These are, 1st, Opium,--2ndly, Saltpetre,--and, 3rdly, Salt.
These are all monopolized.
OPIUM.
The first of the internal authorized monopolies is that of opium. This
drug, extracted from a species of the poppy, is of extensive consumption
in most of the Eastern markets. The best is produced in the province of
Bahar: in Bengal it is of an inferior sort, though of late it has been
improved. This monopoly is to be traced to the very origin of our
influence in Bengal. It is stated to have begun at Patna so early as the
year 1761, but it received no considerable degree of strength or
consistence until the year 1765, when the acquisition of the Duanne
opened a wide field for all projects of this nature. It was then adopted
and owned as a resource for persons in office,--was managed chiefly by
the civil servants of the Patna factory, and for their own benefit. The
policy was justified on the usual principles on which monopolies are
supported, and on some peculiar to the commodity, to the nature of the
trade, and to the state of the country: the security against
adulteration; the prevention of the excessive home consumption of a
pernicious drug; the stopping an excessive competition, which by an
over-proportioned supply would at length destroy the market abroad; the
inability of the cultivator to proceed in an expensive and precarious
culture without a large advance of capital; and, lastly, the incapacity
of private merchants to supply that capital on the feeble security of
wretched farmers.
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