Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy

"This book explores the drug’s key importance to the British Empire. Carl Trocki explains how economically central opium was to the building and maintaining of the Empire. He observes how the expansion of the empire during the 19th century coincides almost precisely with the heyday of the opium trade. And when the empire started to go into decline, in the early years of the 20th century, again it coincided very closely with the winding down of the opium trade. So opium as a commodity was essential to the workings of the British Empire. This was because increased sales of the drug, especially in China, reversed Britain’s trade deficit with Asia. Sales of opium gave British merchants silver with which to buy silks, ceramics and particularly teas for the British market. When this tea travelled back to Great Britain, before it disappeared into British tea cups the government extracted its customs duties. Those customs duties – paid for largely by opium money – covered a large part of the cost of the Royal Navy. And the navy kept the British Empire afloat. So without the financial boost of opium, you would absolutely not have seen the same expansion of the British Empire through the 19th century."