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1 \i:n INDIAN TRAFFIC oMirRu*i 



History 



fully two centuries prior to the conquest of Bengal by Clive. And there can be no 

 manner of doubt that prior to the British, the Portuguese controlled the Chinese 

 opium exports from India. It is significant that while Baber (Mtmoiri. 1019, 

 334) makes no mention <>t opium in connection with his discussion of the revenue 

 of Uihar. his grandson, the great Emperor Akbar, on the subjection of Malwa 

 and ( aml.il> . t.oiiid the opium traffic a distinctive and important feature of these 

 new dominion. M r... v ,-i. Aim) Fail specially mentions Fatehpur. Allahabad, 

 pur, Lahore, etc., as concerned in poppy culture, and lays stress on the 

 < -\. elltmce of the crop in Malwa. Sir J. B. Lyall i H M It^.t. Hoy. Comm. 



on Opium, vii.. app., 5-28) say* that it seems certain the Mughal monopoly began 

 a little later than Akbar's time. He, moreover, came to the conclusion that 

 it probably was confined to Bihar. The right to manufacture and sell the drag 

 was finally placed by the .Muhammad, m- under direct -,uper\ mion ; it was farmed 

 out. and land devoted to this cultivation subjected to a higher tax than that 

 for other produce. But as bearing on the probable date of the State monopoly, 

 it may ! mentioned that m the Mirat-i-Ahmadi we learn of the systems of taxing 

 and the revenue real Ned from opium by the city of Ahmadabad in the time 

 of Sultan Muzoffar and other Gujarat kings, before the overthrow of the dynasty 

 by Akbar in 1573 A.D. 



The antiquity of the opium traffic may be judged of by the fact that Giovanni 

 da Empoli (in 151 1) mentions that Alboquerque had captured eight "Guzzarate" 

 ships that contained, among other merchandise, " arfuin, for so they call opif> 

 ttbaico." In 1516 Barbosa tells us that this drug was among the articles brought 

 to Malacca by the Arab and Gentile merchants to exchange for the cargoes of 

 the Chinese junks. He also informs us that opium was carried from Arabia 

 to Calicut, and from Cambay to Calicut, the Arabian being one-third higher 

 priced than that of Cambay. Garcia de Orta, in 1563, published a full account 

 of the Indian habit of eating opium, and Frederike speaks of going (1568) to 

 Cambay, where he purchased sixty parcels of opium. Shortly after, Acosta 

 {Trad, de la* Drogas, etc., 1578, 408) and Linschoten (1598) amplified very greatly 

 the particulars made known by Garcia regarding the Indian habit of eating 

 opium. Bocarro (1644) laid stress on the importance of the three great products 

 of Cambay. viz. opium, indigo and cotton. Thevenot (Travels in Levant, Indo- 

 etan, etc., 1687, pt. ii., 97) mentions the use of opium in Persia. In the Tuzuk, refer- 

 ence is made to the Governor of Bihar being much given to kuknar (opium-hemp), 

 and his consequent neglect of his duties. If this can be accepted as denoting 

 a Bihar cultivation, it would be the earliest known The first direct mention of Bihar. 

 Patna opium appears to be given by Ralph Fitch, an Englishman who travelled 

 in the East from 1583-91 A.D., and who visited Agra, Benares, Patna (Patenaw). 

 He describes the last town very correctly " as a very long and great towne." 

 which had a large trade in cotton, sugar and opium. The Abb Raynal (Hist. 

 Philoaoph. dea deux Indes, 1770, a work translated into English in 1777. i . 

 says that " Patna is the most celebrated place in the world for the cultivation 

 of opium. Besides what is carried into the inland parts there are annually 

 3,000 to 4,000 chests exported, each weighing 300 Ib." Alexander Hamilton. 

 (New Ace. E. Ind., 1727, i., 315 ; ii., 22) speaks of the chiefs of Calicut vending 

 from 500 to 1,000 chests of Bengal opium yearly, up in the inland com, 

 where it is very much used. Mr. J. F. Finlay (Rept. Roy. Comm. on Opium, ii.. 

 371-99) furnishes 'particulars of the proposals to abolish the Government n 

 poly. He gives the early history and fixes the present arrangements as dating 

 from 1797. 



Thus then the opium monopoly was a direct legacy from the Muhammadan 

 rulers of India and from the early Portuguese traders, that had to be assumed 

 l.y the British shortly after the battle of Plassey (1757). Mention, f 

 ainple, is repeatedly made of the traffic having expanded so inordinately as 

 to have forced the East India Company to assume it, control and supervision in 

 1781. But prior even to the advent of the Portuguese, the Chinese had become F.<ublUhmeut of 

 possessed of a full knowledge of the drug. Wang Hsi (who died in 1488 A.D.) 

 speaks of opium being obtained from Arabia and being the produce of a [ 

 \\ith red flowers. He died thus ten years before the arrival in India of Vasco 

 da Gama, and not only describes the use of opium, but the methods puraued 

 in the cultivation of the poppy and the extraction of the narcotic. There can, 

 therefore, be no sort of doubt that the cultivation of the poppy plant, as a source 

 of opium, was fully established in China by the middle ..f t!>.e 15th century. 

 The prohibition against foreigners trading with China, issued in 1523, was a 



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