Page 232 - Merchants and Mandarins China Trade Era

218.

In 1818 the Company decided to take direct action to

bolster sales of Bengal opium. Members of the Select Committee

advised Company officials in India to double the production

and manufacture of the drug to increase its supply at Canton.

The price of Bengal would then drop to a more reasonable level

and regain its Chinese customers. According to most observers,

a larger importation of Bengal opium would concomitantly limit

sales and prices of inferior varieties of the drug, especially

Turkey. A reduction in value meant less profits which, the
Company predicted, would drive a lot of American speculators

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out of the trade. Cushing, however R made a practice of buying

into a speculation when everyone else was leaving it. When

merchants in the opium trade predicted losses on Turkey,

Cushing advised the Perkinses to ship cargoes of the drug to

China. The drug would be cheaper to buy, since ''few persons

will be inclined to meddle with it." He concluded that, con­

trary to the opinions of most speculators, Turkey did not

necessarily interfere with Bengal except in a very trifling
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degree." His reason was that the two types of opium were pre­

ferred in different regions of China. Whereas most southern

Chinese preferred Bengal"or Malwa opium, those in the northern

provinces "required a stronger description" of the drug. In

those regions, Cushing predicted, there would always be a

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This matter was discussed in a number of letters among
various administrative branches of the Company in London, Calcutta
and Canton. Morseu Chronicles of the East India Company, III,
338-39.