compensation, being holders of the certificates given, in 1839, by Captain Elliot for British-owned opium, that they might apply, on or after August 30, 1843, for payment at the Treasury Chambers, at the following rates, per chest, viz.: Patna, £66 7s. 7½d.; Malwa, £64 11s. 2d.; Benares, £61 11s. 3½d.; and Turkey, £43 3s. 5d. This arrangement, based on the average prices realized in Canton daring 78 days, from September 11 to November 27, 1838, caused much dissatisfaction, as it was alleged that the merchants thus received, after four years' delay, scarcely one half of what they originally had paid for the opium directly to the East India Company, besides losing four years' interest on their capital. But on the other side it might have been urged, that, at the time when the opium was taken possession of by Commissioner Lin, the market was overstocked, sales impossible, and, if Lin had not destroyed the opium but returned it to the merchants, they could not have sold it for anything like what they finally received for it.
