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this name has frequently been used in the past to veil the
transactions of the Macau Monopolist.
The company licensed about 70 retailers of
prepared opium in Lacau, and paid them a monthly commission,
a commission was also paid to opium divans monthly, and
from the amounts paid to the divans it would appear that
they sold about twice as much opium as the retailers
though according to the Macau law as reported in the 1925 report by Portugal to the League of Nations divans were
prohibited in Macau. The divans had to return to the
Farmer a certain amount of dross or pay a fine, apparently
of small amount, on any deficiency.
It has for a lon; time
4. Sales of prepared Opium.
been a matter of controversy, what the legitimate sales
for consumption in Macau alone were. Annexe I gives the sales of prepared opium for the first week of each month for the years 1925/1926, 1926/1927.
It will be seen that of the five kinds sold, only
that sold in pots had a constant and regular sale, and it
was this which would be for consumption in Macau. If all this in pots was sold at the regular price $8 per tael as sold
to the public, it appers that the weekly sale would be
about 3,000 taels, a figure which compares well with the
sales in Hong Kong when a cheap brand was being sold during
the winter of 1927.
Of all the other brands the daily sales fluctuated
very considerably, often a few hundred dollars worth would be sold in a day, or another day thousands of dollars'
worth would be issued of one brand alone to one individual
on credit, in spite of the fact that the Portuguese
Government's report for 1925 to the Lea ue of Nations declares that the maxim/amount that even a vendər may
um
keep