Opium served as the coin of Exchange for the British Empire for several decades and it was the only commodity available to rescuethe Empire’s Company from bankruptcy.
Opium was a commodity traded by chests, “each chest of opium weighed about 133 poundsand contained about 120 pounds of semi-processed opium.”
2
An “average cargo was about1,000 chests which could be delivered from Calcutta to the Canton estuary in as little as 25days with fast ship and good weather.”
3
As a first source from someone who lived in Indiaduring the Nineteenth Century narrates,
http://www.academia.edu/1444383/The...nsion_of_the_British_Empire_from_1764_to_1825
Opium was a commodity traded by chests, “each chest of opium weighed about 133 poundsand contained about 120 pounds of semi-processed opium.”
2
An “average cargo was about1,000 chests which could be delivered from Calcutta to the Canton estuary in as little as 25days with fast ship and good weather.”
3
As a first source from someone who lived in Indiaduring the Nineteenth Century narrates,
http://www.academia.edu/1444383/The...nsion_of_the_British_Empire_from_1764_to_1825