opium — Importation into China. 521 



Notliing could be more welcome to the entire Empire than a 

 moans of passing the intervals of relaxation from the hurry of 

 business, in a state of absolute exemption from all anxiety, 

 rocked in the most delightful slumbers ! In 1773 the East 

 India Company sent a small portion of opium to China by 

 way of speculation. Seven years later they founded an Opium 

 Depot In Larke's Bay. In 1781 the Comj^any sent 2800 

 chests (of 140 lbs. each) at one single shipment to Canton, 

 where it was purchased by a '^ Hong," or Association,* for 

 trading pm-poses. The Company found itself compelled, 

 however, to re-export a quantity, as at that period tliere was 

 not in China a sufficient demand for such a supjjly. The 

 first regular shipments began in 1798, when 4170 chests 

 were sent to the account of the Association in China, and 

 then sold at Rs. 415 (about £41 10^.) per chest.f Since 

 that period the import and consumption have been steadily 

 increasing at a geometric ratio, and a table now before 



* Only a certain number (originally twelve) of wealthy Chinese merchants, 

 " Hong," were permitted by law to trade with foreigners at Canton. They had not 

 only to account to Government for all duties and taxes, but were likewise responsible 

 for the good behaviour of the strangers ! 



t It is a coincidence worthy of notice, that simultaneously with the rise of the 

 opium trade with China, the importation of slaves into America began to increase, 

 and that European commerce in these two infamous traffics seemed to be ever in- 

 creasing and gaining ground in Eastern Asia and in America! At the end of last 

 century the number of slaves in the Southern States of the Union was little greater 

 than that of opium-smokers in China : at present the number of the former is about 

 4,000,000, and the latter may be put at about the same figure ; the latter, slaves of 

 their own intemperate passions, — the former, of the covetousness and cold calculating 

 selfishness of their masters. The opium question and the slave question — these 

 two seem destined to be solved simultaneously ! 



