15 mar 1810 año - Lady Cheng Accepts Pardon

Descripción:

The Chinese Authorities came with a carrot and stick approach.

The stick was the governor declaring war on pirates that required European assistance, attempting to close Chinese trading markets and relocating coastal residents to new areas. This would deprive pirates of the support system they needed. Within a year they had cleared the waters of piracy.

Next was the carrot. They offered a pardon, which Lady Cheng's lover accepted and encouraged other to accept. Lady Cheng saw this as a blow and the fleets began to turn on one another. Her lover becomes a pirate hunter and in 1810 she accepts the pardon. She is allowed to have ships and men, and in the next 30 years she runs the biggest opium smuggling operation in Canton. She is an example of women in Chinese society: she was not elite, but rose to power through marriage and ruthlessness.

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