Rs. 400 to 600 and 700, and finally left at Rs. 600, may help to answer these questions.
5. It will be useful first to note the various rates which have ruled from time to time the export duty from Western India. They are as follows: —
| Period. | Pass Duty, per Chest |
No. of Chests exported. | |
| Prior to 1835 | Rs. 175 | From 8,000 to 16,000 annually. | |
| 1835 to 1842 | 125 | ||
| 1843 to 1845 | 200 | ||
| 1845 to 1847 | 300 | ||
| 1848 to 1858 | 400 | Gradually increased to about 34,000 annually. | |
| 1859 | 500 | Annual average about 35,000 chests, including Ahmedabad. | |
| 1860 | 600 | ||
| 1861 | 700 | ||
| 1862 and subsequently | 600 |
6. In 1859, the Government of India, adverting to the short supply of opium from Bengal, and the rise of prices at Calcutta, resolved to enhance the duty from Rs. 400 to 600, but, "as a cautious step," took only Rs. 500 in the first year. The supply being in 1860 still short, and prices continuing high, the Government proposed to increase the duty to Rs. 700.
7. The Agent Governor General, Sir R. Shakespear, urged that, in consideration of the interests of our allies, the increase should be limited to Rs. 600.
8. The Bombay Government made a strong reclamation against any increase above Rs. 500. Not distinguishing the profits of speculation from the cost of production, they gave the cost price as Rs. 800 per chest, which with the duty of Rs. 500 raised the price to Rs. 1300, and left little or no scope for the trade. Bombay had dark anticipations from any increase of the duty:—
"At present the opium trade on this side of India is said by parties likely to be well informed to be a losing and unprofitable one, owing to the cost of opium before shipment being so high that the prices ruling in China leave no margin of profit." The expenses of the middle-men, of the carriage to Bombay, and of the strong guard required on the road (now to a great extent obviated by the railway), are adverted to. The Bombay Government strongly deprecated any increase; the rate "could not be raised without very great risk to the trade and to the revenue. The effect of the increase would be a considerable diminution, or probably the entire stoppage of the opium trade of the Presidency." These anticipations have been falsified by the result. The trade has gone on undiminished with a duty of Rs. 600, and in one year of Rs. 700.
9. In raising the pass duty to Rs. 600,[1] the Governor General in Council observed that if the price of a chest of opium at Bombay really was Rs. 800, it simply proved the realization of enormous profits somewhere between the cultivator, middle-men, and exporters. In 1854, Sir E. Hamilton had estimated the cost at Rs. 375, the price paid to the cultivator per chest, and Rs. 118 to the middle-men and manu-
- ↑ Resolution dated 4th. June, 1860.
