in Hongkong.
This must now increase,
Cumsingmson anchorage is being gradually abandoned.
There is of course advantage;
the influx of the opium shipping and their disbursements here,
the local firms otherwise benefit exceedingly by their position here – Messrs. Jardine Matheson & Co. keep a receiving Ship in harbour at possibly a tenth of the expense - the difference of Crew and other requirements considered, that they could, were lying in an outer and secure anchorage, be free from dangers of the sea pirates.
Messrs. Dent & Co. have been enabled, for the last five years, to dispense entirely with a receiving ship, and house all their opium on shore. Smaller firms, receiving some 50 Chests from India, house them in the Colony, thus saving themselves a demurrage of $5 per Chest per month, which they would have to pay were their opium on board a receiving ship.
The Retail Trade in opium amounts to some 250 Chests a month. Some of this goes to the Coast, and is paid for in sugar and Sycee; adjoining districts which supply migratory population, but much of it goes to the local population, who remit it home in lieu of money.
This colonial traffic, wholesale and retail, amounts to perhaps $100,000 a month, passing through several hands, belonging to the Colony.
The modification of the opium monopoly has done much good. Wholesome competition is kept up amongst a number of licensees. The refining of opium here has sprung up since the remittance...
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