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the emergence of Britain as the apex economic and political power depended on her control over India

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Indian farmers in Bengal and Bihar were financed by the government to grow opium in order to trade with China, even once the opium trade was made illegal

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The 2 opium wars (1839 – 1842 and 1856 – 1860) were fought using a large amount of the Indian Army after a large quantity of opium taken from British merchants in Canton was destroyed

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Another major import from China was raw silk, a significant amount of this was re-exported to mainland Europe and the Americas

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Almost all tea that was imported was from China, popularity increasing for all classes from the mid 1700s onwards

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Initially China only accepted payment in silver which the British were struggled to provide until having full control of the Bengal revenue

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They grew their economy by finding niches where the British were not already dominant. The first main area of this involved finishing British semi-finished goods, The other main area was through exporting 'luxury' or high-quality goods to rich clientele in English-speaking countries, and the raw materials for much of this came from colonies like India. The French widely benefitted from the British adoption of free trade (with much of British trade being resourced by India), particularly once they started coming up against American and German tariffs.

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The expansion of German industry, especially its rail industry, was heavily supported by British Capital that originated in India. resulted in a rise in living standards across Germany with real wages seeing an increase.

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EIC’s control of India directly generated income for the government (in the form of taxes and customs revenues) as well as for the members of the public. over £1 million on customs and tea duties in 1786–1787 alone. This rose to £3 million a year during 1820s, mainly in the form of tea duties (Bowen, 2006). This revenue allowed for the British government to sustain its free trade policy and not fall into a budget deficit doing so.

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India's trade surplus with China was important for balancing their trade deficit with Britain.

By 1860 India absorbed 40% if Britain's total exports of cotton goods due to Britain controlling their free market policies but restricting their own export to keep them from competing, essentially India was trapped in a captive market.

In 1870, India had nearly one-fifth of total British exports but imports to Britain were reducing at a steady rate, leaving the trade balance in Britain's favour.

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The direct trade of wealth occurred through the British taxation of India of which the profits from that were used to trade within India and with Britain for essentially no loss to the EIC, alongside this was the use of Indian farmland to grow opium to then be traded with China, even past its illegality, and the illegal theft of valuable such as precious metals and diamonds, of which estimates of the impacts of these thefts are difficult to value, there is also questions over the means by which this was accomplished. The instruments used consisted of the Indian army, used to protect British outposts and assets, but also to gain more control into China, similarly the use of informal imperialism was used, including the access to Chinese markets

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Britain was the dominant source of foreign investment in the American economy, and the British economic growth that was resourced through India largely enabled Britain to make investments such as these. These British investments enabled things like the building of the American railroad system, helping the American economy to subsequently grow more efficiently.

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Export became very important to Britain from 1820’s through to WWI, and as the Napoleonic wars came to an end there was an increase in protectionism in Europe and the USA so having India as a free trade partner for the massive textiles industry in Britian was massively important. This also meant Britain had to keep India from becoming competition (Kenwood & Lougheed, 1992, p. 66). This shows us that one of the only ways Britain could keep its free trade policy, while there was a rise of protectionism in Europe/the USA, was its trade and thus revenue from India

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Without Indian surplus Britain would not have been able to manage their debts with other industrialised countries and would have faced more trade restrictions. 1784-1792: Britian would drain £1 million per annum from India.

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In order to trade with china, Britain required silver, so opium grown in India was sold to china (bought with silver).

This silver was then used to buy other goods such as tea and raw silk - allowing continual trade with China.

China attempted to ban imports of opium, this resulted in British military action to maintain the exploitive trade cycle.

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British was the chief exporter of manufactured goods to the less developed countries and had substantial surpluses with them, particularly with India. With this surplus with India, Britan could settle the debts with the new industrial nations and expand the free trade policy. Low tariff imports and exports combined with the high taxation rates ultimaly led to a trade deal which greatly benefited Britans wealth creation gaining valuable resources for little cost.