British Opium Policy and Its Results to India and China
- ISBN-10
- 1230448780
- ISBN-13
- 9781230448787
- Pages
- 80
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013-09
- Publisher
- Theclassics.Us
- Author
- Frederick Storrs Turner
Description
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII. PROPOSITIONS FOR AN AMENDED OPIUM POLICY. If any clear lesson is derivable from our retrospect of British opium policy, it is this, that we have been led astray by the golden lure of an abundant and easily-gotten revenue. We must demand, therefore, both as proof of repentance, and as indispensable basis for a new line of policy that the revenue must be abandoned, so far as it interferes with our doing justice to our own people and to China. We say so far as justice demands, because free trade in opium would be a worse evil than the present state of things, and unless the cultivation of the poppy be absolutely interdicted throughout our empire, taxation, in some form, would be a simple necessity. In a previous chapter we contended that the true principle on which such articles should be made subjects of taxation is that taxation limits consumption, and so tends to check the abuses consequent upon it. According to this principle, the aim of Government is to diminish, not to multiply consumption, and the income accruing from taxation is not its primary object. If, then, we would rectify the errors of our opium policy, we must be prepared to sacrifice a portion, if not the whole, of our present gains from it. Unless we start with this honest determination, it is vain to seek expedients for improvement. While the cry is, "We cannot do without the revenue," no proposal of change will get an impartial hearing, or every attempted reform will be but a change of form, not a substantial remedy. We must come to the firm resolve that we will consent no longer to maintain our Indian empire by a revenue derived from the vices of mankind, and upheld by our physical force against the claims of justice. Let us do right, and let the revenue...
