THE OPIUM REVENUE
Dated 22nd February, 1868.
1. At one of the discussions in Council on the Ways and Means for the coming year, I ventured to inquire whether the pass duty for Malwa and Ahmedabad opium could not be raised beyond Rs. 600.. It was replied that Bombay and the Central India Agency had both objected to any enhancement, and declared the trade unequal to bear it. I have consequently been led to inquire into the subject, and the Financial Secretary has kindly supplied me with the correspondence. After a careful perusal of it, I have failed to discover any principle or standard upon which the pass duty is fixed.
2. It seems to me that, in an accidental and arbitrary way, after some fluctuation, the duty was permitted to rest at Rs. 600 per chest. No apparent reason can be assigned for its not being raised, except that Malwa and Bombay would object; and none for its being reduced, except that the trade seems to flourish under it.
3. Now Rs. 600 may be a very appropriate rate, but it would be satisfactory to have some standard by which to test it. Assuming also that it is at present suitable, under what conditions would it be liable to variation? What would constitute a valid ground on which Western India could claim a reduction, or the Supreme Government an enhancement? Is the price fetched at the Calcutta sales the proper standard, or the China price current? and if either, then by what calculation? Or are we to look to the extension or contraction of the growth of the poppy in Western India, and the export from Bombay? And if this be the correct index, how is the danger to be avoided of destroying the trade, and creating derangement and misery in Malwa, by the neglect to apply a timely remedy.
4. An examination of the correspondence between Bombay and the Government of India in 1860, when the duty was raised from
