PAPAVER
somniferum.
History of Opium in India.
18
Extracted from the Dictionary of
HISTORY :
Indian.
Cultivation
in
India during
15th
century.
Opium —
a State
Monopoly
during
Mogul
Dynasty.
Taxation
of
Opium &
Wheat
Cultivation
in
16th century.
subject of the Indian acquaintance with opium, while that of the Muham-
madans is unfortunately of a comparatively speaking modern character.
Prior to the Emperor Akbar, the Arabian, Persian, and Afghán invaders
and conquerors of India had enough to do in holding the country and
enforcing tribute, as a military right, without thinking of organised sys-
tems of Government and Revenue Administration. Hence it followed
that the Arab trading influence did not extend far beyond the coast,
more than did that of the early European settlers. We know, however,
that they had succeeded during the fifteenth century in introducing
poppy cultivation into Cambay and Malwa, and that when Akbar reduced
the lawless Muhammadan oppressors and fugitive Hindu chieftains to an
Empire, he found Malwa opium a characteristic feature of that country.
Abul Fazl specially states, however, that the poppy culture was chiefly
practised in Fatehpur, Allahabad, and Ghazipur. We learn that the
founder of the Mogul civil dynasty and his successors regarded opium as
of necessity a State monopoly. They found it, however, at once the most
convenient and successful course to farm out the right to manufacture and
to sell the drug, and they imposed a very considerably heavier land tax on
poppy cultivation than on any other crop.
In the Records of the Government of India much interesting information
exists on the early history of opium culture. From these sources of informa-
tion many of the facts here given have been culled. In Abul Fazl's time,
all the districts from which the Benares Agency Opium is now provided
were included in the Subahs of Agra, Oudh, and Allahabad. The Subah of
Allahabad comprised nearly the whole of the present districts of Fatehpur,
Allahabad, Benares, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, and Ballia; also
parts of the districts of Jalaun, Hamirpur, Banda, Cawnpore, Partabgarh,
and Azamgarh. The seasons were supposed to undergo a complete
revolution in the course of nineteen years—a cycle of the moon. In the
tables of nineteen years' rates for the Subahs noted in the text, the highest
and lowest rates for land under wheat and under poppy are thus stated :—
SUBAH.
WHEAT.
POPPY.
HIGHEST.
LOWEST.
HIGHEST.
LOWEST.
P e r i o d .
R e n t - r a t e p e r b i g h a .
P e r i o d .
R e n t - r a t e p e r b i g h a .
P e r i o d .
R e n t - r a t e p e r b i g h a .
P e r i o d .
R e n t - r a t e p e r b i g h a .
R a.
R a.
R a.
R a.
Agra
. 1st to 4th
year.
2 4 10th year . 1 3
1 s t t o 4 t h y e a r . 4 0
1 0 t h t o 1 9 t h y e a r .
3 4
Allahabad .
Ditto
. 2 4 9th
„
. 1 9
Ditto
. 4 0 9th year . 3 4
Oudh
.
Ditto
.
2 4 14th „
. 1 1
Ditto
. 4
0 9th ,,
. 3 4
Delhi
.
Ditto
. 2 4 14th „
. 1
0 6th to 9th
year.
3 8 1st to 5th
year.
2 1 1
Lahore
. 1st and 2nd year. 2 4 13th „
. 0 1 0 1st to 4th year. 4
0 11th year . 2 8
Multan
. 10th and
11th year.
1 5 13th „
. 0 10 10th year .
3 4 12th to 14th
year.
2 8
Malwa
. 1st to 14th
year.
1 4 15th to 19th y e a r . 1 2 15th to 19th
year.
2
8 1st to 9th
year.
1 4
NOTE.—The bíghá in Akbar's time was 3,025 square yards, and was thus equi-
valent to the present opium bíghá or 5/8th of an acre.