Indiaman Thomas Coutts - A painting of a sailing ship in the ocean

The British East India Company was the first joint-stock corporation to be formed in England, and it eventually became one of the most powerful trading companies in the world, with a virtual monopoly on trade in India and the East Indies. The East India Company or the British East India Company and informally as John Company was an English and later British joint-stock company, which was formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean. Permission was granted, and on 10 April 1591 three ships sailed from Torbay around the Cape of Good Hope to the Arabian Sea. On 31 December 1600, the Queen granted a Royal Charter to "George, Earl of Cumberland, and 215 Knights, Aldermen, and Burgesses" under the name, Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies. The governance of the company was in the hands of one governor and 24 directors or "committees", who made up the Court of Directors. They, in turn, reported to the Court of Proprietors, which appointed them. Ten committees reported to the Court of Directors. According to tradition, business was initially transacted at the Nags Head Inn, opposite St Botolph's church in Bishopsgate, before moving to India House in Leadenhall Street. The company played a key role in the spread of British influence in India and the development of the British Empire. However, it also became involved in corruption and exploitation, and it was eventually dissolved in 1858, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

Opium Wars were two armed conflicts in China in the mid-19th century between the forces of Western countries and of the Qing dynasty, which ruled China, over the British trade of opium, a highly addictive drug, with China. The First Opium War began in 1839 and ended in 1842 with the Treaty of Nanking, which granted Britain several concessions, including the opening of several Chinese ports to British trade and the cession of the island of Hong Kong to Britain. The Second Opium War began in 1856 and ended in 1860 with the Convention of Beijing, which granted Britain even more concessions. The second Opium War also known as the Arrow War was fought by Britain and France against China. In each case, the foreign powers were victorious and gained commercial privileges and legal and territorial concessions in China. The conflicts marked the start of the era of unequal treaties and other inroads on Qing sovereignty that helped weaken and ultimately topple the dynasty in favor of republican China in the early 20th century. These wars were a major turning point in Chinese history and had lasting effects on China's relations with the Western world. The British fought the Opium Wars with China primarily because they wanted to protect and expand their profitable trade in opium. Opium was a highly addictive drug that was illegally smuggled into China by British traders, despite the fact that the sale of opium was illegal in China. The British government supported this trade because it was a significant source of revenue for British merchants and the British economy as a whole. In addition, the British were motivated by a desire to further their political and economic interests in China and to establish themselves as a dominant power in the region. The British East India Company played a major role in the opium trade between Britain and China in the 19th century. The company was a British chartered company that was granted a monopoly on trade with the East Indies and other parts of Asia by the British government. It became involved in the opium trade with China in the early 19th century when it began to sell opium produced in India to Chinese merchants. This trade was highly profitable for the company, and it quickly became one of the main sources of revenue for the company and the British economy as a whole. The company's involvement in the opium trade was a major factor in the outbreak of the First and Second Opium Wars between Britain and China. The British did need to find a way to pay for the tea, silk, and other goods they wanted to import from China. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the British used silver to pay for these goods, but they eventually ran out of silver and needed to find another way to pay for Chinese imports. This led them to turn to the opium trade, which was highly profitable for the British. They began to sell opium, which was produced in India, to Chinese merchants in exchange for the goods they wanted to import. The Chinese initially tried to stop the opium trade, but the British used their military power to force the Chinese to allow the trade to continue. This eventually led to the outbreak of the Opium Wars between Britain and China. The Chinese government initially tried to stop the British opium trade through a variety of means, including confiscating and destroying large quantities of opium, imposing harsh penalties on opium smugglers and users, and negotiating with the British government to try to persuade them to halt the trade. However, these efforts were largely unsuccessful, and the Chinese eventually turned to military action to try to stop the British. In the First Opium War, the Qing Dynasty was ultimately defeated and forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking, which granted concessions to the British. In the Second Opium War, the Chinese were forced to sign the Convention of Beijing, which granted even more concessions to the British. The opium trade eventually declined in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to a variety of factors, including increased competition from other Western powers, the rise of the anti-opium movement in China, and the growth of alternative forms of trade and economic exchange between China and the West. By the early 20th century, the British opium trade with China had all but disappeared.