PAPAVER
somniferum.
HI STORY:
Indian.
Prior to E. I.
Company's Monopoly.
22
Extracted from the Dictionary of
History of British Indian Monopoly.
above what would be the common selling rate of the subsequent month of
Bysakh, as it was in that month that the rate or price of the opium was
fixed, according to the smaller or greater quantity of the produce, being
first settled at about 2 rupees per seer of 80 sicca weight: and the Patna
merchants at this rate, receiving according to their stipulations, with interest,
&c., the commodity for the advances they had made, they brought it into
town and prepared the same carefully in their houses, so that it might suit
the European purchasers. There were also smaller dealers, known by the
names of Pykars, resident throughout the country at large who made
purchases and prepared the opium in their houses from 10 to 50 maunds,
but the commodity thus received from the Pykars was never genuine.
After the opium-growers had delivered to the Patna opium merchants as
much of the commodity as liquidated their advances, they then heightened
their prices. In the month of October, the opium being prepared, the
merchant used first to offer it for sale to the Dutch, and all the merchants
joining together fixed a price and agreement with the Dutch Chief, a
merchant having 500 maunds in his house, contracting to deliver 200
maunds, and receiving payment thereof to that amount. After thus
settling with the Dutch, the merchants used to make further contracts with
the English, but with an enhanced price above what the Dutch had agreed
for; and thereafter they went and contracted with the French at a still
higher price than they had stipulated for with the English. Thereafter, in
the month of November, the Dutch made a second contract with the mer-
chants at a higher price than they had at first agreed for, and the commodity
began to be delivered; and the mofussil Pykars taking something by way
of Arat or brokerage disposed of their goods to the Patna merchants; but
there was very little thereof found of such a quality as to be accepted, it
being, on the contrary, for the most part rejected. If in any year the
demand for opium was more urgent than usual, the Pykars, by collecting
the article from Shahabad, &c., made it sink very much in quality by which
means the commodity became in general very much adulterated; the
purchasing price of the Europeansran then from 100 to 150 rupees per
maund, though, in some years, by reason of the urgency of the demand
and the competition among the gentlemen, the price has now and then
risen to 200 rupees, whereby many native merchants made fortunes, whilst,
on the other hand, by reason of European wars and other causes, the price
has fallen as low as 70 or 75 rupees, in which time both the merchants and
Pykars were great sufferers. Thus the purchasing price of opium was
various, but that variety never affected the revenue rate of the poppy lands."
In the official papers which the writer has had the privilege of consult-
ing, the historic facts of the period of which Ram Chand wrote down to
the establishment of the Honourable the East India Company's monopoly
has been ably reviewed A few passages from these records may be here
reproduced: —
" The triumphs of Suraj-ud-Daula over the European Companies in
1756 brought ruin to Patna opium-dealers, who, in default of competition
from the English Company, were compelled to dispose of their opium to
the Dutch at R70 the maund. The dealers being impoverished were
unable to make advances to the cultivators; and on the restoration of
peace in 1765, so little opium was to be had, that even the produce of
former seasons, which had lain by in the dealer's houses, fetched as much
as R200 the maund. The rise in price stimulated the cultivation, and the
servants of the Companies began to send their own agents into the districts
to purchase direct from the cultivators. Quarrels ensued between these
agents, and in 1767 the Companies made a joint concern of the trade, with
one general agent, for all the opium produced. The servants, however,