Opium Trade

Opium is one of the most important traded commodities in history. It is derived from the sap of the opium poppy. Opium is rich in morphine and codeine, both of which have narcotic properties. It has been used for millennia as a recreational drug, in religious ritual, and for medical purposes. Because of its addictive properties and its consequent ability to attract consumption, opium has also been used by governments as an instrument of taxation and trade policy. At its zenith in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the opium trade spanned most of the world, including North and South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. During this period, the consumer culture of opium underwent a profound transformation. This entry focuses on the impact of the opium trade on the consumer culture of opium, with emphasis on colonial Asia in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

At the time of the coming of European traders to Asia, the consumption of opium in the region was uneven. Chinese and Indian doctors had known of the pharmacologic properties of opium for centuries. In some areas, including west Asia and India, its use was widespread among some communities during religious festivals and marriage ceremonies. [Page 1061]The discovery by European traders that the trade in opium could be highly profitable catalyzed the expansion of the opium trade network into regions of Asia that traditionally had had little exposure to the drug. With the demise of the great European trading companies in the precolonial era, most notably the British East India Company and the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (United East India Company, or Dutch East India Company), the opium trade fell into the hands of their powerful successor states. It was this set of transitions that aligned three powerful forces that were to lead to the explosion and mainstreaming of the opium consumer culture in Asia.

Chief among the forces that contributed to the spread of opium across Asia was the need for colonial states to raise revenue so as not to drain the coffers of the European mother states. On the production side, the major sources of opium were British India, the Levant, and Persia. Of these, British India was the chief source, and the British India government worked systematically to supply most of colonial Asia with opium at great profit to the state treasury. On the consumption side, again, the incentive to raise taxes based on consumption led to the formation of a variety of state-sponsored and state-controlled structures, including the Opium Regies of French IndoChina and the Dutch East Indies and the opium monopoly in British India. Siam, Japanese Taiwan, British Burma, and British Malaya created similar structures for this purpose. For most years and in most cases, these colonial states purchased the bulk of their opium from British India.

The second factor that contributed to the widespread implementation of opium regimes throughout Asia was the efflorescence and penetration, by the late colonial era, of colonial state structures into the fabric of Asian society. On the production side, the British developed an elaborate system for the cultivation of opium, with effective mechanisms for enforcement to prevent the smuggling of the drug outside the monopoly system. The Dutch erected an opium factory in Batavia (now Jakarta) to refine and standardize the raw opium they were importing from British India. In a similar vein, the British established opium factories in India, some of which continue to produce and refine opium for the pharmaceutical industry. The construction of efficient transportation systems in a number of Asian colonies benefited both the production and the distribution and consumption of the drug. In many instances, governments created systems and networks for the auction and subsequent licensing of retailers and retail of opium. By the early twentieth century, colonial governments in most of Asia had created an effective system of production, trade, and distribution of opium that legally monopolized this large and lucrative market.

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