THE POPPY. 



581 



1842- 43 18,362 



1843- 44 15,104 



1844- 45 18,350 



1845- 46 21,437 



1846- 47 21,648 



1847- 48 30,515 



1848- 49 36,000 



The cTaest is about 140 lbs., so that the production in 1849 was 

 5,040,000 lbs. 



According to tbe statements annexed to the statistical papers 

 relating to India, the income from the opium monopoly is obtained 

 by two principal means, namely, by a system of allowing the cul- 

 tivation of the poppy by the natives of British India on account 

 of Grovernment, and by the impost of a heavy duty on opium 

 grown and manufactured in foreign states, but brought in transit 

 to a British port for exportation. The former system obtains in 

 Bengal, the latter in Bombay. According to the statements pub- 

 lished, Bengal opium yields a profit of 7s. 6d. per lb., whilst the 

 duty derived in the Bombay presidency is only equal to a surplus 

 of 5s. 8d. per lb. By these means the total revenue realised by 

 the opium monopoly, in Bengal and Bombay, in the year 1849-50 

 yielded £3,309,637. 



Lest objection should be taken to this large annual revenue 

 derived from the cultivation of a drug, the unnatural consumption 

 of which would be suppressed under any other European govern- 

 ment, the Court of Directors is very anxious to show the benefit 

 which the country derives from this monopoly ; they say " that as 

 the price of opium is almost wholly paid by foreign consumers, and 

 the largest return is obtained with the smallest outlay, the best 

 interests of India would appear to be consulted." Nobody at all 

 acquainted with the financial resources and the capabilities of any 

 country, would hazard such an assertion. By paying cultivators 

 for the restricted growth of the poppy a price hardly yielding more 

 than the average rate of wages to the common laborer, I do not 

 see in what way the best interests of India are consulted, nor is it 

 clear that the population derives any benefit by being prohibited 

 altogether from manufacturing a drug, which may be brought from 

 another country in transitu on the payment of a heavy duty ; unless 

 indeed the Court of Directors are of opinion that in the event of 

 the abolition of the monopoly, the people of the country would 

 have to make up for the loss of the revenue by submitting to some 

 other mode of direct or indirect taxation. There is an inconsis- 

 tency in the statements of the Court of Directors, which is abso- 

 lutely amusing. "The free cultivation of the poppy," say the 

 Directors, " would doubtless lead to the larger outlay of capital, 

 and to greater economy in production ; but the poppy requires the 

 richest description of land, and its extended cultivation must 

 therefore displace other products." How very considerate on the 

 part of the Directors, but how strongly at variance with facts, since 

 all the fear of displacing other products, and all this appropriation 

 of the richest description of land for other purposes has not pre- 



