PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION

As the court in China debated opium prohibition, the East India Company developed opium production on an enormous scale in India. The Company established its main production center in Patna, a town in Bihar, 600 kilometers up the Ganges River from Calcutta. There, they forced Indian laborers to work in the extensive poppy fields and prepare the opium in large mixing rooms and examining halls. A skilled workman was required to produce at least 100 balls of opium per day. Then the balls were stacked to be packed in chests made of timber from Nepal. From Patna, a fleet of native boats took the product down the Ganges River to Calcutta.

Two very different runs of graphics produced by eyewitnesses in the 1850s
convey a vivid sense of the production process that was followed throughout most of the 19th century. The first is a spectacular suite of lithographs based on drawings by Walter S. Sherwill, a lieutenant colonel who served as a British “boundary commissioner” in Bengal. The second rendering of different stages of opium manufacture consists of 19 paintings on mica by the Indian artist Shiva Lal. Commissioned by Dr. D. R. Lyall, the East India Company’s “personal assistant in charge of opium-making,” Lal’s work was terminated when Lyall was killed in the 1857 Indian Mutiny.
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“The Examining Hall, Opium Factory at Patna India”

“In the Examining Hall the consistency of the crude opium as brought from the country in earthen pans is simply tested, either by the touch, or by thrusting a scoop into the mass. A sample from each pot (the pots being numbered and labelled) is further examined for consistency and purity in the chemical test room.”

Prose from The Graphic reproduced in: The Truth about Opium Smoking, 1882
Lithograph after W. S. Sherwill, ca. 1850

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“The Mixing Room, Opium Factory at Patna India”

“In the Mixing Room the contents of the earthen pans are thrown into vats and stirred with blind rakes until the whole mass becomes a homogeneous paste.”

Prose from The Graphic reproduced in: The Truth about Opium Smoking, 1882
Lithograph after W. S. Sherwill, ca. 1850

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“The Balling Room, Opium Factory at Patna India”

“From the mixing room the crude opium is conveyed to the Balling Room, where it is made into balls. Each ball-maker is furnished with a small table, a stool, and a brass cup to shape the ball in a certain quantity of opium and water called 'Lewa,' and an allowance of poppy petals, in which the opium balls are rolled. Every man is required to make a certain number of balls, all weighing alike. An expert workman will turn out upwards of a hundred balls a day.”

Prose from The Graphic reproduced in: The Truth about Opium Smoking, 1882
Lithograph after W. S. Sherwill, ca. 1850

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“The Drying Room, Opium Factory at Patna India”

“In the Drying Room the balls are placed to dry before being stacked. Each ball is placed in a small earthenware cup. Men examine the balls, and puncture with a sharp style those in which gas, arising from fermentation, may be forming.”

Prose from The Graphic reproduced in: The Truth about Opium Smoking, 1882
Lithograph after W. S. Sherwill, ca. 1850

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“The Stacking Room, Opium Factory at Patna India”

“In the Stacking Room the balls are stacked before being packed in boxes for Calcutta en route to China. A number of boys are constantly engaged in stacking, turning, airing, and examining the balls. To clear them of mildew, moths or insects, they are rubbed with dried and crushed poppy petal dust.”

Prose from The Graphic reproduced in: The Truth about Opium Smoking, 1882
Lithograph after W. S. Sherwill, ca. 1850

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“Opium Fleet Descending the Ganges on the Way to Calcutta”

“An Opium Fleet of native boats, conveying the drug to Calcutta. The fleet is passing the Monghyr Hills, and is preceded by small canoes, the crews of which sound the depth of water, and warn all boats out of the Channel by beat of drum, as the Government boats claim precedence over all other craft. The timber raft shown in the sketch has been floated down from the Nepal Forests, and will be used in making packing-cases for the opium.”

Prose from The Graphic reproduced in: The Truth about Opium Smoking, 1882
Lithograph after W. S. Sherwill, ca. 1850
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"PRODUCTION & CONSUMPTION"
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