| 1903- 4 | 1,610,296 pounds sterling | ||
| 1904- 5 | 1,504,604 | ||
| 1905- 6 | 1,130,372 | ||
| 1906- 7 | 1,031,065 | ||
| 1907- 8 | 1,215,142 | ||
| 1908- 9 | 2,703,871 | ||
| 1909-10 | 1,234,432 | ||
| 1910-11 | 2,203,670 | ||
| 1911-12 | 3,614,887 | ||
| 1912-13 | 3,242,902 |
It was in 1907 that China began her great fight against the opium evil, and enacted stringent laws for its prohibition on Chinese soil. On page 15 of his little book, Mr. Arnold quotes from Commissioner Carl, of Canton: "The 1912 figure (for the importation of foreign opium) is the largest on record since 1895. The great influx of Chinese into the foreign concessions, where the anti-opium smoking regulations cannot be enforced by the Chinese authorities, and where smoking can be indulged in without fear of punishment, no doubt accounts for the unusual increase under foreign opium."
X
INDIA
India is the source and fount of the British opium trade, and it is from Indian opium that the drug is chiefly supplied to the world. As we have said before, it is a government monopoly. Cultivators, who wish to plant poppies, may borrow money from the Government free of interest, the sole condition being that the crop be sold back to the Government again. It is manufactured into opium at the Government factory at Ghazipur, and once a month, the Government holds auctions at Calcutta, by means of which the drug finds its way into the trade channels of the world—illicit and otherwise. [ 2 ]
The following facts are taken from "Statistics of British India. Financial Statistics, Volume II, Eighth Issue," to be found at the New York Public Library:
Area under Poppy Cultivation
| Acreage: | 1910-11 | 362,868 | |
| 1911-12 | 200,672 | ||
| 1912-13 | 178,263 | ||
| 1913-14 | 144,561 | ||
| 1914-15 | 164,911 | ||
| 1915-16 | 167,155 | ||
| 1916-17 | 204,186 |
In the hey-day of the China trade, 613,996 acres were under cultivation in the years 1905-6, consequently this is a drop in the extent of acreage. But, as we have said before, the closing of the China market simply means that other outlets must be found, and apparently they are being found, since from 1914 onwards, the acreage devoted to poppy planting is slowly increasing again.