Picture Details
Boats laden with indigo and opium leave Patna
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
WD4305Origin:
Patna, IndiaArtist / Date:
George Francis White, c.1842Size:
285 x 445 mmDescription:
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A sepia-wash drawing from an album by George Francis White (1808-1898) of the 31st Regiment of the British Army. It shows boats laden with indigo and opium leaving Patna in Bihar (in the erstwhile Bengal Presidency) along the river Ganges. By 1797 the East India Company had eliminated local opium buyers in Bengal and established a system of direct collection. The Company and later the colonial government wholly controlled opium cultivation, processing, and export. At its peak in the late 19th century, Bengal's opium country stretched for 500 miles across the Ganges river valley. From the Company's factories at Patna and Benares, senior British officers directed some 2,000 Indian agents who circulated through the poppy districts, extending credit and collecting opium. Opium, processed under strict supervision at the two Company factories, was packed in wooden chests, each containing forty balls and weighing 140 pounds. These bore the Patna and Benares trade-marks, they were sent down to Calcutta by the River Ganges under guard and sold at auction to private British merchants. As far as indigo was concerned, the best soils for growing this plant were those subject to annual inundation by the Ganges, such as Jessore and Krishnanagar, and the Champaran district of Bihar. Prepared indigo cakes were packed in factories and sent down the Ganges to Calcutta in boats in the same manner as opium for auction or export.
