n proposed, as it often has, in
Council. On the one hand, the revenue derived from this system would be
much less. Sir Evelyn Baring, who is studiously moderate in his figures,
informed us in his financial statement for 1882 how much loss would
actually in this way ensue. For whereas a chest of Bengal opium costs us
to manufacture it 421 Rs., we can sell it for 1,280 Rs. (average of ten
years), thus making a clear profit per chest of 859 Rs.; but if we
decided to introduce the excise system, the opium would not bear more than
600 Rs. a chest as export duty.[129] The average number of chests exported
may be taken as likely to be 45,000. Duty on these would give L2,700,000.
But our net revenue from Bengal opium is at least L5,000,000, so that our
loss would be nearly two millions and a half; and besides the loss to the
Imperial exchequer, the Provincial Governments would lose a part of their
income. Moreover, the cost of preventive establishments would be great,
and still some part of the produce would evade duty. Again, the
cultivators would suffer in every way. Their actual profits would be less,
and the zemindars would take the opportunity of squeezing them by
rack-renting and other recognized means of oppression, as has been the
case in indigo-cultivation, where great disturbances have been caused
among the ryots. Add to this that vested interests would be created which
would render any return to the old system very difficult, if not
impossible. On the other hand--and this must be clear even to the
anti-opiumists--India would not release herself from the responsibility of
the traffic, whatever that may be, by this means. Direct participation in
the manufacture may be more undignified for an Imperial Government than
merely a share in the profits; but it cannot affect its moral
responsibility. Nor would an ounce less opium enter China because of this
measure. "The monopoly," says Sir Henry Pottinger, "has rather tended to
check than otherwise the production, as it certainly has the exportation,
of the drug."

Dismissing, then, this possibility as one perforce abandoned by the
opponents of monopolies, no less than by the opponents of opium, the only
other alternative left to us is the total abolition of the growth and
manufacture of opium in India. But we are confronted with a difficulty to
start with. Do the supporters of this theory mean that the cultivation of
opium should be forbidden throughout _all_ India? If so, ho