The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-05-03
Our Opium Trade.

Under the above title Mr.. Samuel Mander, of
Wolrerhampton, England, has re-published in
pamphlet form, a series of essays which origin
ally appeared in q local paper, and excited an
unusual amount of interest among the people of
England. Many have a dim conception that
there is a moral wrong in the traffic, but there
are few f fcSpie who ale aware "a III sao t esS7fhlty Of
the fearful curse which a Christian people have
inflicted upon the Chinese nation. The follow
ing is Mr.. Mander's first letter, taken from Il
publication issued by the China Inland Mission
Essay l
Although to a number of persons something is
known of the traffic in opium which is being
carried on between India and China by the
British Government, | am sure that the country
generally cannot be aware of the true character
Of that traffic of the dreadful wrongs it inhicts
upon the Chinese people of the total disregard
it indicates of our high responsibilities in those
regions or of the retribution which must await
this country, unless we repent and speedily put
away the iniquity from US. l am sure the coun-
try knows not these things, or it would arise and
Indignantly demand the reversal of a policy with
out parallel for iniquity in the world.
| propose, therefore, to set before your readers
q statement Of the case, gathered from unim-
peachable sources, that they may form their own
opinion, and be induced to act in reference to the
traffic as becomes the citizens OF this great coun-
try, in which the responsibilities of government
are shared as widely as the possession of the
franchise is enjoyed.
l. The opium traffic is a monopoly enjoyed by
the British Government of the growth of the
poppy and the preparation of opium in India,
and it's sale throughout India, China, and all
accessible regions of the East. 1t is a traffic
which bears immense profits, gives splendid for
tunes to numbers of merchants, and furnishes the
Government with a large portion of its Indian
revenue. The Queens Government itself is the
producer. 1t provides land, lends money to the
cultivators, receives and stores the whole amount
grown, and disposes of it by auction at periodi-
cal sales in Culcatta to merchants who export
it to China and the proceeds of the sale are
paid into the Imperial Treasury. From a recent
Parliamentary Blue Book on the Progress and
Condition of India, we learn that the nett opium
revenue for lS71-72 amounted to ct ,657 ,2l3
the number of chests sold being $3.50. This
includes 1885 chests produced in Bengal, and
sold at Calcutta at G139 per chest, the nett pro-
fit on each chest being 200 and also 43 ,909
chests produced in Malwa, a Native State in Cen
trail India, and exported from Bombay, paying a
tax to the Government of $50 per chest.
The extent of land cultivated for opium is
limited entirely by Imperial considerations-in
other words, by the financial needs OF the Gov
eminent.
>. How came the British Government in India
into this anomalous position Of monopolist Guilt
vator and trader in opium? Like the salt
monopoly, it was acquired by us among the
spells of war. With other valuable possessions
Of the great Mogul, it was transferred to the East
India Company by Clydeis victory at Plassey in
1857. that period, however, opium had
yielded cOmpScNslsely no great amount of profit;
but when it felt the hands of the East India
Company, the thrifty monarchs of Leadenhall
Street soon discovered that there was here an ex-
pansive source Of revenue After farming it
out for a while the directors took the trade into
their own hands, and it has been directly carried
on by Government ever since.
B. The export of opium to China by the East
India Company virtually commenced in 1873,
when they established a depot near Macao. 1t
bad been imported INTO that country as early as
the seventeenth century but, its use being re-
stricted in extent, the injurious effects it pro-
duced were little felt, and the traffic was of a
legal character. The amount rarely exceeded
200 chests a year up to 176S, and the trade was
in the hands of the Portuguese. The taste for
the drug increasing, the importation reached, in
l776, to 1000 chests per annum. In 1881, Warren
Hastings, then the GOvernor-G General, with the
concurrence of his Council, chartered a vessel for
the purpose of selling opium in various ports. but
particularly in China" Fifteen years later Tin
1867 the evils resulting from opium-s smoking
IN that country had become so notorious that the
Emperor ikea King) resolved on utterly extir-
pating the vice. He sentenced opium-smokers