gold stocks are still going to takeoff, right?, page-53

Geiger - what is your source for this?

"Take the opium wars for example. China demanded silver and that's what they got until England, who was running out of silver, decided that the terms of trade was opium [simplified I know - but is the basis of the war]."

My understanding is the other way round. The Chinese had a massive balance of trade surplus in the first decade of the 19th century but this turned around soon after when the English started exporting opium from India to China. The Chinese used silver to pay for the opium and the trade grew so quickly that the Chinese ran out of silver and had to greatly inflate the price of silver compared to copper. thus the poor had to pay more in taxes and duties as they paid in copper. The Chinese government attempted to stop the importing of opium to prevent this massive drain on the treasury (which was being used to finance the subjugation of India).