The Straits Settlement copper piece circulated through the region The British East India Company established in parts of southeast Asia after the second Opium War. These territories include what are now parts of Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. In an effort to gain control over the export of Opium, and maintain a monopoly on the narcotic industry it created in the region, The British Empire began a crusade of conquest that benefited its status as a global partner in trade.

The adaptation of Feudal methods at the peak of the Industrial Revolution, recognising product value and exploiting the local workforce, permitted the tycoons of trade to yield enormous profits while establishing a sub-caste of workers dependent on the corporation's success. While the East India Company experienced enormous growth and contributed greatly to the expansion of the global economy, like modern mega-corporations it too fell in debt to the Crown, resulting in the first massive government bailout of a multinational operation that had become too big to fail.