Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/536

 520 DESCRIPTION OF "WTien the supplies were regular, the cost to the consumer was about 3500 Spanish dollars per chest, or L. 787, 10s. Sterling, an advance upon the market price of 133 j per cent, upon the mono- poly price of Bengal of 1685 per cent., and upon the first cost of 3025 per cent. Under this form of levying an excise on opium, the duties, if judi- ciously managed, would realize to the government, exclusive of charges of collection, about a million of Spanish dollars a-year, or L. 225,000 Sterling. The quantity exported from Bengal to the In- dian Islands, one year with another, when the whole supply was from that country, was about 900 chests, of which Java alone consumed 550 chests. The quantity consumed depends, how- ever, as in every other commodity, upon the price. The effects of this principle were illustrated in a most striking manner in all the sales in Java, of which I had personally a remarkable example in those under my own authority, within the terri- tories of the sultan. When the retail price was about 5000 Spanish dollars per chest, as it was on the British first taking possession of the island, the whole consumption was only 30 chests a year. When the price fell to about 4000 dollars, the sales rose to about 50 chests, and when the price finally sunk to 3500, the consumption advanced to near 100 chests. When the price was moderate, many had recourse to the drug who never used it before.