British shipping dominates the opium trade out of Calcutta to China.

The annual amount of Indian-grown opium imported into China is about 1,000 chests in 1767.

The Company does not carry the opium itself but, because of the Chinese ban, farms it out to country traders, private traders licensed by the company to take goods from India to China.

The country traders sell the opium to smugglers along the Chinese coast.

The gold and silver the traders receive from these sales are then turned over to the Company.

In China, the company uses the gold and silver it receives to purchase goods that can be sold profitably in England.