Im no romantic. It was a negative trade silver imbalance before opium
ie silver was the only thing the Chinese would take in trade. Opium
was introduced for a positive trade balance of silver to England to
fund wars in Europe.

http://tinyurl.com/yk3c64p

Jim

On Mar 30, 8:06 am, Lewis Perin > wrote:
> Space Cowboy > writes:
> > This is the historical romantic view of tea for opium and the
> > establishment of tea in India. Britain wanted silver from China to
> > finance its wars in Europe.
>
> I'm afraid you got this backwards. Silver was what the British paid
> China with for all that tea. As to whether imposing "free trade" in
> opium was romantic, maybe that's a matter of taste?
>
> /Lew
> ---
> Lew Perin /