Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c5.s3.t1.6

v1.c5.s3.t1.6

An elaborate network of cultivators, brokers, shippers, agency houses and agents, closely linked with the East India Company and its officials, was involved in the shipping of opium from India to China. It has been estimated that opium revenues comprised about 17-20 per cent of the government revenues in India in the heyday of the trade. On the China coast, British, Indian, American and other traders colluded with local smugglers, officials and merchants to bypass the strict prohibitions on opium. British and other opium smugglers brought the opium to various secret locations up and down the China coast in order to expand their sales as much as possible. The highly addictive nature of the drug made it ever harder for the Chinese authorities to contain the trade.