The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) was established in 1840 in anticipation of a government tender for a mail delivery service by sea between England and the Mediterranean. After having successfully secured the contract, the company subsequently expanded its shipping operations further east to India and China, where its commercial viability depended heavily on the lucrative opium trade. A dedicated P&O mail route that covered Ceylon, Penang, Singapore and Hong Kong at monthly intervals was put into operation in 1845 and extended in 1852 to include Shanghai. By the 1850s, P&O’s mail route had became an essential link in a wider steam-driven communications network that connected China, Southeast Asia, Australia and India with Europe.
