What do you know about the Opium trade?

The Opium trade:

i. The demand for Chinese goods such as tea, silk and porcelain created a serious balance-of-trade problem. Western goods did not find a market in China, so payment had to be in silver.

ii. The East India Company found a new option – opium, which grew in India. They sold the opium in China and gave the silver that they earned to company agents in Canton in return for letters of credit.

iii. The Company used the silver to buy tea, silk and porcelain to sell in Britain. This was the ‘triangular trade’ between Britain, India and China.