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IV. Opium Monopoly in India and Indonesia in the Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Om Prakash
Om Prakash
Affiliation:
(Delhi School of Economics)
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Extract

The dominant theme in the historical literature on agricultural production for export is the fast-expanding demand by Europe in the course of the industrialisation during the nineteenth century of agricultural goods originating in Asia, Africa as well as the Regions of Recent Settlement. In a large number of cases, the growing supplies of agricultural export were put together through recourse to the plantation system. The colonial governments often played an important, and sometimes a decisive, role in the rise and the smooth functioning of this system. This could be in the form of liberal land grants, the delegation of coercive authority to the management over the labour supply and so on. The direct, including entrepreneurial, role of the government was often evident also in arrangements which were not of the usual plantation variety, but which operated on the basis of accommodation, and indeed integration, with the existing organisation of traditional peasant agriculture. An outstanding example of this is the well-known Cultivation System introduced by Governor-General Johannes van den Bosch in Dutch Indonesia in the 1830s. The common theme that cuts across the bulk of the great diversity of arrangements of the use of coercive power by the colonial state in a variety of ways and often in fairly liberal doses.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 12 , Special Issue 1: The Ancien Regime in India and Indonesia , March 1988 , pp. 73 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1988

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References

Notes

1 Malwa Opium was the generic name given to opium produced in Malwa, large parts of Central India and the native states of Rajputana. The English Company never managed to monopolise this variety and in the following discussion, we shall not be directly concerned with it.

2 Instructions by Adriaan van Ommen and Van Heck, representatives of Commissioner Van Rhccde, to the Patna factors dated June 30, 1688. Enclosure to the letter from Hugli to Batavia, 22.9.1688, Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague (henceforth ARA), KA 1343, ff. 764v–768v.

3 Prakash, Om, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630–1750 (Princeton 1985) 145–156Google Scholar.

4 Ibidem, 153–154.

5 ‘Secret memoir concerning the Directorate of Bengal left by outgoing Dutch Director Louis Taillefcrt for his successor George Louis Vernct’, dated 17 November 1763, ARA, Hooge Rcgeering Batavia (hereafter HRB) 246, f. 205; Memoir of Dutch Director in Bengal at Hugli, Johannes Bacheracht for his successor, J.M;-Ross, dated 31 July 1776, ARA, HRB 252, ff. 114–115; ‘Extracts of the Proceedings of the President and Council at Fort William in Bengal in their Revenue Department, the 15th October, 1773’, Appendix 57 to the Ninth Report from the Select Committee appointed to take into consideration the State of the administration of justice in the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, 25 June, 1783, India Office Library (hereafter IOL), L/Parl/2/15; Marshall, PJ., East Indian Fortunes, The British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford 1976) 118–119Google Scholar.

6 Memoir of Bacheracht for Ross dated 31 July 1776, ARA, HRB 252, ff. 115–116; Enclosures to the memoir or Bacheracht for Ross dated 31 July 1776, ARA, HRB 253, f. 6.

7 Memoir of outgoing Dutch Director of Bengal, George Louis Vernct for his successor Boudcwyn Verselewel Faurc, dated 8 March 1770, ARA, HRB 249, (T. 85–86; Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15;Marshall, East Indian Fortunes, 146.

8 Governor-General John Macphcrson and Council at Calcutta to Eilbracht and Van Citters, members of the Dutch Council at Hugli, 8 September 1785, ARA, HRB 211 (undated).

9 Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL., L/Parl/2/15.

10 Governor-General John Macphcrson and Council at Calcutta to Eilbracht and Van Cittcrs, members of the Dutch Council at Hugli, 8 September 1785, in ‘Correspondence exchanged between the English authorities in Bengal and the servants of the Dutch Company there, 1785’, ARA, HRB 211 (unfoliated).

11 Chowdhury, Benoy, Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal, (1757–1900) I (Calcutta 1964) 6Google Scholar.

12 S. Sanyal, ‘Ram Chand Pandit's Report on Opium Cultivation in 18th Century Bihar’, Bengal Past and Present 87 (1968) 181–189; Richards, J.F., ‘The Indian Empire and the Peasant Production of Opium in the Nineteenth Century’, Modem Asian Studies 15, 1 (1981) 62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Indeed, a Dutch memoir from 1776 explicitly says that while some attempts had been made during the pre-1757 period to monopsonise opium, these had never been successful (Memoir of Director Bacheracht for his successor, Ross, dated 31 July 1776, ARA, HRB 252, f. 117).

14 For a sample of the public notice, see Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 May 1775, Appendix 62, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15.

15 The price paid to the first opium contractor, Mir Manir was Sicca Rs. 320 per chest. In respect of the lots procured in Ghazipur and some other districts outside Bihar and held in jagir by Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula, a price of S.R. 350 per chest was stipulated (Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 May 1775, Appendix 62, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15).

16 Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15.

17 Ibidem.

18 Second Report of the Select Committee, 1805, Collection 55, f. 21, IOL, L/Parl/2/55.

19 Richards, ‘The Indian Empire and the Peasant Production of Opium’, 64.

20 Chowdhury, Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal I, 42.

21 Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL.

22 Second Report of the Select Committee, 1805, Collection 55, IOL, L/Parl/2/55.

23 Chowdhury, Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal I, 51.

24 Ibidem.

25 Minutes of the Dutch Council at Hugli, 13 October 1775, in Enclosures to the memoir of outgoing Director Bacheracht, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated); Letter from Gregorius Herklots to the Council at Hugli, 20 October 1775, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

26 Parwana dated 8 March 1776, available in Minutes of the Hugli Council Meeting, 28 May 1776, Enclosures to the memoir of Bacheracht, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

27 ‘An account of the annual profits arising to the Company from Opium in Bengal from the acquisition of Diwani to the date of the latest advices from Bengal’, f. 1, Collection 20, IOL, Parl/L/2/20.

28 Chung, Tan, ‘The British-China-India Trade Triangle (1771–1840)’, The Indian Economic and Social History Review 11, 4 (1974) 422–423Google Scholar.

29 Marshall, East Indian Fortunes, 203.

30 Tan Chung, ‘The British-China-India Trade Triangle’, 417.

31 Watt, George, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India VI, Part I (repr.; Delhi 1972) 37Google Scholar.

32 Letter from Gregorius Herklots at Patna to the Dutch Council at Hugli, 20 October 1775, in Enclosures to the memoir of outgoing Director Bacheracht, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

33 Chowdhury, Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal 1, 29.

34 English Company Directors to factors in Calcutta, 24 December 1776, Appendix 33, Ninth Report, IOL.

35 Chowdhury, Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengali, 27.

36 Bayly, C.A., Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars, North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770–1870 (Cambridge 1983) 289Google Scholar.

37 Richards, ‘The Indian Empire and the Peasant Production of Opium’, 79.

38 Quoted in R.E. Elson, ‘Peasant Poverty and Prosperity under the Cultivation System in Java’ (Paper presented for the Conference on Indonesian Economic History in the Dutch Colonial Period, Australian National University, December 16–18, 1983) 1–2.

39 Ibidem, 10.

40 In 1679, the rate of gross profit was reported to have been as large as 400 percent (Letter from Dutch Council at Hugli to the Governor-General and Council at Batavia, 30 March 1679, ARA, KA 1237, f. 1100v; letter from Batavia to Hugli, 10 August 1679, ARA, KA 806, f. 827).

41 Ibidem.

42 Calculated from J.C. Baud, ‘Procve van eene Geschiedcnis van den handcl en het Verbruik van Opium in Nederlandseh Indie’, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkundt van Nederlandsch-Indië (1853) Appendix 6.

43 Baud, ’Opium’, 120.

44 The rate of exchange was approximately 1 rixdollar =2 rupees.

45 van Dijk, L.C.D., ‘Byvoegsels tot de Proevc Eener Geschiedenis van den handcl en het Verbruik van Opium in Nederlandsch Indië door den Heer J.C. Baud’, Bijdragen lot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië 2 (1854) 200Google Scholar.

46 Baud, ’Opium’, 122–123.

47 The details of the charter are available in document No. 3 entitled ‘Project associatic van geprivilegeerde kooplieden tot den amphioen geconsenteert in raade van India op den 24 September 1745’ of ARA, VOC 4832 (unfoliated). A somewhat more detailed version is available in Appendix 2 of Baud, ‘Opium’, 200–210.

48 Baud, ’Opium’, 24.

49 Document 4 entitled ‘Notitie van behaalde winsten op amphioen Bengaals in swaar geld gerekend’, ARA, VOC 4832 (unfoliated).

50 Ibidem.

51 Calculated from table in Baud, ’Opium’, 158.

52 Ibidem.

53 Baud, ’Opium’, 41.

54 Ibidem.

55 Ibidem, 142.

56 Memoir of outgoing Dutch Director Bacheracht for his successor, J.M. Ross, 31 July 1776, ARA, HRB 252, ff. 121–122.

57 Letter from Governor-General Warren Hastings and Council at Calcutta to the Dutch Council at Hugli, 29 January 1776, Enclosures to the memoir of Bacheracht, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

58 Letter from the Dutch Director and Council at Hugli to the English Governor-General and Council at Calcutta, 2 February 1776, Enclosures to the memoir of Bacheracht, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

59 Letter from Gregorius Herklots to Isaac Sage, 30 August 1775 and Sage's reply, 31 August 1775, Enclosures to memoir of Bacheracht, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

60 Extract from a secret resolution adopted by the Dutch Council at Hugli, 25 January 1776, Enclosures to memoir of Bacheracht, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

61 Second memorandum by the Dutch Director and Council to the English Governor-General and Council, 15 August 1785, ARA, HRB 211 (unfoliated).

62 Minutes of the Dutch Council at Hugli, 2 February 1776, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated); letter from Governor-General and Council at Calcutta to the Hugli Council, 7 February 1776, in the Minutes of the Hugli Council, 12 February 1776, ARA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).

63 Letter from Governor-General John Macphcrson to Gregorius Herklots, 19 May 1785, ‘Correspondence between the English and the Dutch authorities in Bengal, 1785–1794’, ARA, HRB212 (unfoliated).

64 Herklots and Council at Hugli to John Macpherson and Council at Calcutta, 26 May 1785, ARA, HRB 2T2 (unfoliated).

65 Letter from Calcutta to Hugli, 15 April 1786; Hugli to Calcutta, 31 January 1787; Calcutta to Hugli, 7 February 1787; Hugli to Calcutta, 7 February 1787; Calcutta to Hugli, 7 January 1788; Hugli to Calcutta, 23 February 1788; Calcutta to Hugli, 25 February 1788, ARA, HRB212 (unfoliatcd).

66 Letter from Hugli to Calcutta, 12 April 1791, ARA, HRB 212 (unfoliated).

67 Letter from Calcutta to Hugli, 4 May 1791, ARA, HRB 212 (unfoliated); Hugli to Calcutta, 9 August 1792, ARA, HRB212 (unfoliated).

68 Baud, ’Opium’, 142–143.

69 Ibidem, 144–145.

70 Ibidem, 154.

71 Ibidem, 154–155.

72 Ibidem, 155.

73 Ibidem, 156.

74 Ibidem, 156–157.