The Rise and Progress of British Opium Smuggling: The Illegality of the East India Company's Monopoly of the Drug; And Its Injurious Effects Upon ... Commerce of Great Britain (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Rise and Progress of British Opium Smuggling: The Illegality of the East India Company's Monopoly of the Drug; And Its Injurious Effects Upon India, China, and the Commerce of Great BritainIn a statistical paper, printed for the Court of Directors of the East India Company in 1853, the first words are, In Bengal the revenue from Opium is realised by means of a Government monopoly; and almost immediately thereupon follow these sen tenoes The ordinary consequences of monopoly, increase of price to the consumer and restriction on the employment of capital and industry, are not wanting in the opium system; the free cultivation of the poppy would doubtless lead to the larger outlay of capital, and to greater economy of production. It is a pity for India, my Lord, that so sound and Slmple an axiom in political economy has ever been departed from, and that now the consequences of such de parture from right principle have evolved those evils which render retrogressive measures imperatively necessary.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.