OPIUM TRADE. The principal countries in which opium is pre pared are India, Turkey, and Persia. The poppy is cultivated in Egypt and Arabia ; in Italy, France, and other parts of Europe; but, with slight exceptions, rather for the sake of its capsule and the oil extracted from its seeds than for the inspissated juice. Indian opium is of three kinds, of which the chief are Patna, grown in the province of Bahar, and Benares, the former of which is most esteemed ; the third kind, produced in the district of Ilalwa, is still less esteemed than that of Benares. The best Indian opium, however, is inferior to that of Turkey. For some time the quantity of opium produced and brought to the Eastern markets from all parts was not equal to the demand, and the Malwa and Turkish opium were introduced to supply the deficiency. At first there was a strong prejudice against the latter. The Turkey opium was introduced into the Indian Archipelago in 1515, and the merchants reluctantly cemented to its constituting one-fourth of the supply for the year ; but two years afterwards they expressly stipulated for one-half, and in the following year for three fourths, although the price rose, while Indian opium was stationary. A strong preference has also been (shown in China for the Turkish opium, which has been introduced by the Americans. Several thousand persona are engaged in the cultivation in Turkey ; they are generally very poor, and the quantity annually brought to market by each cultivator does not exceed one or two baskets. The annual average produce of Turkey was estimated some years ago at about half a million pounds. The whole quantity of land under the poppy cultivation in India is said not to exceed 100,000 acres. Milbuni (' Oriental Commerce,' p. 224) gives the following account of the opium monopoly, as maintained at a time when the East India Company was at the height of its power :—" The monopoly in the trade of opium, or the cultivation of the poppy, may be traced at least as far back as the commencement of the British influence in Bengal. The advantages resulting from it were for several years merely con sidered as a part of the emoluments of certain officers under the government. In the year 1773 the trade was taken out of their bands, and the profit assumed for the benefit of the Company. The provision of the article was' for many years let out upon contract. The opium trade continued under the direction of the Board of Revenue till 1793, when it was transferred to the Board of Trade. On the expiration o( the contracts, In 1797, the cultivation of opium was restricted to Behar and Benares, and discontinued in Bengal : the mode of provision by agency was resorted to, and still continues in practice. In July, 1799, some regulations were published ' for the guidance of all persons concerned in the provision of opium on the part of govern ment, and for preventing the illicit cultivation of the poppy and the illicit importation or traffic in the article of opium.' Under these regulations, which were further modified in 1807, the cultivation of the poppy, except on account of government, is expressly forbidden; but it is left entirely at the option of the cultivator to enter into engage ments on account of government at a settled price, or to decline it altogether." Of recent events in the opium trade we shall speak presently.
Opium is often adulterated with the pulverised leaves and stalks of the poppy, which are mixed up into a mucilaginous mass with gum Arabic or some similar substance. In Sumatra the opium prepared for smoking is frequently adulterated with pine-sugar, and crude opium with the fruit of the pisang, or plantain. An engrossing taste for opium pervades all classes in China, and has spread with astonishing rapidity. From the superior classes, who were the first to practise it, the habit of opium smoking has descended and become general. "Worthless subordinates in offices and nefarious traders," says Sir J. F. Davis, "first introduced the abuse; young persons of family, wealthy citizens, and merchants, adopted the custom ; until at last it reached the common people. I have learned on inquiry, from scholars and official persona, that opium smokers exist in all the provinces, but the larger proportion of them are to be found in the government offices; and that it would be a fallacy to suppose that there are not smokers among all ranks of civil and military officers below the station of provincial governors and their deputies." Gutzlaff says of the Chinese sailors, that most of them are smokers of opium, and that when the weather is rough, and more than ordinary attention is required from them, they turn in and intoxicate themselves with this drug ; and on shore they indulge in smoking it until all their wages are squandered. The tribes of the Indian Islands more frequently smoke opium than eat or chew it. They in fact chew tobacco and smoke opium, while the practice of the Turks and other people of Asia is directly the reverse. Raffles states that in Sumatra the opium prepared for smoking is used along the coast, whereas crude opium is chewed by the people of the interior. On the west coast of Celebes, the principal rajah and his family, and the various smaller rajahs amongst whom the country is divided, are the chief opium smokers : persons of inferior rank not being able to command the luxury. In some parts of India, opium is presented at visits and enter tainments in the same familiar manner as a snuff-box in Europe. The prohibition of intoxicating liquors by the Mohammedan law has, it is believed, encouraged the habit of taking opium ; and in consequence of the Turks of the present day being farlless bigoted than formerly, the consumptiou of opium is said to have declined with the more frequent indulgence in wine and arrack. The habit is believed to be more prevalent at present in Persia than in Turkey, though it is not often carried to the same excess. In Europe opium is almost wholly employed as a medicine; it has been made in England from the native poppy, but the cultivation is not likely at any time to become worthy of attention on a large scale. The opium consumed in this country is chiefly from Turkey. Opium in small quantities is a permanent article of import from Italy and France ; occasionally, but in still less quan tities, it is imported from Russia, Germany, Holland, and Belgium ; rarely from India. Within the last few years Egypt has exported opium to England, and the quantity has been yearly increasing. The supply received from each country is liable to great fluctuations, on account of the uncertainty of the crop.