This article is intended to examine the role of East India interest groups in Britain, with a focus on those in Scotland, in the debates surrounding "free and secure trade" with China between 1834 and 1842, including the opium trade and the armed expedition to China. It is evident that the lobbyist groups of merchants and manufacturers in Glasgow and other cities frequently collaborated with one another and with similar organisations outside Britain to advance their own interests in the China trade. However, they were often unsuccessful in reaching a consensus on certain matters pertaining to the Chinese affairs. Thus, they generally played merely a limited role although their claims successfully influenced the government's decisions in a few cases.
Yukihisa Kumagai (Sat,) studied this question.