robert clive

(...) Robert Clive, victor of the battle of Plassey (1757) and an opium addict. The decline of the Mughal Empire in the eighteenth century allowed The Honourable East India Company to consolidate a vast drug empire in India. Under the terms of its charter, the Company was permitted to acquire territory; exercise civil and criminal jurisdiction; raise and command armies; wage war; conclude treaties; and to issue its own currency. Many respectable British fortunes have their origin in the trade of Indian opium for Chinese tea. (...)