How did opium sales help British merchants pay for Chinese tea?

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Great Britain faced a chronic trade imbalance with China. While there was immense demand in the West for Chinese luxury goods like tea, silk, and porcelain, China had little interest in European manufactured goods, forcing the British to pay for these imports with gold and silver.1

To resolve this, the British East India Company established a monopoly on opium cultivation in India and auctioned the drug to private traders. These traders smuggled the opium into China, where it was sold to create a steady demand among addicts.12

This system functioned as a "triangular trade":
* The silver acquired by private traders from selling opium in China was turned over to the East India Company at Guangzhou.12
* The company used this silver to purchase its large annual cargo of Chinese tea.2
* This process allowed the British to repatriate their Indian revenue in the form of Chinese tea, effectively using the profits from the illegal opium trade to finance their tea imports.132