Tag: policy of agriculture, industry and foreign trade under british rule

• Unwilling cultivators were made to produce opium through a system of advances. These loans tied the peasant to the headmen and through him to the government.
• By giving advances the cultivator, was forced to grow opium on a specified area of land. The farmers were bound to hand over his produce to the government agents and accept the low price offered.

• He had no option of planting the field with a crop of his choice or selling his product to anyone but the government agent.

• The cultivator also had no choice but to accept the low price offered for the practice.

While the English cultivated a taste for Chinese tea, the Chinese became addicted to opium.

Before 1767, no more than 500 chests (of two maunds each) were being exported from India. Within four years, the quantity trebled. A hundred years later, in 1870, the government was exporting about 50,000 chests annually. 

Great Britain, exported opium grown in India and sold it to China. The British used the profits from the sale of opium to purchase such Chinese luxury goods as porcelain, silk, and tea, which were in great demand in the West.

Impacts on England;
1- It led to the industrial revolution.
2- The industrial revolution further led to colonialism.
3- It led to the use of science and technology in agriculture.
4- It led to the increase in production.
5- It reduced England's dependence on Europe for food grains.

. It has many local names such as lading in Southeast Asia, milpa in Central America, chitemene or tavy  in Africa, and chena in Sri Lanka.  In India, dhya, penda, bewar, nevad, jhum, podu, khandad and  kumri are some of the local terms for swidden agriculture. Rabi is a kind of crop.