Worse Than The Sacklers: The Family That Addicted An Empire

Long before the Sacklers engineered America’s opioid crisis, another dynasty built a drug empire so vast it reshaped Asia, bankrupted China, and bought its way into British aristocracy. In this Money History episode, we expose the Sassoon family — the original architects of industrialized addiction, whose operations dwarfed anything seen in the modern era. Through the lens of Money History, we reveal how the Sassoons created the first vertically integrated narcotics cartel: financing poppy farmers, controlling shipping fleets, building warehouses, insuring their own smuggling routes, and using telegraph networks to manipulate global markets. This was not crime in the shadows. This was state-sanctioned exploitation executed with corporate precision. This Money History breakdown follows how the Sassoons triggered China’s financial collapse, provoked the Opium Wars, and extracted centuries of silver under the protection of the British Empire. Their wealth was laundered through philanthropy, banking, railroads, and elite social circles — the same playbook used by modern pharmaceutical empires today. In this Money History case study, we show how the dynasty transformed blood money into global influence, how they infiltrated the British monarchy, and how their collapse in 1949 mirrors the downfall of every criminal empire in history. The methods they pioneered — dependency, information control, vertical integration, and reputation laundering — remain the operating system of addiction-based industries today. This Money History investigation exposes the brutal truth: the empire did not die. It evolved. From opium dens to modern medicine cabinets, the business model of manufactured dependency continues in plain sight — protected by power, hidden behind philanthropy, and justified by profit.