Introduction

The opium poppy (papaver somniferum), a plant indigenous to Asia Minor and first mentioned in Sumerian medicinal texts, was more than likely first brought into the Southeast Asian region, and thence to China, by Arab traders around the seventh to eighth centuries.

Initially used for medicinal purposes, opium was something of a rarity until the habit of smoking it for pleasure began to take hold, especially in China, around the 1600s.

The Dutch traders on Taiwan (Formosa) smoked a mixture of opium and tobacco to combat malaria; at least that’s what they claimed. Considering the amount of literature expressing the addictive qualities of opium, the Dutch traders were probably just making an elaborate excuse.

‘The first time you smoke the opium…it is like the first time you look into the eyes of a beautiful woman, and you know you’re going to regret you ever met her.’ This comment was apparently attributed to a French expatriate who lived in Laos through much of the second half of the twentieth century.

Opium was apparently first introduced into Europe in 1815 by a German pharmacist who isolated its principle alkaloid and named it morphine, after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams.

The British East India Company, having effectively taken control of much of India by the late eighteenth century, began trading silver with China in return for tea, a product to which the British public had become addicted. This led to an imbalance of trade, with the Chinese exporting more than they imported. This did not suit the British. They soon found opium, grown in India, to be a far more profitable source of revenue. As more and more Chinese became addicted to smoking opium, the Chinese government attempted to curb the cultivation and importation of the poppy.

Chinese immigrants to Siam in the late 1700s and early 1800s found excellent employment opportunities, and brought with them their addiction to the opium poppy, establishing opium dens wherever they settled, from Chiang Mai in the north to Had Yai in the south.

Setting up in business as merchants, craftsmen and artisans, the hard-working Chinese began to dominate the commercial life of Siam’s major cities, particularly the new capital, Bangkok.

The Siamese government quickly recognised the social problems associated with opium smoking and a law forbidding members of the Royal Houses and officials of the government from smoking opium under the penalty of a treasonable offence was included in King Rama I’s Code of Law, enacted in 1805.

Going further, as early as 1811 King Rama II introduced a ban on the sale and consumption of the drug. In the traditional Asian manner the edict was effectively ignored.

By 1821 an estimated 440,000 Chinese immigrants were living in Siam. In 1839, King Rama III reintroduced the prohibition on opium and this time the government intended to be more serious, instituting the death penalty for those convicted of major trafficking. The Proclamation Against Opium was the first publication produced by the Siamese government, so it does seem as though they were serious.

Although Chinese engaged in the opium trade could be arrested and sentenced to death or long jail sentences by Siamese courts, British merchants smuggling the illicit drug into Siam were virtually immune from prosecution. If ever a British national was apprehended, the British political mission would make veiled threats involving gunboats and sanctions and the smuggler was soon released.

Robert Hunter, claimed as the first British merchant in Bangkok, merely incurred the displeasure of the monarch after being caught importing opium for re-sale to the Chinese.

The Siamese were well aware what could happen if they attempted to stand up to the might of the British East India Company and its determined merchants. In an effort to end the opium trade, China had attempted to ban its importation by the British. The result was the First Opium War (1839-1842), which led to the defeat of China and the ceding of Hong Kong to the British.

Back in Siam, a public burning in front of the Royal Palace in Bangkok in 1850 failed to halt the smuggling of the drug into the country.

The Royal Opium Franchise

Bowing to the realpolitik of the times, King Rama IV (Mongkut) established a royal opium franchise in 1852, leasing the concession to whoever offered the highest return to the national coffers. The tender was taken over by wealthy Chinese merchants who were given the official title of the Opium Farmer.

The government set the maximum price at which the prepared drug could be sold to the consumer and required the winning tender to purchase their drug directly from the Siamese government. This raw opium was imported from India.

Within a short time, opium taxes- along with lotteries, gambling and alcohol- were providing between 40 and 50 percent of government revenue, a situation that continued for the next half century.

Determined to discourage his countrymen from becoming opium addicts, Mongkut issued an edict compelling any Siamese found guilty of smoking opium to wear a pigtail and pay the Chinese a tax. Consequently, very few Siamese became opium addicts and the habit of smoking the drug did not take on.

A British mission, led by John Bowring, the governor of Hong Kong, came to Siam in 1855 to re-negotiate the 1826 Burney commercial treaty. The resultant document, known as the Bowring Treaty, led to Britain gaining greater economic access to Siamese markets in exchange for a fairly worthless guarantee to maintain an independent Siam.

Basically, the British insisted Siam accept the trade in opium. The treaty allowed the Siamese government to impose an import duty on all commodities except opium, although the level of duty was limited to just three percent. King Mongkut was also compelled to abolish all other royal trading monopolies.

By the terms of the Bowring Treaty, Siam was forced to accept as much opium as the British could supply and could not enact laws to exclude it.

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Contents

Introduction

The Royal Opium Franchise