OPIUM-TRAFFIC IN INDIA AND CHINA. 



703 



OPIUM-TRAFFIC IN INDIA AND CHI- 

 NA. There have been indications during the 

 year of a renewed effort on the part of the au- 

 thorities of China to suppress or at least to cir- 

 cumscribe the traffic in opium, with a view to 

 restricting its consumption in that empire. At 

 the same time the agitation has been continued 

 in England in favor of the policy of discour- 

 aging the exportation of the drug from India. 

 The difficulties in the way of this movement 

 arise from the fact that both the Indian Gov- 

 ernment and China derive no inconsiderable 

 part of their revenue from this trade, and in- 

 dulgence in the opium-habit among the Chi- 

 nese has become so prevalent as to suggest an 

 almost universal resistance to measures calcu- 

 lated to interfere with it. Originally the prod- 

 uct of the opium poppy, which was cultivated 

 most successfully in Asiatic Turkey and Persia, 

 was used exclusively as an article of medicine. 

 There are evidences of the practice of opium 

 eating and smoking among the Persian mag- 

 nates of some centuries ago, and the example 

 seems to have been imitated by some of the 

 Hindoo princes of Rajpootana, and a few of the 

 later emperors of the Ming dynasty in China; 

 but the habit was not at all common until 

 within a comparatively recent period. During 

 the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the total 

 supply in the East was very small, and derived 

 chiefly from Asiatic Turkey and Persia. A 

 small quantity of an inferior grade was pro- 

 duced in the Chinese province of Yunnan, which 

 was either consumed locally or sent abroad for 

 medicinal purposes. The Portuguese were the 

 first to introduce Indian opium into China, 

 which they did in small quantities through their 

 possessions of Goa and Macao. The amount 

 up to the year 1767 did not exceed 200 chests 

 annually. The use to which it was put is not 



known, but it is believed to have been indulged 

 in to some degree as a luxury by the manda- 

 rins of Canton. It was after this that the 

 taste for the drug was revealed in a marked 

 degree among the official classes in China. 

 After 1767 the traffic rapidly increased to 

 about 1,000 chests annually, and the profit 

 which accrued from it, notwithstanding heavy 

 import duties, induced the British East India 

 Company to enter into competition with the 

 Portuguese in supplying the Chinese markets. 

 Its first venture was made in 1778. and was 

 followed by another on a larger scale three 

 years later. By this time the traffic had been 

 made contraband by imperial edicts, and two 

 vessels were left at anchor in Larks Bay, to 

 the south of Macao, to serve as depots through 

 which it could be carried on. At this time, it 

 is said, the drug, which cost 500 rupees a chest 

 at Calcutta, was sold in China at a profit of 

 about 100 per cent. The trade increased until 

 in 1794 the importation of Indian opinm 

 through English agents had risen to 1,600 

 chests. 



It was about the end of the last century that 

 the practice of indulging in opinm had mndo 

 snch progress as to be regarded as a national 

 evil, and to evoke vigorous efforts to suppress 

 the trade in what was officially called "the 

 flowing poison." In the year 1800 Hea King, 

 who had recently succeeded his grandfather, 

 the illustrious Keen Lung, issued a formal proc- 

 lamation, not only forbidding the importation 

 of the drug, but absolutely prohibiting its cul- 

 tivation in Yunnan. This was followed by se- 

 vere edicts aeainst all who cultivated, import- 

 ed, or consumed opium ; but the mandarins of 

 Canton, for whom the trade was a prolific 

 source of revenue, continued to connive at it, 

 and it went on increasing. In 1827 it had risen 



