Lin Zexu
Lin first appealed to the populous to stop using opium, and to the Chinese traders to stop dealing in opium with foreign traders. He even wrote to Queen Victoria threatening to cut off the trade in tea and rhubarb. He felt that to withhold the laxative might bring the constipated nation to reason. In 1839 Lin Zexu finally took decisive action. He demanded that the dealers hand over their opium, but for six weeks, they refused to comply. He tried to arrest Lancelot Dent, one of the major opium dealers, and then blockaded the factories. The dealers persuaded by the British resident handed over some three million pounds of raw opium that Lin Zexu contrived with some difficulty to destroy.