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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 4, p. 243.

MAISCELL.A-LEO US RE VEIUE 243 Revenue and the Bengal Government. The poppy may be grown only under licence from an authorized officer of the department; and the cultivator, who receives advances, when required, to assist him in production, is bound to sell the whole of his out-turn at a fixed rate to the Government. He delivers it in the form of crude opium at local centres, whence it is dispatched to the head factories and there prepared for the market. The rate paid to the cultivators has, with some fluctuations, increased steadily during the past fifty years. In I850-I it was Rs. 3-Io a seer', and from I894-5 onwards it has been Rs. 6. The bulk of the opium is for export, and is known as 'Provision opium ,' while that destined for consump- tion in India is called 'Excise opium.' The cost of producing the excise opium is credited to Opium receipts at the estimated rate of Rs. 82 a seer. The provision opium is packed in chests each containing 140 lb., and is dispatched to Calcutta, where it is sold by public auction. The total net cost of producing a chest of opium has risen from Rs. 280 in i850-I to Rs. 499 in 1902-3. The price obtained at the Calcutta sales, less the cost of production, is the revenue from Bengal provision opium. The net revenue derived from Bengal provision opium Revenue fluctuates greatly from year to year, and has, during the past from .Bengal twenty years, exhibited a strong downward tendency. In i880- provision the net receipts amounted to about 6 crores, and in 1902-3 opium. to only 31 crores3. Two factors contribute to the uncertain character of the annual profit. In the first place, the crop is in a high degree sensitive to seasonal influences and the out- turn is therefore extremely variable, a result which tends to spe- culation and violent fluctuations of price. In order to minimize this evil a reserve stock is now maintained to meet the defi- ciency of bad seasons. It is estimated that the area under culti- vation, which the Government does not desire to be materially increased, produces on an average 48,000 chests. This figure is now taken as the sale standard, and the excess production of good years is added to the reserve store. The maximum quantity to be sold is notified each year, and is not changed without three months' warning. The second disturbing cause is the influence, on the sale price of the Indian drug, of the competition of Chinese opium, which has been stimulated by 1 The opium seer is about 2 lb. This term is derived from the circumstance that, in the early days of the Government monopoly, opium was exported to China 'to make pro- vision for the Company's investment.' There has since been some recovery, probably temporary only. R 2