Chung - The Britain-China-India Trade Triangle 

Chapter 1

  • British interest in China began with the woollen textiles
  • Britain’s China trade acquired a tea-orientation
  • Good lucre in the tea trade
  • Tea played a pivotal role in British economic development
  • Tea enabled the Indian interests to transmit private British fortunes from India homewards

Chapter 2

  • Prime significance to the Indian interest was Indian opium
  • When the British imposed themselves as the rulers of India, they were eager to explain to the whole world that they had brought civilization and enlightenment to the sub-continent
  • First advantage of the opium trade was the profit since it needed little investment
  • The source of this profit was not India, but another country which British public opinion was totally unconcerned
  • Opium was a most convenient instrument to enlist the riches of China in support of the British Raj
  • Opium accrued revenue for British Raj and simultaneously remitted back to England a part of this revenue which had become private fortunes
  • Indian opium had a greater strategic importance in the trade triangle than Chinese tea and British textiles
  • The double utility of opium as both the generator and transmitter of the Indian revenue

Chapter 3

  • Phenomenon of imbalances
  • In both the triangles there was no overall balance
  • India = starting point
  • Britain = receiving end
  • China = mid-station in the India to Britain wealth movement
  • The imbalance was caused by the difference in political status between Britain and India
  • From 1829: Chinese silver began to flow to Britain
  • British cotton textiles made their debut in the Chinese market in 1830
  • Trade between Britain and India:
    • Followed the classical pattern of trade between the colony and the metropolis
    • Substantial part of the exchange concerned cotton and its products
    • Good portion of the British imports catered to the needs of Europeans rather than Indians
  • Indian exports were essentially raw materials while its imports were mostly finished products
  • Equilibrium in the trade triangle: Indian opium for the Chinese, Chinese tea for the Britons, British Raj for the Indians