British Business Supervision Law in China

On March 22, 1839 (the eighth day of February, the 19th year of the Qing Dynasty), Lin Zexu ordered the investigation and seizure of British opium dealers.

On the 24th (the 10th day of the lunar new day), Yi Law, the British commercial supervisor in China, sneaked into the foreign museum in Guangzhou from Macau to prevent British merchants from handing over opium, and fled in asylum. He was intercepted and returned to the foreign museum by China workers. Lin Zexu ordered the cessation of Sino-British trade, sent troops to blockade the foreign house, evacuated comprador servants, and cut off communication between foreign scholars and ship change. Yilu also threatened and demanded that a license be issued and that the British ships and the British people be evacuated, which was severely refuted by Lin Zexu.

On the 27th, Lin Zexu once again told Ying to discuss the issue of reason, law, emotion and situation and stop selling cigarettes. Seeing that stubborn resistance was ineffective, Yi Law took his capacity as a representative of the British government and ordered British merchants to hand in the cigarettes, ensuring that the British government would compensate the price of the cigarettes, indicating that he deliberately provoked a provocation against China. At the same time, Yi Law also joined forces with the United States to deal with China,"persuading" American merchants to pay up their cigarettes, and Britain was also responsible for the price of cigarettes.

On the 28th, Yijin and Ji Fu provoked 20238 boxes of opium from a certain merchant. Lin Zexu ordered the opium shipment to be shipped to Humen for surrender, and ordered the resumption of Sino-British trade. After paying the cigarettes, Yi Law ordered all British people to evacuate Guangzhou and ships were not allowed to import them. He also suggested to the British government where to use force to occupy Zhoushan and other places to threaten the Qing government.