-------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Goanetters annual meet in Goa is scheduled for Dec 27, 2005 @ 4pm | | | | Watch this space for more details | | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Virtue in Vice: Opium Money in the Making of Panjim
Celsa Pinto Many are aware of today's global trade from poppies of the golden triangle in the south-east and the golden crescent in the western part of Asia. Many are also aware of the crucial role played by Indian opium in China, which paved the way for the notorious Opium Wars of the nineteenth century and European imperialism in China. But perhaps few know that the transformation of the emerging capital Panjim, from swamp to city and the majestic structures we see in this city today, are a gift of the Malwa opium trade of the nineteenth century. Strange indeed is the link which colonial powers often found between money from the drug trade and efforts to improve society. Amongst all the commodities that figured in the commerce of Portuguese India in the early nineteenth century, opium occupied the centre-stage. Though opium might have been a part of the commerce of Portuguese India prior to 1770, it rose to prominence with the emergence of the China trade in the 1770s. This induced profound structural changes not only in the Asian trade but even in the Portuguese country trading system. The rise and development of the early nineteenth century Portuguese opium commerce was closely linked with the opium policy of the English East India Company. Since 1765 the Company came to possess sizable opium -- producing regions in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and by the closing decade of the century, monopolized opium cultivation, manufacture and sale. The drug found extreme acceptance amongst the Chinese and enabled the Company to use this commodity to get rid off its trade imbalances with China. By 1800 about 2000 opium chests reached the Chinese shores and this assumed mammoth proportions of more than 7500 chests in 1830. The British, however, did not participate in the distribution of the drug in China as opium was a contraband item in that country. The Company confined itself to its production and distribution in India and left the trade largely in the hands of private traders who bought the drug at public auctions and transported it to China in country vessels. The proceeds from opium sales in China were deposited in the Company's Canton Treasury in exchange for bills of exchange on the Board of Directors or the Bengal Government. Matters came to a head when around 1810 the Company began to restrict Bengal opium production with the primary objective of improving its quality. Concerted efforts were made to make the Company's stamp on Bengal opium chests a symbol of quality, which implied extraction of a high price for every chest sold. The British failed to foresee that such a policy would give rise to a large-scale system of operation outside the orbit of Company control. The opium traders to evade the payment of high prices for Company opium, switched to the inferior non-Company Malwa opium. With peace being restored in Central India, with the suppression of the Marathas as a political force and the elimination of the Pindaris, poppy cultivation became more popular, with the peasants making a comfortable margin. Increased production led to the availability of cheap Malwa opium which was then smuggled from Central India to Western India, including the Portuguese ports of Daman, Diu and Goa that lay in the vicinity, to the far-off Portuguese Far Eastern settlement Macao and China. >From the opium marts of Central India namely Ujjain, Nolye, Rutlam, Kachorde, Mundisore, Kahjehanpur and Indore, opium was transported in boxes, or concealed in grain, dry grass saw-dust or bales of cotton in bullock-carts or on horseback directly to Daman, Broach and Jumbasore. But when the restrictions appeared, opium was conveyed from the places of growth to Pali, from there it moved to Jaisalmar and thence to Karachi in Sind. At Karachi, coastal ships belonging to the Amirs were loaded with opium cargoes and sailed to Daman, where opium was deposited for re-export and onward carriage to Macao and China. Normally it took about ninety to hundred days for one consignment of opium to reach Daman from the place of production. Even though Diu was located nearer to Karachi than Daman, the opium traders openly demonstrated their preference for the latter. Daman provided excellent port facilities, its strategic location on the western seaboard made it a convenient transit point and above all most merchants involved in the trade were settled at nearby Bombay. Daman became the chief supply centre of the trade, handling two-thirds of the exports of the 1820s. Every effort was also made by the Portuguese authorities to protect and stimulate the Daman Malwa opium trade. The duties imposed were set articificially low. What prompted the authorities to adopt a liberal policy was the realization that Malwa opium was not a product of Daman and that trade in this drug was mainly operated by British subjects. They began to feel that this lucrative commerce should be preserved at all costs and as long as possible with liberal concessions and port facilities. These alone would serve to entice vessels to Daman. Antpnio Pereira, Vencatesha and Narayan Kamat Mhamay and Venku Shet Khalap were amongst the Goan merchants engaged in the flourishing Malwa opium trade on the west coast of India. Rogerio de Faria based at Bombay had amassed a huge personal fortune in opium peddling. He had enjoyed a virtual monopoly of the Malwa opium shipped through Daman. Macao and Canton were his principal haunts until Macao began to lose its commercial attraction and Lintin came to be regarded as a more viable proposition. But one must bear in mind that the Daman opium trade was primarily controlled by British and Indian merchants at Bombay and just one-fifth was in the hands of Portuguese subjects. The Portuguese were also active at the other end. A brisk trade in opium was plied at Macao. As the Chinese authorities had banned the importation of opium at Canton where the English East India Company conducted its illicit trade, the opium dealers peddled their wares at Macao, where there was in greater demand and was accepted as a safe distribution centre. The Macao Government welcomed this development for it meant the entry of revenues for the revitalization of its economy. Soon Macao was flooded with opium thus enabling it to ascend to that enviable position as the opium mart of China. Since the 1820s, the Malwa opium exports to China surpassed those of Bengal opium. Over the years from 1819 to 1839, the average annual exports of Bengal opium chests 7644 chests while Malwa opium exports amounted to an average of 9393, more than seven times that was shipped during 1800-1926. Designed to meet the threat of the rise and growth of the Malwa trade to its Bengal Opium Monopoly, the British authorities in India adopted several measures: prohibition of the production of Bengal opium; attempts at coercion of independent rulers in Central India and the Malwa region through agreements under Regulation I of 1818 and Regulation II of 1830; the sale of Malwa opium at Bombay in 1820 on the lines of public sales conducted at Calcutta; restrictive treaties with more petty rulers of Central and Western India during 1825-26. The British eventually hit upon a novel plan in 1829 to turn the Malwa problem into an asset. The export of Malwa opium directly to Bombay was permitted on the payment of a fee for a transit pass. Malwa opium thus found its way to China through Bombay instead of by the circuitous route via Daman, Diu and Goa. This was indeed a significant gain for the British. An average of about 8000 Malwa opium chests annually were channelled through the direct route to Bombay. By 1840 nine-tenths of the Malwa opium was being exported through Bombay and the rest via Daman while earlier it was two-thirds through Daman and one third through Bombay. At the Far Eastern end too, the Portuguese opium commerce took a turn for the bad. In the wake of a systematic campaign launched by the Mandarins against opium smugglers in 1820-22, the drug trade at Macao came to a near standstill. The Malwa opium trade of Daman did yield rich returns. More than half of the revenues of Daman, which totalled an average amount of 3 to 5 lakhs of xerafins during 1928-30 (1 rupee = 2.1 xerafins) were derived from opium. This income was remitted to Goa and helped to boost a near barren treasury. It was utilised in the reconstruction and beautification of the city of Panjim in the late 1820s and early 1830s. At the turn of the seventeenth century, there was a mass movement from City of Goa (Old Goa) to Panjim and nearby areas. The root cause of this exodus was contaminated water supply that caused endemic cholera and malaria. Bouts of plague have also been quoted to be behind this move. Although years were spent since the seventeenth century deliberating upon the transfer of the capital to the safe and healthy port of Mormugao, the move, when it eventually materialized, was not to Mormugao but to neighbouring Panjim. In 1759 the viceregal residence was shifted from Panelim to Panjim from this date Panjim began its steady rise as a city and capital. For most part of the nineteenth century the colonial authorities made efforts to improve the environment of Panjim by providing it with a physical infrastructure in keeping with its status as the new capital of the Estado da India. >From 1811 we see the shift of the Customs House, the Accounts House and the High Court to Panjim, for which purpose public buildings were acquired. But growth in its true sense took shape in the 1820s and 1830s under the administration of Dom Manoel de Portugal e Castro. Dom Manoel immediately on his arrival at Goa took stock of the situation. He took strict note of the far from sanitary conditions prevailing not only in Panjim, but in the entire Island of Goa. He attributed this to the absence of a police administration, which in his opinion existed only in name. In his Officio dated February 27, 1829 he paints a gloomy picture of the areas around the palace in Panjim and its surroundings. Near the palace, he found a rivulet which entered in to a habitation and when dry the inhabitants would deposit in it putrid effluents that harmed public health. He stated that a few steps further one could find numerous palm-thatched houses in the vicinity of which people deposited their garbage. Still further, he found rice fields inundated for most part of the year and coconut groves that according to him choked the circulation of air and restricted the free movement of travellers and pedestrians. Dom Manoel with an iron hand took up the task of changing this ugly face of Panjim. Sanitation and public health, better transportation and the expansion and beautification the city were high on his agenda. He set about reclaiming rice fields, stagnant pools, salt pans and the levelling of sand dunes thus improving coastal hygiene. The rivulets and creeks around the palace were filled up and the reclaimed area together with adjoining areas formed a beautiful square called Largo de Columnas later called Largo de Camotins. A drain (sargenta) was opened with water flowing through a large part of the city. To facilitate communication, six bridges were constructed, four over the drain (sargenta), fifth and the sixth bridges were named Ponte Minerva and Ponte Portugal respectively. A spacious and beautiful avenue lined with trees namely Campo de Dom Manoel, so named after the Portuguese Viceroy, now known as Campal was built. A network of roads to facilitate public movement. was demarcated around open squares. The existing roads Rua Principal and Rua Conceicao were repaired. Three roads were significant, Almeida de Gaspar Dias from Fort of Gaspar Dias to Campal, Estrada de Dona Paula from the beaches of Dona Paula to the fort of Gaspar Dias and the third proceeding from Santa Ignes to Daugim. These helped easy access from suburban areas into the city. Ponte de Conde de Linhares was also repaired and re-constructed. But Dom Manoel's three grandiose projects were the construction of three public Buldings -- the Alfandega, Quartel Militaria and Cadea Publica. The Alfandega (Customs House), designed to have beautiful offices and spacious warehouses. The Quartel de Panjim was to substitute the earlier ruined and humid quarters of cavalryman of the extinct Companhia da Cavallos. Today it is a landmark structure in the city, the largest building housing the Police Station, the Government Printing Press, Central Library, Institute Menezes Braganza and other Government offices. The third project of Dom Manoel was the setting up of Cadea Publica (Public Jail) in the city with enough accommodation for prisoners of different creeds. The new jail was undoubtedly intended to alleviate the lot of the prisoners who were huddled in dark, dingy and hazardous quarters in the warehouses and offices of Fabrica de Polvora, Hospital Militar and Casa de Moeda at Panelim. But these measures were carried out at great costs. Land acquisition was conducted with a heavy hand. The owners of the land were compensated. Some did so willingly but others opposed this Government policy. D. Joze Maria de Castro, son of D. Anna Rita Josefa de Almeida, rejected all appeals to surrender his lands. But eventually was forced to give up his land. The measures undertaken affected the public treasury to the time of £ 36607-5-0(?) the Quartel Militaria alone cost the treasury 3,12,165 xerafins. Works conducted for nine weeks between 19th May 1828 and 20th March 1830 incurred an expenditure of 1,53,345-1-24 xerafins and those conducted for ninety-two weeks from 22nd March 1830 to 31st December 1831 amounted to 1,11,919-0-59½ xerafins (Chronica Constitutional de Goa, No. 37, Vol.II1, 1836, p. 189). The Viceroy Dom Manoel was accused of spending public money rashly and was called upon to present an account of the expenditure incurred by the Government (Chronica Constitutional de Goa, No 37,1836, Vol.II, p.188). It must be stated that this episode of ostentatious display could never have been possible but for opium revenues in the 1820s. Goa’s surplus treasury in the 1820s owed its origin to opium. Revenue arising from the Portuguese opium trade had led to architectural expression. Whatever may have been the official reaction to Dom Manoel's efforts to clean, expand and beautify the city of Panjim, the inhabitants of the city, aware of the benefits and advantages were ever grateful to him. For the facelift he gave the city he earned from the public the title of the Founder of the City of Nova Goa. I am no advocate of virtue in vice, yet I am tempted to quote Napoleon Bonaparte who lived at much the same time. He found conventional vices to be "good patriots". In fact he is said to have asked "Which virtue can give we five million francs which love of cognac has given the Government?" The above essay is reproduced, with permission, from Parmal. Parmal is an annual publication of the Goa Heritage Action Group, a not-for-profit based in Goa dedicated to the preservation, protection and conservation of Goa's natural, cultural and man-made heritage. http://www.goaheritage.org Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or Goa Heritage Action Group, Porvorim and contact GHAG, 29/30 Green Valley, Porvorim 403521 Goa India) CELSA PINTO is a widely regarded scholar of Indo-Portuguese history. She is the author of Trade and Finance in Portuguese India (New Delhi, 1994), Goa: Images and Perceptions, Studies in Goan History (Goa, 1996), Situating Indo-Portuguese Trade History, A Commercial Resurgence 1770-1830 (Kannur, 2003) and several research papers on the economic history of Portuguese India. -------------------------------------------------------------- GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. 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