296 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ment. Tlie remainder is sold, montlily by auction to merchants, 

 who export it; and on this exportation a duty is levied, from 

 which the imperial revenue from this source mainly accrues. 

 Opium produced in the native states of India pays the export 

 duties when it passes into British territory. The Government 

 prescribes rules for the cultivation of the poppy, and the manufac- 

 ture, possession, transport, import (from native states) or export, 

 and sale of opium ; and any contravention of such rules is sub- 

 ject to stringent penalties. The product of the poppy illegally 

 cultivated and opium made the subject of an offense against the 

 law are liable to confiscation, together with the vessels and pack- 

 ages in which it is found and the animals and conveyances used 

 in transporting it. Notwithstanding all these precautions, the 

 price of opium consumed in the country — about one eleventh 

 part of the whole — is more or less influenced by illicit supplies ; 

 so that the Government monopoly of this article is fully effective 

 only in respect to the export trade. But even under such condi- 

 tions, opium is the most valuable of all the native exports of 

 India \ and the annual value of the poppy crop, including the 

 poppy seeds and the poppy oil produced from them (neither of 

 which yield opium), or the annual money return, apart from the 

 Government revenue, that the people of India get out of the crop, 

 is estimated at about $70,000,000. 



The fourth source in order of importance of the Indian reve- 

 nue is from the so-called excise, which embraces licenses and dis- 

 tillery fees, licenses for the sale of liquors and drugs, and rent 

 of " Toddy '' trees— 364,624 Hx. ($1,722,120) in 1894 ; duty on opium 

 consumed in India— 732,200 Rx. ($3,601,000) in 1894; fines, con- 

 fiscations, and miscellaneous ;. total excise revenue for 1894, 5,388,- 

 573 Rx. ($26,942,805). The incidence of this form of taxation falls 

 mainly upon Europeans and " Eurasians " (a modern name given 

 to persons of mixed European and Indian blood). In this con- 

 nection, the Imperial Secretary for India, in his budget speech 

 (1894), stated that, " whereas in England there was a licensed shop 

 to sell intoxicating liquors to every lOG of the population, in In- 

 dia there was only one for selling liquor and opium to every 3,148 

 of the population." 



Fifth. The stamp system of taxation in India yielded a reve- 

 nue in 1894 of 4,509,355 Rx., or $22,546,665. Although somewhat 

 heavy in the aggregate, the system is not unpopular, for the rea- 

 son that it is practically unknown to the mass of the people; the 

 largest items of collection being returned, in 1894, under the 

 heads of "court fee stamps " ($15,317,315) and "commercial and 

 other stamps" ($5,841,995). 



Sixth. "Provincial rates." Under this title are included a 

 variety of levies, differing in name, character, and rate in differ- 



