Opium's Colonial Legacy: From Revenue to Reform in Indochine

Opium contributed up to 25% of the Indochine budget… with Japanese courtesans… and opium, it seems that life in Indochine was not so trying after all… the following texts are excerpts from the Bulletin de la Société des Études Indochinoises de Saigon, from 1917.

Opium in Indochine

From the conquest of Indochine, the French understood the financial benefit they could derive from opium, whose use was already widespread in the population. In 1861, two Frenchmen obtained the adjudication of the opium farm, and their enterprise quickly became prosperous. The farm passed in 1864 to the Chinese, first to the congregation of the “Wang Tay” and then to that of the “Fockien.”

In 1881, the governor Mr. Le Mure de Villers decided to replace the opium farm with the direct régie system. It had indeed been recognized that in the hands of the Chinese, the opium farm was a dangerous weapon for the security and interests of the French. By the end of 1881, the Administration des Contributions directes was created to ensure the exploitation of the opium and alcohol monopolies, as well as to continue collecting the tax that still applied to exported paddy and rice.

It was at this time that the opium manufactory in Saigon was established.

The opium smoked in Indochine comes almost entirely from India, following the halt of exports from Yunnan. As for the opiums from Upper Tonkin or Laos, they represent only a tiny share in the régie's stocks. Raw opium is transported to the administration's sole manufactory, the one all Saigonese know. The processing it undergoes there aims to transform it into smokers' opium, that is, into a substance with the consistency of a very thick syrup, stripped of a significant portion of the alkaloids contained in the poppy sap and certain gums whose action on the body would not fail to have dangerous effects.

Opium is processed in Saigon using the Cantonese method: the only improvements consist in the use of European equipment that allows for higher yields than those of Chinese boilers and provides a product of greater purity. The entire set of operations is spread over 3 days.

Monopoly of Sale

The administration conducts direct sales to authorized dealers. Opium is delivered to smokers in tin boxes of 5, 10, 20, 40, and 100 grams. These boxes bear the régie's stamp and batch marks that allow reference to the official report in case of suspected fraud.

Sale prices are set by decree. They vary according to the countries of the union, with the administration taking into account the wealth of the regions and especially their geographical situation. The drug is thus sold at low prices along the Laos and Tonkin borders to limit fraud. The general budget of 1902, set at the sum of 27 million piastres, anticipated a yield of 7 million piastres from opium sales; in 1905, the monopoly's revenues were estimated at 8.1 million for a budget of 32 million: it therefore represented about a quarter of the general budget revenues of Indochine…

The Fight Against Opium

On September 16, 1906, an edict of the Emperor of China declared war on opium. The International Opium Commission in Shanghai, 1909. Germany, Austria-Hungary, China, the United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam participated. Lacking concrete decisions, this international conference helped raise awareness among states on this issue.

The United States then took the initiative to organize a 2nd conference in 1912 in The Hague, where more precise measures were taken, although China was not in a position to prove the complete abandonment of poppy cultivation on its territory. In Indochine, measures began to be taken, though it is difficult to specify their sincere scope, given the considerable financial stakes.

Thus, as early as June 1907, a decree prohibited the opening of new dens. The price increases observed in the following years nevertheless greatly benefited public finances. The trade in narcotics was then regulated in 1915, first in the metropole and then in Indochine. Regarding Indochine, it seems that the cessation of production was not real until 1954.