The Opium Act of 1857 comes into…
September 1858 CE
The Opium Act of 1857 comes into effect to regulate the cultivation of opium poppy and manufacture of opium as a monopoly of the British Government of India.
The act regulates the sale of opium and poppy heads, and their interstate import and export.
The fifteen years following the First Opium War bring a new peak in the China trade.
Illicit imports of Indian opium nearly double, rising to four thousand eight hundred and ten tons in 1858.
At the Calcutta auctions, frenzied bidding drives opium prices and profits to new heights, making a fast run to the China coast essential and launching forty-eight new clippers for the opium fleet.
Among the ninety-five clippers in the fleet, the Calcutta's Cowasjee family owns six, the Americans of Russell & Co. have eight, and the British giants, Dent and Jardine, operate twenty-seven.
