OPIUM  331
Spanish  dollars,*  which  to  this  day  are  current  in  Anhwei,
and  were  current  in  Formosa  up  to  1895»  i n  which  year
two  and  a  quarter  millions  of  them  were  introduced  into
the  island  for  the  tea  season.  The  movement  of  silver  was
inward,  not  outward  ;  and  the  explanation  of  the  fact  that
merchants  of  the  highest  repute  brought  themselves  to
engage  in  a  trade  which  we  have  come  to  regard  as  disreputable, ­
  is  to  be  found  in  the  imperative  commercial
necessity  of  lessening  the  constant  flow  of  silver  in  one
direction,  and  of  substituting  for  it  any  commodity  which
the  Chinese  would  consent  to  buy.
Opium  Contraband
Opium  was  the  one  thing  the  Chinese  would  consent
to  buy,  and  buy  it  they  did  and  continued  to  do,  after  the
prohibitory  edicts  of  1796  and  1800,  as  they  had  before  ;
and  arrangements  were  made  with  businesslike  method  for
circumventing  the  prohibition,  allowing  the  buyers  to  get
the  drug  they  wanted,  and  securing  what  they  considered
their  proper  dues  to  the  rulers  of  the  land  whose  duty  it
was  to  see  that  the  edicts  were  enforced.  The  edicts  never
were  enforced  ;  for  forty  years  there  was  no  pretence  at
enforcing  them  in  the  spirit,  and  the  restrictions  of  their
letter  had  only  the  effect  of  covering  the  traffic  with  a  veil
of  decency  such  that  the  importing  merchants  might  engage
in  it,  the  officials  might  not  have  it  thrust  under  their  eyes,
and  the  dealers  might  get  their  supplies  with  more  trouble
and  at  considerably  more  cost.  The  irregular  dues  levied
over  and  above  the  official  tariff  were  already  heavy,  but
when  it  became  necessary  to  pay  for  connivance  in  addition
to  the  payments  demanded  for  complaisance,  they  became
heavier  ;  and  they  were  distributed  between  the  officials,
Hoppo,  Viceroy,  Governor,  Treasurer,  and  so  on  down  the
list,  not  as  bribes  in  one  payment  to  secure  that  eyes  should
be  judiciously  shut,  but  as  dues  levied  on  each  chest  divided
in  proper  proportion  to  each  official.  As  the  trade  was
prohibited  the  dues  received  could  not  be  included  in  the
*  See  page  283.