Comments by "Arthur Mosel" (@arthurmosel808) on "Why was the Qing Dynasty so weak? History of China 1644-1839 Documentary 1/10" video.

I suggest reading Upton's report on China from the 1870s. One China had a saying you don't use good iron to make a nail and good men to make a soldier. The officers were qualified by tests that had no place in a modern army. Yes, the lack of strong central government meant the provincial armies and navies didn't work together. As far as corruption, officials weren't actually paid. They were allowed to keep a portion of the taxes raised. An honest official might only keep 10%. The problem was that each official kept 10%. So for simplicity sake, the local official raised 100 (put the coin that you want there), he sent to the next level 90, that person kept 9, so the next official got 81, it kept going from there. It seems like the higher official really wasn't getting much; but let's say he had 10 subordinates. With 10 subordinates each sending 90, he actually got 90 that he kept while only sending 810 forward. The same worked in reverse. Let's say a project directed at the imperial level sent 100,000 for the project, the first official keeps 10,000. The next official gets 90,000, of which he keeps 9,000 sending 81,000 to the next. It continues like this until the one who has to do the job has what's left to do the job. He gets his cut bcheaper material. material and pocketing what he didn't spend. All this is if you consider that the official keeps no more than what is considered honest. The procedure was ca.led the "squeeze" in many of the early European documents.
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Opium was long in China, but brought into China by camel along the silk road, and was a luxury good. The British had opium in quantity, it was a major Indian crop. Using the British East India Company ships, Britain open China to trade. Opium could be brought in quantity, so it became available to the common Chinese.
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@piyushjaiswal9283 Half right, opium was grown and used in India; however, the British increased the amount grown by a drastic degree so trade could be conducted with China which refused Western goods.
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@piyushjaiswal9283 Again we have a point to clarify, Indian opium had reached China before, but over caravan routes in small quantities. In both countries besides medicinal use there was abuse by some of the elites due to the cost, especially in China. The main reason for John Companies (British India Company, not officially the government, a real emphasis splitting hairs there) on opium was Chinese governments refusal to trade in European goods and its demand for precious metal for products the Europeans desired. Once the John Company realized that opium could be sold there for the goods desired, opium became a problem for both countries (for different reasons).
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By the time of the opium wars, the original Manchu forces had deteriorated, and the Chinese forces or green standard armies were basically constabulary. The forces were scattered throughout China, so obsolete tactics meant to fight non-modern forces; scattered forces, and troops were basically ineffective. So, a modern force (for the time) could easily defeat the limited numbers of poorly armed troops available for the defense.
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