328  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
through  Amoy,  the  “  metropolis  ”  of  the  colonists.  There
is  nothing  to  show  when  opium  ceased  to  be  mixed  with
tobacco  for  smoking.  The  only  reference  to  the  habit  in
Staunton’s  account  of  Lord  Macartney’s  mission  (i793)  ^
that  many  of  the  higher  Mandarins  took  opium,  and  that
“  they  smoke  tobacco  mixed  with  other  odorous  substances,
and  sometimes  a  little  opium.”
The  Emperor  Kang-hi,  in  his  course  of  settling  the
Empire,  came  to  the  conquest  of  Formosa  in  1683,  with
his  base  at  Amoy.  Here  the  governing  powers  were  first
brought  into  actual  contact  with  the  evil  ;  but  in  an  age
when  edicts  were  readily  issued,  no  immediate  steps  were
taken.  The  first  prohibitory  edict  was  issued  by  his  successor ­
  Yung-cheng,  in  1729,  enacting  severe  penalties  on
the  sale  of  opium  and  the  opening  of  opium-smoking  divans,
and  from  this  time  dealing  in  opium  became  a  crime.
Foreign  Opium
At  the  time  of  this  edict  the  importation  of  foreign
opium  amounted  to  200  chests  a  year,  introduced  by  the
Portuguese  trading  from  Goa,  and  by  none  others  until
1773  ;  English  private  merchants  then  engaged  in  the
trade  up  to  1781,  when  the  East  India  Company  took  it  into
its  own  hands.  In  the  forty  years  up  to  1767  the  importation ­
  increased  gradually  from  200  chests  to  1,000,  a  chest
containing  from  135  lbs.  (free-trade  opium,  as  from  Malwa
or  Persia)  to  160  lbs.  (Bengal  regie  opium).  The  machinery
of  an  Imperial  edict  cannot  have  been  directed  against  so
insignificant  a  quantity  as  200  chests,  the  annual  amount
at  the  date  of  the  edict  ;  and  that  it  was  not  considered  by
the  Canton  authorities  to  be  directed  against  the  foreign
importation,  is  shown  by  the  gradual  and  unconcealed
increase  at  the  rate  of  20  chests  a  year.  A  distinction  was
recognised  and  made  between  opium  for  medicinal  use,
and  its  sale  for  smoking  ;  and  its  introduction  for  the
former  purpose  was  permitted.  In  the  “  Hoppo  Book  "  *
*  “  Journal  China  Branch  of  Royal  Asiatic  Society,”  1882.