The East India Company was accused of having gained territory with the use of the British fleets and armies, and no subjects of Great Britain could hold territory independent of the Crown. Only through an agreement with the British government to pay them £400,000 each year was the East India Company able to salvage their existence. In the years during which the Opium trade was popular in China, the East India Company controlled almost all opium that went through Bengal beginning in the year 1773. Since company ships were not officially allowed to carry opium, they sold in Calcutta, provided it be sent to China. The ban on opium in China was reinforced in 1799, however, the amount of Opium estimated to have been smuggled in that year by the East India Company was 900 tons. In the year 1838 China imposed the death penalty on anyone caught smuggling opium, but, in that year, the estimated amount of opium smuggled into the country reached 1,400 tons. The British gained
The East India Company was accused of having gained territory with the use of the British fleets and armies, and no subjects of Great Britain could hold territory independent of the Crown. Only through an agreement with the British government to pay them £400,000 each year was the East India Company able to salvage their existence. In the years during which the Opium trade was popular in China, the East India Company controlled almost all opium that went through Bengal beginning in the year 1773. Since company ships were not officially allowed to carry opium, they sold in Calcutta, provided it be sent to China. The ban on opium in China was reinforced in 1799, however, the amount of Opium estimated to have been smuggled in that year by the East India Company was 900 tons. In the year 1838 China imposed the death penalty on anyone caught smuggling opium, but, in that year, the estimated amount of opium smuggled into the country reached 1,400 tons. The British gained