OPIUM. 



53 



importations afforded the same chemist 4-8 and 6 per cent, respec- 

 tively. 



The chests of Patna opium hold 120 catties or 160 lb. Those of 



Malwa opium 1 pecul or 133 J lb. 



The quantity of opium produced in India cannot be ascertained, but 

 the amount exported^ is accurately known. Thus from British India the 

 exports in the year ending March 31, 1872, were 93,364 chests valued 

 at £13,365,228. Of this quantity Bengal furnished 49,455 chests, 

 Bombay 43,909 chests : they were exported thus : — 



To China 85,470 chests. 



The Straits Settlements 7,845 „ 



Ceylon, Java, Mauritius and Bourbon . . 38 ,, 



The United Kingdom i „ 



Other countries ...••• • >» 



Total . . . 93,364 



Ft 



The net revenue to the Government of India from opium in the year 

 1871-72 was £7,657,213. 



6. Chinese Opium— China consumes not only nine-tenths of the 

 opium exported from India, and a considerable quantity of that produced 

 in Asia Minor, but the whole of what is raised in her own provinces. 

 How large is this last quantity we shall endeavour to show. 



The drug is mentioned as a production of Yunnan in a history of that 

 province, of which' the latest edition appeared in 1736. But it is only 

 very recently that its cultivation in China has assumed such large 

 proportions as to threaten serious competition with that in India.^ 

 ^ In a Meport upon the Trade of Hankow for 1869, addressed to Mr, 

 " stoms, Pekin, we find Notes of a journey 



ium districts of 



pose of obtaining information about the drug.* From these notes it appears 

 that the estimated crop of the province for 1869 was 4235 peculs 

 (=564,666 lb.). This was considered " '' " " " "" 



small 

 was 



The same 



authorities estimated the annual yield of the province of Kweichow at 



ioOnn Q,wi ^f AT- J. arKt\f\f\ „^„„i„ ^,„nrn^/, o t/^t-oi r-if n noo nppnls 



makinsT 



or 5,466.666 lb. In 18G9 also, Sir R Alcock reported that about two- 

 tnirds of the province of Szechuen and one-third of that of Yunnan 

 ^ere devoted to opium.* 



Mr. Consul Markham states' that the province of Shensi likewise 



jj -^^nual Statement of the Trade and own soil as sensibly to affect the demand for 



faiigation of British India with foreign thelndia-grown commodity. "—/'orei^ner^i 



WHrarne^,publishedbyorderoftheGovernor- Far Cathaij, Lond. 1872. 20. 



"general, Calcutta, 1872 52 The quantity of opium exported from 



/•„, }? *^e i^Tort on the Trade of JIanhow Bombay in 1871-72 was Jess by 1719 chests 



r In^? addressed to ^Ir. Hart, Inspector- than that exported in 1 870-7 1 , the decrease 



general of Customs, Pekin, it is stated— being attributed to the present large culti- 



iiKl^^ v™P°^*^^tion of opium is consider- vation in Chm&.— Statement of tl^ Jrade 



wl-"^ for the last two seasons, but anrf^at^. o/5o«i&ay/orl871-72, pp. xii.xvi. 



on ! '^ T* **" ^^ wondered at now that each « According to the French missionaries, 



J^um-shopkeeper in this and the surround- the cultivation of the poppy m the great 



5^e Jt^^^^iits advertises native drug for province of Szechuen was hardly known 



-TO- XT ^ even so recently as 1S40. 



luiskv".,l^^''s<^. British Consul at Shang- * Calcutta Blue Bool', p. 205. 



Biv;] v^ . ^^« 'i^g ia now being so exten- * Journ. of Sac. of A rts, Sept. (18 / 2) 6, 



y produced by the Chinese upon their p. 338. 



