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own profits, completely disregarding the damages done by opium addiction to the people. As Wu Tun-yüan [Puiqua] is the chief of the hong merchants, Your Majesty's consent is requested to have his third-rank button removed, for a couple of years at least any way, and see whether the hong merchants would still continue to connive in opium smuggling."
4
In addition to Puiqua, sixteen opium dealers in Macau were jailed for their part in opium smuggling. One of them, a Yeh Huan-shu, confessed in detail about opium smuggling, including how officials were bribed. Juan Yuan also impounded cargoes and expelled ships that were found to be carrying opium, and burned the opium he had confiscated. “Although [these actions taken by Juan Yuan against the Chinese and foreign merchants] have not put an end to opium smuggling activities, they certainly have managed to stop opium at Lintin." Under such vigilance, the quantity of opium exported from India to China was held at a steady level until the next season. While demands increased, prices also rose. Statistics of consumption and value of Indian opium in China, including opium which had “passed the Company's sales in India and the Malwa opium which had come from the Portuguese port of Damaun”,** from the trading season of 1818-19 to 1827-28, show a sizeable increase in the quantity of opium imported into China after 1822-23, indicating that new methods of smuggling had been devised within two years of the strengthening of the anti-opium measures.
After 1821 opium smuggling became confined to the islands at the mouth of the Pearl River, with the centre at Lintin Island. Macau and Whampoa were also free of opium boats. British sources cleared Juan Yuan from connivance in opium smuggling. C. Marjoribanks, Esquire, a director of the East India Company, testified before a Parliamentary committee investigating the opium trade that the "higher officials at Canton were not involved in the smuggling activities". Officials below the top level, however, were a part of the illegal trade. Official boats patrolling the waters off Canton reported regularly "to the Canton authorities that they had swept the seas of all smuggling ships, yet, the ships remained there just the same".
47 As a result, the quantity of opium brought in during 1820-21 and 1821-22 remained steady, but prices jumped, indicating insufficient supply to meet demand, and there was a consistent increase in opium import from then on. The “value of Indian opium sold in Canton alone, without including other quantities deposited in the other parts of China”, increased from 2,951,000 Spanish dollars in 1817-18 to 11,243,496 dollars in 1827-28.