When the British conquered Bengal, they made a determined effort to produce opium in the lands under their control. As the market for opium expanded in China, larger volumes of opium flowed out of Bengal ports. Before 1767, not more than 500 chests were being exported from India. Within four years, quantity trebled. A hundred years later, in 1870, the government was exporting about 50,000 chests annually. Supplies had to be increased to feed this booming export trade.

Unwilling cultivators were made to produce opium through a system of advances. In the rural areas of Bengal and Bihar, there were large number of poor peasants who do not have enough money to pay rent to the landlord or to buy food and clothing. From the 1780s such peasants were given money advances to produce opium. The peasants thought that the advances given to them could meet their immediate needs and they can pay back the loan at a later stage. But the loan tied the peasants to the headman and through him to the government. It was the government agents who were advancing the money to the headman, who in turn gave it to the cultivators. The peasants were forced to produce opium as they had taken loans from the headman of their villages. And for British Government, opium was a good source of international income and hence, they wanted the peasants to grow as much opium as possible.