It would be an understatement to say that the British love tea. This was as true in Victorian London as it was during the Second World War, when Winston Churchill had severe reservations about rationing it.
The problem the Victorian government had with this tea drinking was the money it was costing them to buy it. Tea was a Chinese import and, along with silk and porcelain, could only be purchased from the Chinese government who would accept nothing but silver as payment.
Vast amounts of British silver were leaving the country, and very little would return, as China had much of what it needed to sustain itself. Diplomatic missions failed. The Qing Dynasty maintained that they needed nothing the British were selling.
The British needed a solution quickly. What could they possibly sell that the Chinese wanted more than anything? The solution was easy, but horrific: the British Empire became drug lords.
