Opium was apparently the only thing saving the British balance of payments from ruin. Although pianos and cutlery did not appeal to Chinese consumers through the 1840s and 1850s, drugs still did. As Palmerston candidly admitted in March 1857, ‘At present the nature of our commerce with the Chinese is such that we can pay for our purchases only partly in goods; the rest we must pay in opium and in silver.’
