522 DESCRIPTION OF nopoly made of the drug by our Indian govern- ment. Bengal opium, which had for many years been sold in China at from 1200 to 1500 dollars per chest, fell in 1818 to 800, and last year the sales in Calcutta, which for several years had ex- ceeded 2000 rupees, fell 30 per cent., or to IGOO rupees. * Tea, which the natives of the Indian Islands, after the Chinese, call tt, has, of course, been in- troduced into the Archipelago from the earliest connection with China, and the present impor- tations are very considerable, Chinese of all ranks consuming it, as well as every native whose means can reach it. The principal commercial in- tercourse between China and the Indian Islands is with Fokien, the province which produces all the black tea that is exported to other coun- tries, and of course the commodity comes to them in the most direct and cheapest form which the existing regulations of commerce and state of navi- gation can admit. The Chinese and Indian islanders consume no tea but blacky and the principal con- sumption is in the inferior sorts of this description,
- For the greater number of the practical details contain-
ed in this chapter, I am indebted to my acute and intelligent friend Mr Deans of Java, a gentleman, who, in the course of a long experience, has acquired an intimate knowledge of the commercial affairs of the Archipelago. 4
