W. H. Medhurst, British Consul at Shanghai, says—“The drug is now being so extensively produced by the Chinese upon their own soil as sensibly to affect the demand for the India-grown commodity.”—Foreigner in Far Cathay, Lond. 1872. 20.
The quantity of opium exported from Bombay in 1871-72 was less by 1719 chests than that exported in 1870-71, the decrease being attributed to the present large cultivation in China.—Statement of the Trade and Nav. of Bombay for 1871-72, pp. xii. xvi.
[236] According to the French missionaries, the cultivation of the poppy in the great province of Szechuen was hardly known even so recently as 1840.
[237] Calcutta Blue Book, p. 205.
[238] Journ. of Soc. of Arts, Sept. (1872) 6, p. 338.
[239] North China Herald, June 28, 1873.
[240] Reports of H.M. Consuls in China, 1871 (No. 3, 1872), 1874 (No. 5, 1875), p. 4, 23.
[241] One pecul = 133⅓ lb.
[242] Reports on the Trade at the Treaty Ports in China for 1865. 125.
[243] Taken from the Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of British India with foreign countries, published by order of the Governor-General, Calcutta, 1872—199.