Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jazzyjackson 2461 days ago
Getting your opposition stoned on cheap drugs is not unique to the opium wars, and China shipping fentanyl to US is certainly a case of history rhyming:

> not everyone struck it rich trading in opium. It was a competitive, highly volatile market. But those who worked for Perkins and a few other firms became the city's elite — otherwise known as Boston Brahmins. The Cabots, Cushings, Welds, Delanos (the grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and Forbes all built fortunes on opium.

> "Opium was really a way that America was able to transfer China’s economic power to America’s industrial revolution."

From an eye opening article on the history of Boston: https://www.wbur.org/commonhealth/2017/07/31/opium-boston-hi...