14
Extracted from the Dictionary of
PAPAVER
History of Opium-smoking.
somniferum.
HISTORY:
Chinese.
First mention
of an opium-
smoking
shop,
1712 A.D.
Chinese
opium-smok-
ing prepara-
tion.
Punishments
against
Traffic in
Opium.
Local Produc-
tion greater
than Imports.
S a l e p r o h i b i t - e d b u t d r u g < a d m i t t e d .E
a r l y B r i t i s h T r a n s a c t i o n s i n C h i n e s e O p i u m , 1 7 8 1 A . D .
That indefatigable explorer was born in 1651; visited Persia in 1683
— 8 5 ; I n d i a , J a v a , a n d S i a m i n 1 6 9 0 ; J a p a n i n 1 6 9 0 — 9 2 ; r e t u r n e d t o
Leiden in 1694, and died at Lemgo in 1716. His great work A m œ n i t a t e s
Exotica was published in 1 7 1 2. In that publication he deals with tobacco,
hemp, and opium, and gives the first authentic description of an opium-
smoking shop. In his account of the method of smoking opium, in which
tobacco was saturated with a dilute infusion of the narcotic,
h e u s e s t h e t e r m
h a u r i o .T
h a t t h e t o b a c c o i m p r e g n a t e d w i t h o p i u m w a s a c t u a l l y
smoked there can be no doubt, and indeed the expression of " drinking,
tobacco " was at one time in use in England just as it is at the present day
with the people of India. Kampfer, in speaking of Persia, says the best
sorts of opium were flavoured with spices and were called theriaka pre-
parations; these were held in great esteem during the Middle Ages Dr.
Edkins in his concluding pages deals with the various Chinese accounts of
the special preparations used in opium-smoking from the year 1723 down
to the present date. He is strongly of opinion that the practice came from
Java to Amoy, and Formosa, because of the fact that the earliest Chinese
works describe the system of smoking in almost the same words as those
employed by Kampfer when speaking of the method of indulgence which
he saw in Java. Dr. Bretschneider is of opinion that opium-smoking is
a Chinese invention and modern. "Nothing," he says, "proves that the
Chinese smoked opium before the middle of the last century."
Dr. Edkins, however, reviews the various edicts that were issued (from
1729 to 17 96) against opium-smoking, and shows that the connivance of the
Chinese authorities, from the highest to the lowest, served to render repres-
sive measures futile. Every person, except the opium-smoker, was by the
laws of China to be meted out the severest punishment, even death, for
participation in the opium traffic. The people were stronger, however, than
their lawgivers and found the means of establishing with impunity, under
the very eyes of the authorities, the agencies and shops necessary for the
import traffic, and we know that they also rapidly began to partake in the
profits of production, for the cultivation of the poppy was soon extended
throughout the empire until the home .manufacture of opium far exceeded
the quantity imported. While discussing the spread of opium-smoking in
the eighteenth century, Dr. Edkins says: "It sprang up in a lawless locality
at a great distance from Peking; there was, therefore, no inclination to
leniency from the fear of offending persons or classes whom the Govern-
ment would not like to offend. The law was in consequence promptly
made decided in tone, and severe in detail. Was this law acted upon?
No allusion was made to it by the Jesuit Missionaries in the Lettres
édifiantes or in the Mémoires concernant les Chinois. The habit of opium-
smoking is not mentioned in these works. The trade in opium certainly
remained as before. Two hundred chests a year continued to be imported,
and in 1767 that quantity had gradually increased to 1,000 chests. The
duty was Taels 3 a chest. It would appear, then, that the old tariff of the
Ming dynas' y was still followed in the main. The sale of opium was pro-
hibited by Statute, but we do not find proof that it was refused as a drug at
the Custom Houses of Amoy and Canton. The import steadily increased
during the time it was in the hands of the Portuguese, till English mer
chants took it up in 1773, after the conquest of Bengal by Clive. The
East India Company took the opium trade into its hands in 1781. At
that time the minor portion only of the imported opium was devoted to
opium-smoking,—at least we may assume this. The Superintendent of
Customs in those days would continue to take the duty on opium as a
drug. What was contraband they would say was y a-pien-yen, which
means opium for smoking: the drug ya-pien would still pass the Customs