000			01655nam a22001937a 4500
008			220816b2021 |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9789354229275
082			_a959 MAN-T
100			_aManuel, Thomas
245			_aOpium Inc : _bhow a global drug trade funded the British Empire / _cThomas Manuel
260			_aIndia _bHarper Collins Publishers _c2021
300			_a273 p.
365			_aINR _b599.00.
500			_aThis is the story of the world's biggest drug deal. In the nineteenth century, the British East India Company operated a triangle of trade that straddled the globe, running from India to China to Britain. From India to China, they took opium. From China to Britain, they took tea. From Britain to India, they brought empire. It was a machine that consumed cheap Indian land and labour and spat out money. The British had two problems, though. They were importing enormous amounts of tea from China, but the Celestial Empire looked down on British goods and only wanted silver in return. Simultaneously, the expanding colony in India was proving far too expensive to maintain. The British solved both problems with opium, which became the source of income on which they built their empire. For more than a century, the British knew that the drug was dangerous and continued to trade in it anyway. Its legacy in India, whether the poverty of Bihar or the wealth of Bombay, is still not acknowledged. Like many colonial institutions in India, the story of opium is one of immense pain for many and huge privileges for a few.
650			_aOpium trade
650			_aIndia
650			_aBritish colonies
650			_aEconomic policy
999			_c79930 _d79930