looking for a source

[BH]

I read a long time ago that Calvin Coolidge made his wealth as a young man selling opium to China when it was illegal under Chinese law. The book that contained this information was a history of US involvement in the affairs of southwest Asian nations up to the time of the Vietnam War. Does anyone know the source of this ?

 

[steve_bank]

In the 19th century opium was a major trade commodity in the USA. There was an addiction problem.

By the early 19th century, more and more Chinese were smoking British opium as a recreational drug. But for many, what started as recreation soon became a punishing addiction: many people who stopped ingesting opium suffered chills, nausea, and cramps, and sometimes died from withdrawal.

Beyond the health problems related to opium addiction, the increasing opium trade with the Western powers meant that for the first time, China imported more goods than it exported. Settling this financial problem eventually led to the First Opium War between Great Britain and China, from 1839 to 1842.

There were ''patent medicines' that were laced with opium.

Also known as laudanum and formulated for oral administration, opium tincture is made of air-dried poppy (Papaver somniferum) latex and contains alkaloids such as morphine and codeine.

Overuse led to addiction. By the late 1800s, women made up more than 60 percent of opium addicts. “Uterine and ovarian complications cause more ladies to fall into the [opium] habit, than all other diseases combined,” wrote Dr. Frederick Heman Hubbard in his 1881 book, The Opium Habit and Alcoholism.Jan 4, 2018

He was born in 1872 so he would have been around 20 at the turn of the century, It is possible.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

An article here on America and the Chinese opium trade. Several books are mentioned.

The Blue-Blood Families That Made Fortunes in the Opium Trade

Long before the Sacklers appeared on the scene, families like the Astors, the Peabodys, and the Delanos cemented their upper-crust status through the global trade in opium.

www.thenation.com

 

[pood]

Coolidge’s ancestral family did, not Coolidge. So did FDR’s ancestors.