the Economic Products of India.
Supply of Opium recognised as National.
PAPAVER
somniferum.
districts to not only produce opium but to have it conveyed throughout the HISTORY:
length and breadth of the land. Awakened at last to the reality of the Chinese.
case, the Chinese Government saw that the supply of opium was a national
demand, similar to that for tobacco and spirits in other countries. That
the attempts to stifle it by the high hand of law had but led to a deeper
moral corruption which stultified the humane desires of the refined and
cultured reformers. All restriction was therefore removed. Importation
and cultivation were legalised, and a fiscal revenue, which could be made
to control the traffic far more effectually, was thus drawn into the Imperial
treasury, instead of being swallowed up by unscrupulous officials in the
form of blackmail. For some years past the influences of this wise
decision have been felt powerfully by all opium-producing countries. The
Malwa opium of India, which resembles most that produced in China, has
proved a less and less remunerative enterprise. The competition which
has, for some years, been carried on between the Chinese and Indian drug,
appears at length to have appreciably affected the latter, especially the
Malwa description. Prices have fallen heavily, and the Government of
India has found it expedient, in view of representations from the traders of
increasing losses, to reduce the transit duty to the level at which it stood
before 1877. The duty has been levied at the following rates since 1845:—
H
H
1845 . . . .
3 0 0
1862 .
. . 600
1847 • • •
. 400
1877 . . . . 65o
1859 . . . .
5 0 0
1879 . . . . 700
186o . . . . 600
1882 .
. . 65o
China recog-
nises true
character Opium
Traffic.
Although the price of Bengal opium has also fallen seriously, its superior
quality has largely saved it from feeling the full effects of the Chinese
production, and it seems probable that, as an expensive luxury and a medi-
cine, it will for some years to come be able to hold its own against China.
INDIAN TRADE.—Turning now to the Indian side of the HISTORY OF
OPIUM it has to be repeated that none of the Sanskrit authors deal with the
subject. Dr. U. C. Dutt, in his Materia Medica of the Sanskrit medical
writers, says :—" Opium appears to have been brought to India by the
Mussulmans, as its Sanskrit name is evidently derived from the Arabic
Afyún, and as it is not mentioned by the older Sanskrit writers. The cap-
sules of the poppy are called khákhas, and the seeds khasatila, in Sanskrit."
DeCandolle, on the other hand (on what is probably very doubtful
authority), seems to regard the Sanskrit and Persian names as denoting,
an ancient cultivation. After pointing to the defect of knowledge indi-
cated in the Hebrew literature he says : "On the other hand, there are
one or two Sanskrit names. Piddington gives chosa, and Adolphe Picket,
khaskhasa, which recurs in the Persian chash-chásh, the Armenian chash-
chash, and in the Arabic. Another Persian name (given by Ainslie) is
kouknar. These names, and others I could quote, very different from the
maikon (µή χ ω ν )
o f t h e G r e e k s , a r e a n i n d i c a t i o n o f a n a n c i e n t c u l t i v a t i o n
in Europe and Western Asia." It need scarcely be repeated that these
are names that point to a knowledge in the capsules and seeds, not to
opium, and were very probably originally derived from the Arabic, certain-
ly not from the Sanskrit. Indeed, the two words given by DeCandolle as
Sanskrit do not occur in standard works on the subject and should there-
fore be set aside. Thus, for example, Ainslie remarks on chasa: "This
is more properly the Sanskrit name of the poppy plant ; but, for either it
is not given with much confidence." The only word in Sanskrit, which dis-
tinctly refers to Opium, is Ahiphena from ỏπóς, through the Arabic Afyún.
Thus the literature of the Hindu physicians throws little or no light on the
INDIAN
TRADE.
Absence of
Sanskrit
Records.