach with other merchants and officials from the expeditionary force
- They are waiting for a Royal Navy officer to begin a ceremony
- A guard of honor of 20 navy infantry is present, and further away, a group of sailors who have just planted a flagpole on the rocky ground
- Brock is annoyed that the ceremony has not yet begun and curses the island, calling it a wasteland
- Jeff Cooper, an American from Boston, tries to defend the island and its potential as a port, but Brock remains unconvinced
- Brock argues that the island lacks fertile land, rivers, or pasture and that everything they need will have to be brought in by sea
- He also argues that there is no one to pay for the maintenance of Hong Kong
- Cooper suggests that the British Empire already has too many colonies like this
- Brock's hand goes to the handle of his knife in response to Cooper's comment
- Brock is annoyed that the ceremony has not yet begun and thinks they are wasting time
- He thinks that the luck of Dirk Struan, another merchant, has lasted for too long and it is time for a change
- He wonders if his son, Morgan, has been successful in undermining Struan's influence in Parliament and financial circles
- Cooper and Tillman have been acting as secret agents for Struan's company for the past three months
- They bought four million pounds of tea from Jin-qua and shipped it to Manila, where it was sold to Spanish merchants with the help of a local official
- The payment for the tea was a shipment of opium, which Jin-qua secretly delivered to Struan's warehouses in China
- The opium was then sold to the Chinese at an enormous profit
- Cooper and Tillman received a commission for their part in the deal
- Brock approaches an official from the Navy and asks him why the ceremony has been delayed
- The official tells him that the Royal Navy officer is not yet present
- Brock sees Struan and his wife, Tai-tai, approaching and becomes angry
- Traders in China faced many risks in their trade and believed that the East India Company was benefiting unfairly from their efforts
- They began to work together, encouraged by Struan, to end the Company's monopoly and control the global tea trade
- They agitated in Parliament and worked to buy votes and support free trade
- The Company was unwilling to give up its monopoly and fought back against the traders
- It decided to punish Struan and Brock, two of its main adversaries, by revoking their licenses to smuggle opium
- Brock managed to keep his ship, but Struan lost his
- Struan became a smuggler of opium and captured a fast pirate vessel, which he used