> Customs duties on tea — of up to 125 percent — amounted to nearly a tenth of Britain’s revenue, bankrolling its wars. Yet China required little from Britain apart from payment in silver, which the nation found increasingly inconvenient to source. Britain realized it could solve this “balance of trade problem” by increasing its Indian colonies’ “small but brisk” opium trade.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/books/review/smoke-and-ashes-amitav-ghosh.html
#DeliaFalconer on #TeaTrade in #SmokeAndAshes
#AmitavGosh #BritainAndChina #OpiumTrade