Question

How did the system of advances tie the peasants to the British government?

Answer 1

(i) When the British government started the system of advances, many cultivators became ready to grow opium. They though that they would fulfil their immediate needs with the loan and would pay back it at a later stage.
(ii) But the loan tied the peasants to the government. By taking the loan, they were forced to grow opium on a specified area of land and hand over the produce to the agents once crop had been harvested.
(iii) They had no option of planting the field with a crop of his choice or of selling their produce to anyone but the government agent. And they were bound to accept the low price offered for the produce.