Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1906, (In two parts), Part I
Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.
Peking, China , September 8, 1906 .
Sir: In further acknowledgment of your instruction No. 161 of July 11 last, I have the honor to transmit herewith a report on opium production and taxation prepared with his usual care by Mr. Williams, Chinese secretary of this legation.
I understand that the scheme now entertained by the Chinese Government to bring about the abolition of the use of opium in China is to begin by issuing an imperial edict forbidding its use by all officials throughout the Empire and providing for a yearly reduction of one-tenth of the area given to the cultivation of the poppy, so that in ten years there would be no opium produced in China. The consent of the Indian government would also be secured to reduce the importation into China by one-tenth every year, so that coincidentally with the cessation of the cultivation of the poppy in China the importation of the foreign drug would terminate.
As there are no easy and cheap lines of communication between the western provinces of China, where perhaps half the opium is produced, and the coast, a product of such small bulk and so cheap carriage as opium will continue to be the most profitable one for the farmers. The day when railways open up these provinces of Szechuen, Kueichou, and Yünnan, and the exportation of rice is permitted, the cultivation of the poppy will begin to decrease.
I think we should lend all our influence to encourage the agitation now being conducted by the Anti-Opium League, which may produce great results much sooner than now seems likely.
I have, etc.,
opium in china.
The poppy was unknown to the Chinese until some time in the eighth century A. D., when it was introduced by the Arab traders.a It was cultivated in Chinese gardens as a flower, but the use of the seeds in medicine was also learned from the Arabs, and is mentioned in several medical works from the ninth century onward. Poets also referred to the use of a decoction of poppy seeds as having an exhilarating effect. The manufacture of opium is described in a work published in the fifteenth century, and there seems no reason to doubt that in the early part of the sixteenth century the Chinese were engaged in this manufacture. It was used, however, only in medicine at that time. The smoking of opium began after the introduction of tobacco and tobacco smoking, brought from Manila by Chinese traders, in the early part of the seventeenth century. Tobacco smoking spread rapidly from Amoy and Formosa into all parts of the Empire in spite of the imperial edicts forbidding it, which were as ineffectual as similar attempts made about the same time in Great Britain.
During the century which followed the introduction of tobacco the Chinese began to mix various drugs with it, and early in the eighteenth century the attention of the Government was called to the prevalence of a new vice in Formosa, that of opium smoking. In 1729 an imperial edict was issued, prohibiting the sale of opium and the opening of opium-smoking houses. The edict was no more effectual, however, than that of earlier days against tobacco.
It must be remembered that for centuries previous to the issue of this edict opium had been imported as a medicine from Persia and India. It had been introduced into India by the Arabs in the sixteenth century, and they were the principal importers of it into China until the rise of Portuguese power in the Far East. As the drug was needed in medicine, the custom-houses do not seem to have refused it entrance, despite the edict forbidding the sale. One reason for the neglect to enforce the new law may have been the severity of the penalty for its infraction. The keeper of an opium den was liable to a sentence of strangulation, subject to revision at the autumn assize. Perhaps a more potent reason was the fact that many officials had become victims of the habit. At any rate it continued to be imported and to pay a duty, and in 1767 the importation had grown to 1,000 chests per annum. It continued to increase from year to year during the period when the trade was in the hands of the Portuguese, and afterwards when it had passed to the British. The East India Company took control of it in 1781. It must not be forgotten that while the import of Indian and Persian opium was thus increasing, the cultivation of the poppy was not neglected in China. As noted above, this had been going on for centuries, and the manufacture of opium in China had been established for some two hundred years when the British succeeded to the control of the trade with India.
Earnest efforts have been made at various times during the past two hundred years to suppress the traffic in the drug and eradicate the vice of opium smoking, but the local authorities, with a few notable exceptions, do not appear to have seconded the Imperial Government in its attempts in this direction.
The imports of the foreign drug continued to grow until in 1888 they amounted to 82,613 piculs.b In this are included the imports into Formosa, at that time still a part of the Chinese Empire. If we deduct the quantity sent into that island, we shall have 77,966 piculs as the import for that year to the mainland of China. This is the high-water mark of the importation of foreign opium. Since that time it has very slowly but very steadily decreased. The imports for the past ten years, as reported by the imperial maritime customs, were as follows:
| Year. | Piculs. | Year. | Piculs. |
| 1896 | 49,994 | 1901 | 49,484 |
| 1897 | 49,309 | 1902 | 50,764 |
| 1898 | 49,752 | 1903 | 58,457 |
| 1899 | 59,161 | 1904 | 54,752 |
| 1900 | 49,279 | 1905 | 51,920 |
We may say, then, that the annual importation of foreign opium at present amounts to about 50,000 piculs in round numbers.
With the spread of the vice of opium smoking the manufacture of the native drug steadily increased. The cultivation of the opium poppy in the province of Yunnan was already an important industry in 1736. The Mohammedans have been numerous and influential in that province from very early times, and probably introduced the culture there, as they did in India. It was, of course, intended at first to supply the demand for the drug as medicine, but the province of Yunnan and its neighbors, Szechuen and Kueichou, began very early to cater to the wants of the opium smokers. These three provinces in southwestern China still furnish the greater part of the native opium consumed. Attempts have been made at various times to estimate the annual output for the Empire. In 1864 the imperial maritime customs published a collection of reports by various commissioners of customs on the cultivation of the poppy and the same of the native opium in their districts. Even at that time 15 of the 18 provinces of China proper were reported as producing opium for use in smoking. The difficulty of obtaining any accurate statistics as to the amount produced will appear from the following facts: In 1869 the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, after inquiries made, estimated the annual output of the province of Szechuen at 50,000 piculs, and the same year the production of Yünnan was estimated at 20,000 piculs, and that of Kueichou at 15,000, making for three provinces a total of 85,000 piculs. Ten years later Mr. E. B. Drew, then commissioner of customs at Ningpo, put the total production of the Empire at 265,000 piculs, and arrived at this sum, as he tells us, in the following manner:
| Piculs. | |
| For Szechuen (quotes Richtofen) | 60,000 to 100,000 |
| Yünnan (quotes Baber) | 80,000 |
| Kueichou (quotes Hobson, 1868) | 15,000 |
| Chekiang (his own province) | 10,000 |
| Shantung (quotes Simpson) | 300 |
| Estimates Kansuh, Shensi, Shansi, Honan, Mongolia, and Manchuria, from descriptions given by various writers, especially Richtofen | 100,000 |
| Total | 265,300 |
In 1881 Mr. Donald Spence, British consul in Chungking, Szechuen, estimated the output of that province at 177,000 piculs, of which 54,000 were consumed in the province, and gives for Yünnan an annual production of 35,000 piculs, Kueichou 10,000, and Hupeh 2,000, making for the four provinces 224,000 piculs.
The same year the imperial maritime customs published the result of its inquiries made two years before (1879). The estimates given therein of the total production of the Empire are mostly guesses and vary from 12,000 piculs to the 265,000 piculs, as quoted above, from the report of Commissioner Drew. We may perhaps arrive at something near the truth by accepting for each province the lowest estimate of those dwelling within its borders or near them, where such estimates are available, and for the other provinces to the conclusion that the production of opium in China in 1879 may have been as much as 85,000 piculs. In that year the imports of foreign opium at Hongkong amounted to 107,970 chests, of which there were imported into China, exclusive of Formosa, 77,377 piculs, so that the total consumption for the mainland that year may have been as much as 162,377 piculs.
Other reports were made upon this subject by the imperial maritime customs in 1887 and in 1889, and, if we could accept the figures given, we would have to conclude that the annual production at that time amounted to about 200,000 piculs. But Sir Robert Hart, when asked by a commission of the powers in 1901 for an estimate of the annual production of native opium, placed it as low as 150,000 piculs. Two years later a commissioner of customs at Chungking, Szechuen, estimated the output of that one province at 250,000 piculs, which is certainly extravagant. An earlier commissioner of customs at the same port in 1898 put it at 100,000 piculs. Either amount would make Sir Robert’s estimate for the whole Empire entirely too small. But one hesitates to reject the estimate of one than whom there is no person better qualified for such a task, and fortunately we have in a recent memorial upon the subject of the opium revenues of Szechuen a report which enables us to form an opinion of the relative values of the estimates given. In the report to which reference has just been made the viceroy of Szechuen puts the duty-paying opium of that province at 31,000 piculs per annum, and the opium consumed in the province at something [Page 356] more than 10,000 piculs. Besides these two amounts we have that of the export through the maritime customs, about 11,000 piculs per annum, so that the total production of the province may be put down at not less than 52,489 piculs. It is a well-known fact that official returns in China are not wholly reliable, and the chances are that the total production of opium in Szechuen is much more than the amount given, but as these are the only figures available we must accept them. In August, 1904, the Wai Wu Pu offered the powers certain guarantees of the expenditure required annually for the improvement of the Whangpoo River at Shanghai. These securities were the opium duties of Szechuen and those of the prefecture of Hsüchou, in Kiangsu. The former were said to amount to 400,000 taels per annum, which, as the duty was then 12 taels per picul, would agree substantially with the report of the viceroy. The duty on the output of Hsüchou, in Kiangsu Province, was at that time 8.50 taels per picul, and the total said to be 200,000 taels, which gives us for the annual production of that prefecture 23,530 piculs. As the drug is produced at many other places in the province we may estimate the total output for Kiangsu as about 30,000 piculs. In the customs’ reports mentioned above we find certain data by which we are enabled to estimate the minimum output for certain other provinces, and may thus arrive at the following probable estimate for the whole Empire:
Estimated annual production of opium in China.
| Province. | Piculs. | Province. | Piculs. |
| Manchuria | 10,000 | Hunan | 1,000 |
| Chihli | 5,000 | Hupeh | 2,000 |
| Shantung | 10,000 | Kiangsi | |
| Kiangsu | 30,000 | Anhui | 7,000 |
| Chekiang | 10.000 | Honan | 5,000 |
| Fukien | 13,270 | Shansi | 5,000 |
| Kuangtung | 3,000 | Shensi | 2,000 |
| Kuangsi | 1,000 | Kansuh | 2,000 |
| Kueichou | 5,000 | ||
| Yünnan | 10,000 | Total | 173,759 |
| Szechuen | 52,489 |
It seems safe to conclude, therefore, that the annual production of opium in China at present can not be less than 175,000 piculs. Add to this the average annual import of the foreign drug, 50,000 piculs, and we have for the total annual consumption of the raw drug not less than 225,000 piculs. The raw drug produces, if native, 68 per cent, on an average, of prepared opium, and the foreign drug about 63 per cent. The annual consumption of prepared opium is therefore not less than 150,500 piculs=15,050,000 catties=240,800,000 liang, or Chinese ounces. An average smoker consumes 3 mace, i. e., three-tenths liang, in a day, or 109.5 in a year, which will give us nearly 2,200,000 opium smokers for China. If we accept a conservative estimate of the population of the Empire as 300,000,000, we shall have about seventy-three one hundredths of 1 per cent of the population addicted to this vice. If we assume that three-tenths of the population are adult males, we shall have about 1 man in 40 given to opium smoking, though it is a vice not entirely confined to the male sex. The total import of foreign opium in 1905 was 51,890 piculs, valued at haikwan taels 34,070,021. The value of the native article varies greatly with the distance from the place of production. In the province where it is produced its value varies from taels 292 for Szechuen to taels 1,000 per picul in Manchuria. The last figure, however, is unusual, and due to the disturbed condition of that portion of the Empire. Basing our computation upon the figures given for various provinces, we find that the very lowest estimate of the cost of the native opium at the place of production in 1905 was more than taels 58,000,000, and the total cost of that produced and that imported not less than 92,000,000 taels. To the actual consumers the cost was much greater. The revenue derived in 1905 from the foreign opium imported was, duty, haikwan taels 1,557,720.48 and, likin, haikwan taels 4,153,989.92, or a total of 5,711,710.40 taels. In 1755 A. D. opium, then imported in spite of the prohibitory edict of 1729, still paid duty according to the tariff of K’anghsi at the rate of 3 candareens a carry, or taels 3 per picul, which at the valuation then obtaining was 6 per cent ad valorem. By the tariff agreed [Page 357] upon by treaty in 1858 foreign opium paid an import duty of taels 30 per picul. By the Chefoo convention between Great Britain and China, first negotiated in 1876 but not ratified by Great Britain until 1885, this duty was continued, but it was agreed that foreign opium should be dealt with only by the imperial maritime customs, which should be allowed to collect in addition to the taels 30 import duty, a likin charge not to exceed taels 80 per picul, making the total charge taels 110 per picul, which is the present charge.
Inasmuch as native opium was under a ban, all trade in it was for many years treated as wholly illicit, and, though it was winked at, it was left untaxed. Gradually, however, local authorities began to levy duties upon it, and these have greatly varied from province to province and from year to year. In 1879, for instance, at Newchwang native opium, in addition to import duty, paid a tax of taels 20.92 per picul; at Ichang but taels 1.50, at Hankow taels 10, at Shanghai taels 11.62, at Amoy taels 83.16, and at Pakhoi taels 11.52. In 1887, at Chefoo, it paid a likin tax of taels 10.50 per picul, increased the next year to taels 22. At Shanghai in 1887 it paid likin at the rate of Kup’ing taels 43 per picul, while in Canton it paid haikwan taels 45.80, and an additional tax of 3 candareens a liang, i. e., taels 4.80 per picul, was levied at the shops where the prepared opium was sold or smoked. At the same time the Hsüchou opium paid taxes as follows: 1. A tax on the poppy field of 3 mace a mou, i. e., taels 0.30 for one-sixth of an acre. 2. A charity tax taels 0.64 and a registration fee of taels 0.32 per picul at the place of production. 3. In transit, a native customs duty of taels 8.50, and a grain tax of taels 2.24 per picul. 4. On arrival at Chinkiang a likin charge of taels 43 per picul, or a total of taels 54.70, besides the tax on the poppy fields. On the whole, however, until very recently the tax on the native drug has been much lighter than that on the foreign article, and this fact, together with the lower cost of production, has greatly stimulated the cultivation of the poppy. In spite of the large revenue thus derived from opium, the Chinese Government has never looked with favor upon the traffic, and attempts have been made at various times, as said above, to suppress the evils growing out of it.
Previous to 1900 native opium passing through the maritime customs at Ichang had been paying a total charge of taels 60 per picul, exclusive of taxes at the place of production. In July, 1900, the viceroy, Chang Chih-tung, with a view to checking the consumption of opium in the territory under his jurisdiction, increased this charge to taels 72 per picul, and near the close of 1901 increased it again, making it taels 80 per picul. This, with the likin charged in Szechuen, made a total on the product coming from that province of taels 84.76. Opium designed for local consumption was still more heavily taxed, being required to pay taels 90 besides the likin of Szechuen, or a total of 94.76 taels per picul. The immediate result of this action was to greatly increase smuggling and to drive legitimate traffic to the use of native junks or roundabout land routes controlled by the native customs or likin offices, and thus to reduce the receipts of the maritime customs. Another significant result was the importation of a small amount of foreign opium to a district where it had been unknown for many years. In view of these facts, in 1903 the authorities reduced the tax to a total of 76.75 taels per picul, including the Szechuen likin.
In February, 1904, the same tax was imposed in the province of Hunan, also in the jurisdiction of the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, and in the summer of the same year an agreement was made with the provincial authorities of the provinces of Kiangse and Anhui that one consolidated tax, to include both likin and customs duties, should be levied at a uniform rate in the four provinces, and to prevent discrimination by the native customs as against the maritime service it was agreed that the collection of this consolidated tax should be intrusted to the imperial maritime customs at Ichang and to branch offices under its control. The port of Ichang was chosen because it is at the head of steam navigation on the Yangtze, for which reason most of the opium from Yunnan and Szechuen was sent thither for distribution. In 1905 this arrangement was extended to four other provinces, Kiangse, Fukien, Kuangtung, and Kuangsi, and the tax increased to taels 134.79 per picul for opium destined to the four inner provinces and taels 104 for that going to those on the seaboard. Previous to this latter arrangement, however, after the experience of 1902, it was seen that unless the tax on foreign opium should also be increased the effort to stamp out the vice by heavy taxation would fail, and therefore in 1903 representations were made to the British Government by the Chinese minister in London looking toward the increase of the duty upon Indian opium. The reply of the British Government, as quoted in the Peking Gazette, was that the tax on the native drug [Page 358] ought to be increased by the same amount as any addition made to the duty on the foreign article. Upon this a memorial was submitted to the Imperial Chinese Government, asking that the customs duty and likin on foreign and native opium be increased by an equal amount, and the matter was referred to the proper boards for consideration and report. No further report has as yet appeared relating to the negotiations respecting foreign opium. As to the native drug, the steps to increase the taxes upon it in eight of the provinces have been related above. The success of this arrangement has been so pronounced that on the 7th of May this year (1906) an imperial edict appeared directing that the system adopted in the eight provinces mentioned above should be at once extended to all the provinces of China proper and at a later date, to be hereafter determined, to Turkestan and Manchuria.
The head office of the collectorate was at the same time removed from Ichang to Wuchang, the capital of Hupeh, and K’o Fengshih, junior vice-president of the board of revenue, was made chief of the administration. On the 25th of May the inspector-general of the maritime customs, Sir Robert Hart, was duly notified to enforce the new regulations dealing with this matter, which are contained in 21 articles.
According to these regulations a consolidated opium duty of k’up’ing taels 100, plus a fee for administrative expenses, k’up’ing taels 15, will be collected on every 100 catties (133⅓ pounds), net weight of native opium, to the exclusion of any and every other kind of tax, and no rebates whatever are to be allowed, no matter in what province the drug may be produced, nor where it may be eventually sent for consumption. Duty and fee are payable in full at the first office or barrier met with en route. Labels will there be affixed and certificates issued enabling the drug to proceed freely to any of the 18 provinces without further taxation, all dues heretofore collected at provincial boundaries and all laying-down taxes being entirely abolished. The opium is to be weighed by the k’up’ing scale, and 16 ounces allowed to every catty. Of the k’up’ing taels 115 collected, k’up’ing taels 100 are to be entered in the duty account and k’up’ing taels 15 put to the expense account.
The treasury of each province is to be allowed from the total collection an annual payment equal to the amount reported as paid into the said treasury in 1904 as collected from native opium. The remainder of the duty collected is to be forwarded to the imperial treasury. The funds thus accumulated are to be devoted by the Imperial Government to military expenses in connection with the reorganization of the army.
The 18 provinces of China proper are to be divided into 9 collectorates, and besides the head office at Wuchang there will be a branch office in each collectorate, in charge of an official of the rank of taot’ai. Special arrangements are made for the collection of the duty on the opium consumed in the province of production. The taxes heretofore levied on the poppy fields are entirely abolished and the provinces are strictly enjoined not to levy any tax whatsoever on opium save that provided for in the regulations, although the lamp tax, that is a license fee payable by keepers of opium joints, is still permitted.
The tax thus provided for (taels 100 per picul) is that to be levied on raw opium. Prepared opium will pay at double the rate, and opium dross at one-half the rate. Travelers, however, are allowed to carry 10 liang (ounces) of prepared opium free, and 20 liang of opium dross.
Article XXX of the regulations declares that the object of this increased taxation is not revenue, but the discouragement of the opium habit.
It will be noted that the new tax is levied in k’up’ing or imperial treasury taels, of which 100.8=100 haikwan or customs taels.a The duty of k’up’ing taels 100 will therefore be equivalent to haikwan taels 99.20, and the annual revenue to be collected on the 175,000 piculs estimated production of opium in China will be k’up’ing taels 17,500,000 or haikwan taels 17,360,000. A portion of this sum, that paid to the imperial treasury, say taels 8,000,000, is to be devoted to the expense of army reorganization. This work has been going on for the past four years, and there are all told in the new army over 100,000 men. The pay of a first-class private is nominally taels 4.50 a month, and of a second-class private taels 4.20. The salary of the commander of an army corps is taels 600 a month, with an allowance of taels 1,000 a month for expenses; that of a division commander taels 400, with allowance of taels 600; brigadier-general, taels 250, with allowance of taels 250; a colonel, taels 200 a month, [Page 359] with allowance of taels 200. Other salaries range from taels 250 a month for chief of artillery to taels 50 for a company commander. Military experts will be able from these indications to estimate the cost of maintaining an army of 100,000 men. In any case the contribution of taels 8,000,000 annually toward this expenditure is not to be lightly thrown away, and it does not seem probable that the Chinese Government has hope of immediately suppressing the traffic in opium. The tax of k’up’ing taels 115 per picul (haikwan taels 114.08) is a heavy one, yet it must be remembered that when in 1904 the tax on opium destined to the inner provinces was taels 134.79 per picul the amount of Szechuen and Yunnan opium that passed the customs at Ichang was the largest on record, being 36,856 piculs. If it be supposed that this was due to an excess held over from the previous year, and to ignorance of intention to raise the tax, such an explanation will not account for the fact that the following year, when there could not be any ignorance of the increase in the tax, the amount fell off but a trifle, being 36,311 piculs. It is quite evident, therefore, that the trade is able to bear the tax. The present consolidated tax is lighter than that of 1904 for the inner provinces, but heavier for those on the coast. It is somewhat heavier, too, than the total tax levied on foreign opium, but the lower cost of production should enable the native article still to hold is own in competition with that from abroad. It must be admitted, however, that the destruction of the trade in native opium can not put and end to opium smoking so long as foreign opium is allowed to come in under present charges. It is unreasonable, therefore, to expect the Chinese Government to destroy the trade of its own nationals simply to make way for the development of that of a foreign nation.
It is significant, too, that with the levy of this consolidated tax all other taxes on opium are abolished. All provincial levies are absolutely prohibited under severe penalties. Even the tax on the poppy fields is removed, which seems strange in view of the taxes put upon grain. These facts incline one to believe that the Government does not care to strangle the trade at its source, and that it does not hope to free the country in the near future from the evils of opium smoking by taxing the trade to death. There is more to be hoped from its efforts to prevent the contraction of the habit of opium smoking in the new schools and in the army. The new public-school regulations make strict provision for the prevention of the use of the drug by pupils and teachers, and the new army regulations are equally strict. That they are not a dead letter was shown a short time since in the case of a young officer, who thought the rule would not be enforced, and found to his cost that he had to suffer the full penalty provided. It is reported, too, that officers of the civil service under a certain age are to be required to break off the habit or surrender their posts. The vice once acquired is not easily abandoned, and it is most likely that, as in the case of intemperance in drink in western lands, it will require the careful education of several generations to effect much improvement. There is no doubt that there are thousands who use opium in moderation without appearing to be greatly injured thereby, but it is also equally unquestionable that for the majority the habit is an unqualified curse, productive of physical weakness, indolence, and poverty.