{As we can see in these various briefs the British East India Company were cruel taskmasters and the agents running the company were ruthless and opium was the queen of capital raising}




The privileged monopoly of the Company was criticized by Adam Smith, advocate of free trade, Edmund Burke, apologist for American secessionism yet conservative critic of the French Revolution, and British home merchants locked out of the lucrative Asia trade, who protested against the Company's administrative abuses and monopolistic ineptitude. In 1833, Parliament declined to extend the monopoly of the British East India Company on trade between Britain and China. Jardine, Matheson & Co took advantage of this open-market opportunity to transform itself from the position of leading agent of the British East India Company to that of a competitor to prosper in the next century.

Opium smuggling into China
In the 18th century, England was incurring huge trade deficits denominated in silver with China under Qing dynastic rule, as silver was legal tender in China. This trade deficit was draining silver from the British Mint at a time when England was on the gold standard, which undervalued silver, causing silver to leave England en masse to effectuate an inflow of gold. Thus British merchants had to buy silver in continental Europe with gold at higher prices that cost almost one more ounce of silver for every ounce of gold sold, because of the silver/gold ratio set by European bimetallism.

The price differential of silver between England and the Continent continued until Germany demonetized silver in the 1870s. This meant silver before the 1870s was priced higher as a monetary unit in Europe than its intrinsic value as a commodity because of German seigniorage. Silver was also priced lower both commercially and monetarily in Europe than the silver/gold ratio set by the gold standard in England.

Because there was not much that China would want to buy from the West in the 18th century because China, as a more advance civilization and a wealthier economy, was producing all the goods she needed in superior quality, especially from Britain where goods produced by early industrialization were generally crude and monotonous, the British East India Company resorted to opium smuggling to China, where opium trade was illegal, to balance the Company's rising trade deficit.