Such has been the procedure for many years, although our celestial empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its own borders. But then Europeans, especially the British, found something that the Chinese would buy. Opium. By the 1830s, British free trade policy unleashed a flood of opium in China, which threatened China's favorable balance of trade. It also created a lot of drug addicts. And then in 1839, the Chinese responded to what they saw as these unfair trade practices with a stern letter that they never actually sent. Commissioner Lin Jiexu drafted a response that contained a memorable threat to cut off trade in rhubarb, silk, and tea, all valuable products of ours without which foreigners could not live.