ith March. Pourricat writers in China for more! than half a century have constantly' repeated the statement that opium depletes the national store of silver. They continue to do this down to the pre= gent time and there is no doubt that the statement is true. The confirmed opium smoker cannot wait for his gratification. He must enjoy it every day at a fixed time. _If he does not possess the necessary silver he must beg, borrow, or steal. his he will do through the imperious demands of a depraved appetite. A victim to a bad habit, he does not yield to the argument of the reasoning faculty as it is with one so is it with millions, When an immense number of individuals daily insist each of them on the expenditure of a small amount of silver which is rapidly exported to foreign countries, the silver question comes necessarily before the attention of the government. "She governing authorities in their care for the country's interest are obliged to consider what'can be done to prevent the constant outflow of silver. Not being able, as they supposed, to destroy a bad moral habit, they first tried to check the impoverishment of their coun-of opium white fe was still the property try by destroying an enormous quantity
of foreign merchants. They would have done far better to have bought it all at its price and then destroyed it. This would have saved a war. Since that time the native growth of the poppy and the manufacture of opium by the Chinese themselves have been extending sogreatly that now every year the region which makes use of opittm from India is contracting. The contraction of the area, however, is somewhat slow and irregular, At Ningpo the import of Indian opium in ten years has sunk from an annual amount of 8,000 piculs to 6,000 piculs. But Shanghai stil imports 17,400 piculs, while seven years ago the amount was 13,000 piculs. Seven years ago Shanghai and Ningpo imported in all about 21,500 piculs, all apparently for local consumption; at present they require 23,000 piculs. There is an advantage in linking together the amount received at these two ports for local consumption, because Shanghai now sous opium direct to Hangchow which city was formerly supplied from Ningpo. In Soochow, Hangchow and the other cities of the two provinces of Chekiang and Kiangsu, the consumption of Indian opium is still therefore increasing. It is not here that the competition of the native drug is at first view very reeptible. In 1873 Shanghai and ningpo required in all 20,000 piculs. If we take the river ports together, the opium of India was imported in 1873 to the amount of 19,000 piculs. In 1879 that amount was still required, and also in 1884. Since that year the amount has declined. It fell to 17,000, then to 16,000, then to 15,000, then to Chinkiang west to Hankow the people use one third less of Indian opium than they did eleven years ago. Here may be seen the gradual triumph of the government policy on the opium ques-Kiangsi_ an Hupeh smoke as much tion, The re lo in Kiangsu, Anhui, opium as ever, and more than ever, but
extent of ''is. 5,300,000, whereas eleven they only buy Indian opium to the years ago they spent on this indulgence Ps. 7,200,000. Of the 5,300,000 taels the Chinese government gets nearly a third, and the remainder is lost to the country and is devoted to the relief of Indian burdens, to the support of the native Hindoo cultivators, and the maintenance of the government of India. The results will be somewhat different if we class Chinkiang with Shanghai and Ningpo and throw Wuhu, Kiukiang, and Hankow together, The fall of the Chinkiang import has been very rapid. In 1884 the import there was nearly 11,000 piculs. It has now fallen to 4,000. This must be partly because Shanghai now supplies many smokers who formerly were provided for through Chinkiang. If we include Nanking in one category with Soochow and Hangchow, as we must do if we place the imports of Chinkiang, Shanghai, and Ningpo together, we have another advantage. he chief seats of the cultivation of the mulberry and of the silk and satin manufactures are thus combined in one set of figures. In 1873 then, the silk country of China used 36,000 piculs of opium. In 1888 the amount was 28,000 and last year it was 26,000. Thatis to say, the silk districts have within seventeen years changed the use of foreign opium for that of the native product to the extent of one fourth of the whole amount used by them seventeen years ago. Their expenditure on foreign opium has been reduced from 13 million taels to 10 million taels. Nothing will induce the statesmen of China to alter their opium policy after such results, After a few years they will have the courage to tax the native drug heavily, but for the present they have a firm conviction that it is their duty to prevent their people if possible from enriching India at the rate of 32 million taels ayeer. If they will injure themselves physicallyby smoking opium, let them at least smoke the native article, By classing together the three river ports above Chinkiang, we learn that whereas in central China 8,500 piculs of foreign opium were used seventeen years ago, the quantity required now is only 6,500. Thatis to say, neatly one-fourth of the smokers there have adopted the native and cheaper article instead of the dear Indian product. Probably we have here arrived at a law of change which may to a great extent justify the prediction that in about fifteen years more, if diplomacy makes no more changes, the whole Indian import will be less by one-fourth or one~ third than it now is, The central provinces will then lose to India three millions taels per annum less than at present.
In Peking and 'Neutsin the people still love foreign opium, but the use of it all over the worth is steadily declining. In that part of China the effect of the import of this drug on the currency has never been very great. But it has been sufficient to' prevent unanimous action on the part of suc= cessive governors of the northern prot vinees in preventing resolutely the cultivation of the poppy. They pre+ ferred that evil to the increased use of the Indian drug. To stop opium smoking as a vice was they thought mpracticable, but at least they might prevent the silver of the people from being carried away to foreign lands to buy drug which wastes their resources and impoverishes the country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.