How did Britain's thirst for tea lead to the Opium Wars?

Britain wanted far more Chinese tea than China wanted British goods, so Britain paid in silver and its reserves drained away. To fix the imbalance, the East India Company and other merchants sold Indian opium to China illegally and took silver in payment, which then bought tea. China's attempt to stop the trade, including the destruction of seized opium in 1839, sparked the First Opium War. [1] [2]

A popular story says tea took off in Britain after Charles II received tea from China in 1664. Kew instead links the fashion to Catherine of Braganza's taste for tea at the royal court after her marriage to Charles II. Either way, by the late 18th century Britain imported close to 7,000 tonnes of tea a year, according to the Australian Museum, and the government taxed it heavily. The BBC Teach programme says tea amounted to about 10% of national revenue. [3] [4] [5]

China, however, wanted little from Europe. Professor Zheng Yangwen says there was nothing the Chinese really needed from Britain, so traders had to pay in silver. The Australian Museum says Britain imported nearly three times more from China than it exported, and that Spanish silver coins were becoming harder to obtain. [5] [3]

Britain's control of India let it grow opium there. Traders found that the Chinese were buying small but growing amounts of opium by the 1790s. The East India Company sold Indian opium to China and used the proceeds to buy tea, forming a trading triangle with Indian cotton. By 1839, according to the National Army Museum, opium sales paid for the entire British tea trade. Britain also began tea plantations in India and Ceylon to break China's monopoly, but the Australian Museum says opium growing proved even more advantageous. [5] [1] [3]

The National Archives says opium was banned in China in 1796, yet smuggling continued, reaching over 1,000 tonnes a year. By 1840 there were millions of addicts, and China was also losing silver. By 1838 smugglers risked the death penalty. In 1839 the official Lin Zexu seized opium from foreign ships and threw it into the sea, then demanded that traders sign bonds stating they carried no illegal goods. Charles Elliot told British merchants not to sign. [6] [1]

The National Army Museum calls the forced surrender of opium stocks at Canton in May 1839 the spark of war. It adds that relations were already strained, and that many British politicians and merchants saw the dispute as a chance to open trade beyond Canton. The Australian Museum notes that Britain fought wars in 1839 to 1842 and 1856 to 1860 to ease Chinese trading and opium restrictions. [1] [3]