Abstract
This article analyses the involvement of Indian peasants living in the major production areas of Bihar and Malwa. It asks in this context if the expansion in output witnessed over time was solely a function of coercion of the peasants or was there also an activist role that the peasants and especially the Indian government played in trade expansion? At the time, the involvement of the English East India Company in the Bihar opium trade was rather limited. Nonetheless, the article does show that the liberal policy of the government, whereby it provided an assured market (through government monopoly) for the peasants’ output at a predetermined price not subject to alteration, also contributed to the great expansion of cultivation of opium.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Malwa opium was the generic name given to opium produced in Malwa, large parts of central India and the native states of Rajputana. The English Company never managed to monopolise this variety and in the following discussion, we shall not be directly concerned with it.
- 2.
Instructions by Adriaan van Ommen and van Heck, representatives of Commissioner van Rheede, to the Patna factors, dated 30 June 1688. Enclosure to the letter from Hugli to Batavia, 22 September 1688, Nationaal Archief (henceforth NA) VOC 1454, ff. 764vo–768vo.
- 3.
Om Prakash (1985) The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630–1720 (Princeton: Princeton University Press), 145–156.
- 4.
Om Prakash (1985) East India Company, 153–154.
- 5.
“Secret memoir concerning the Directorate of Bengal left by outgoing Dutch Director Louis Taillefert for his successor George Louis Vernet”, dated 17 November 1763, NA, Hoge Regering Batavia (hereinafter HRB) 246, f. 205; “Memoir of Dutch Director in Bengal at Hugli, Johannes Bacheracht, for his successor, J. M. Ross, dated 31 July 1776”, NA, HRB 252, ff. 114–115; “Extract of the Proceedings of the President and Council at Fort William in Bengal in Their Revenue Department, the 15 October 1773”, Appendix 57 to the Ninth Report from the Select Committee appointed to take into consideration the State of the administration of justice in the provinces of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, 25 June 1783, India Office Library (hereinafter IOL), L/Parl/2/15; and Peter J. Marshall (1976) East Indian Fortunes: The British in Bengal in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press), 118–119.
- 6.
“Memoir of Bacheracht for Ross, dated 31 July 1776, NA, HRB 252, ff. 115–116”; Enclosures to the Memoir of Bacheracht for Ross, dated 31 July 1776, NA, HRB 253, f. 6.
- 7.
“Memoir of outgoing Dutch Director of Bengal, George Louis Vernet, for his successor, Boudewyn Verselewel Faure, dated 8 March 1770”, NA, HRB 249, ff. 85–86; Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15; Peter J. Marshall (1976) East Indian Fortunes.
- 8.
Governor-General John Macpherson and Council at Calcutta to Eilbracht and van Citters, members of the Dutch Council at Hugli, 8 September 1785, NA, HRB 211 (unfoliated).
- 9.
Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15.
- 10.
Governor-General John Macpherson and Council at Calcutta to Eilbracht and van Citters, members of the Dutch Council at Hugli, 8 September 1785, in “Correspondence Exchanged Between the English Authorities in Bengal and the Servants of the Dutch Company There, 1785”, NA, HRB 211 (unfoliated).
- 11.
Benoy Chowdhury (1964) Growth of Commercial Agriculture in Bengal (1757–1900) [Indian Studies, Past and Present] (Calcutta: Maitra), vol. 1, 6.
- 12.
Suprakash Sanyal (1968) “Ram Chand Pandit’s Report on Opium Cultivation in Eighteenth Century Bihar”, Bengal Past and Present 87, 181–189; John F. Richards (1981) “The Indian Empire and the Peasant Production of Opium in the Nineteenth Century”, Modern Asian Studies 15.1, 62.
- 13.
Indeed, a Dutch memoir from 1776 explicitly says that while some attempts had been made during the pre-1757 period to monopsonise opium, these had never been successful (Memoir of Director Bacheracht for his successor, Ross, dated 31 July 1776, NA, HRB 252, f. 117).
- 14.
For a sample of the public notice, see Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 May 1775, Appendix 62, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15.
- 15.
The price paid to the first opium contractor, Mir Manir, was Sicca Rs. 320 per chest. In respect of the lots procured in Ghazipur and some other districts outside Bihar and held in Jagir by Nawab Shuja-ud-Daula, a price of S. R. 350 per chest was stipulated (Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 May 1775, Appendix 62, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Parl/2/15).
- 16.
Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Part/2/15.
- 17.
Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL, L/Part/2/15.
- 18.
Second Report of the Select Committee, 1805, Collection 55, f. 21, IOL, L/Parl/2/55.
- 19.
John Richards (1981) “The Indian Empire”, 64.
- 20.
Benoy Chowdhury (1964) Growth of Commercial Agriculture, 42.
- 21.
Extract, Bengal Revenue Consultations, 23 November 1773, Appendix 57, Ninth Report, IOL.
- 22.
Second Report of the Select Committee, 1805, Collection 55, IOL, L/Parl/2/55.
- 23.
Benoy Chowdhury (1964) Growth of Commercial Agriculture, 51.
- 24.
Benoy Chowdhury (1964) Growth of Commercial Agriculture, 51.
- 25.
Minutes of the Dutch Council at Hugli, 13 October 1775, in Enclosures to the memoir of outgoing Director Bacheracht, NA, HRB 253 (unfoliated); Letter from Gregorius Herklots to the Council at Hugli, 20 October 1775, NA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).
- 26.
Parwana, dated 8 March 1776, available in Minutes of the Hugli Council meeting, 28 May 1776, Enclosures to the memoir of Bacheracht, NA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).
- 27.
“An account of the annual profits arising to the Company from Opium in Bengal from the acquisition of Diwani to the date of the latest advices from Bengal”; f. 1, Collection 20, IOL, Parl/L/2/20.
- 28.
Tan Chung (1974) “The British-China-India Trade Triangle (1771–1840)”, The Indian Economic and Social History Review 11.4, 422–423.
- 29.
Peter Marshall (1976) East Indian Fortunes, 203.
- 30.
Tan Chung (1974) “The British-China-India Trade Triangle”, 417.
- 31.
George Watt (1972) A Dictionary of the Economic Products of India, vol. 6, part 1 (Delhi: Periodical Experts [Reprint of 1892]), 37.
- 32.
Letter from Gregorius Herklots at Patna to the Dutch Council at Hugli, 20 October 1775, in Enclosures to the Memoir of Outgoing Director Bacheracht, NA, HRB 253 (unfoliated).
- 33.
Benoy Chowdhury (1964) Growth of Commercial Agriculture, 29.
- 34.
English Company Directors to factors in Calcutta, 24 December 1776, Appendix 33, Ninth Report, IOL.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prakash, O. (2019). Opium in the Indian Ocean Trade in the Early Modern Period: A Commodity of Both Official and Contraband Commercial Exchange. In: Schottenhammer, A. (eds) Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, Volume I. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97667-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97667-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-97666-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-97667-9
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)