OPIUM. 53 



importations afforded the same chemist 48 and 6 per cent, respec- 

 tively. 



The chests of Patna opium hold 120 catties or 160 ft>. 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 ..... 4 ,, 



Other countries ...... 7 ,, 



Total . . . 93,364 „ 



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

 1871-72 was £7,657,213. 



6. Chinese Ojnmn — 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 Report upon the Trcule of Hankoiv for 1869, addressed to Mr. 

 Hart, Inspector-General of Customs, Pekin, we find ^otes of ajoui^iey 

 through the opium districts of Szechuen, undertaken for the special pur- 

 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, and the Szechuen opium 

 merchants asserted that 6000 peculs was a fair average. The same 

 authorities estimated the annual yield of the province of Kweichow at 

 15,000, and of Yunnan at 20,000 peculs, making a total of 41,000 peculs 

 or 5,466,666 lb. In 1869 also. Sir R. Alcock reported that about two- 

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

 were devoted to opium.* 



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



^Annual Statement of the Trade and own soil as sensibly to aflfect the demand for 



Navigation of British India with foreign the India-grown commodity." — Foreignerin 



coun/rje5,publishedbyorderoftheGovemor- Far Cathay, Lond. 1872. 20. 



General, Calcutta, 1872. 52. The quantity of opium exported from 



^ In the Report on the Trade of Hankow Bombay in 1871-72 was less by 1719 chests 



for 1869 addressed to Mr. Hart, Inspector- than that exported in 1870-71, the decrease 



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



" The importation of opium is consider- vation in China. — Statement of the Trade 



ably short for the last two seasons, but a/irf^ar. q/"5o7niay/or 1871-72, pp. xii.xvi. 



this is not to be wondered at now that each * According to the French missionaries, 



opium-shopkeeper in this and the surround- the cultivation of the poppy in the great 



ing districts advertises native drug for province of Szechuen was hardly known 



sale." even so recently as 1840. 



W.H.Medhurst, British Consul at Shang- * Calcutta Blue Book, -p. 2^5. 



hai,8ays — "The drug is now being so exten- ^ Journ. of Sac. of Arts, Sept. (1872) 6, 



sively produced by the Chinese upon their p. 338. 



