Examined in this way, the results arrived at are that 200,000 chests, or almost 13,000 tons (1680 catties =1 ton), of unprepared opium are consumed annually by 2,000,000 opium-smokers ; that these smokers expend £25,000,000 on opium ; that this is an expenditure of, say, from 5d. to 11d. daily by individual smokers ; and that all the smokers amount to only two-thirds of one per cent. of the population. If more than three mace a-piece is consumed daily by smokers, then smokers are less numerous ; if less than three mace, then smokers are more numerous, and smoking indivi dually less harmful. The truth is that many smoke more than three mace and many less, but from the statistical point of view it is safe to say that opium smokers in China constitute simply two-thirds of one per cent. of the population. On the supposi tion even that the quantity of native opium pro duced is ten times that of the foreign opium im ported, the total will not yet suffice for the con sumption of even four per cent. of the population. Four per cent. is a small percentage, but in China it means 12 millions of people. It is hardly credible, however, that native opium is produced in such quantity ; but whatever the number of opium-smokers may really be,—and allowing that many people smoke without injury,—there must in any case be a percentage of smokers for whom the habit works nothing but evil.
Chinese who have studied the opium ques tion are opposed to a traffic which more or less harms smokers, now numbering, say, over two millions, and annually increasing ; at the same time, they admit that opium provides a large revenue, that expenditure for opium and liability to the incidence of opium taxation touch an in finitesimally small percentage of the population, and that neither the finances of the State, nor the wealth of its people, nor the growth of its popula tion, can be specially damaged by a luxury which only draws from 5d. to 11d. a-piece a day from the pockets of those who indulge in it, and which is indulged in by only two-thirds of one per cent of the population. They admit all this, but they do not find in either the revenue produced or the statistical demonstration of its percentage in nocuousness, any sufficient reason for welcoming the growth of the trade or for desisting from the attempt to check the consumption of opium.' The opium sold by public auction in Calcutta is termed `provision' opium. This is mostly ex ported to China. But in addition to the quantity exported, about 4000 chests of Bengal opium are consumed in India. This is termed abkari.' During the twenty years up to 1881, the annual average production of provision' opium was 50,154 chests, and in that period the price of crude opium varied from Rs. 4.8 to Rs. 5 a seer. The actual cost of a chest of Bengal opium, in cluding interest on the capital and all indirect charges, is as follows : 68 seers 2 chittak at 75° consistence, Behar. Benares.
equals 73 seers at 70° consistence, at At 70°.
Rs. 5 per seer, . . . . Rs. 365 Rs. 341 Cost of manufacture and packing, inte rest on capital, charges for pensions, and leave allowances of officers, . 71 66 Rs. 436 Its. 407 Being an average of Rs. 421.
The weight of a chest is 140 lbs. avoirdupois. The average price realized on a chest of Bengal opium for the ten years ending 1880-81 may be taken at Rs. 1280 ; the average profit, therefore, may be taken at Rs. 1280 — 421 = Rs. 859. Malwa opium is a product of that native state, and as it passes through a British Indian port for shipment, the British Indian Government levies a duty on it of Rs. 700 a chest. The average number of chests of Bengal opium sold in the ten years up to 1880-81 was 49,337. But in 1881 the quantity being offered for sale was 56,400 chests. To secure a continuous supply of 56,000 chests of Bengal opium yearly, the Government of India maintain a reserve. The quantity so stored was in 1881 only 21,752 chests, while in 1878 it had been 48,482 chests.
The British Indian income from the opium mono poly is obtained by two principal means, namely, by a system of allowing the cultivation of the poppy by the natives of British India on account of Government, and by the impost of a heavy duty on opium grown and manufactured in foreign states, but brought in transit to a British port for exportation. The former system obtains in Bengal, the latter in Bombay. According to the state ments published, Bengal opium yields a profit of 7s. 6d. per lb., whilst the duty levied in Bombay Presidency is only equal to a surplus of 5s. 8d. per lb.
The gross revenue, the expenditure charges, and the net revenue on account of opium in the Bengal and Bombay Presidencies from 1870-71 to 1880-81 are as under. The receipts from pro vision opium and the cost price of opium sold to the excise department are included. The receipts realized by the provincial governments on the sale of opium are not included.
Gross Revenue. Expenditure. Net Revenue.
1871-72, . £9,253,859 £1,596,646 £7,657,213 1872-73, . 8,684,691 1,814,268 6,870,423 1873-74, . 8,324,879 2,001,280 6,323,5991874-75, . 8,556,328 2,341,282 6,215,046 1875-76, . 8,470,591 2,217,851 6,252,7401876-77, . 9,122,428 2,841,644 6,280,784 1877-78, . 9,182,603 2,659,504 6,523,0991878-79, . 9,397,762 1,697,792 7,699,970 1879-80, . 10,317,300 2,067,492 8,249,808 1880-81, . 10,479,942 2,028,757 8,451,185 The receipts by the Government of India, under the head of opium, include three items, viz. (1) the money realized at the Calcutta auction sales ; (2) the receipts from the Mal'a pass duty ; (3) the cost price money credited by the excise de partment to the opium department. For the ten years up to 1881, the re-sale under the excise regulations, on account of the sale of Bengal opium, amounted to £381,000.