Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3.t1.1

v1.c5.s3.t1.1

The trade in opium was one of the main forms of commercial interaction between India and China in the 19th century CE. Conducted under conditions of British colonial domination of India, it had a major impact on the relations between China and Britain and between China and the West as a whole. It was the immediate cause of the two Opium Wars (1839-42 and 1858-60). It significantly affected the economic and social conditions in China, through its effects on trade flows and fiscal stability, and through the devastating effects of addiction to the drug among different strata of Chinese society. It also contributed to the breakdown of existing structures of trade and authority in China. At the same time, the opium trade also had a significant impact on the revenues of the British administration in India and on the economies of those Indian regions that were connected with the production of and trade in opium.