The encyclopædia britannica; a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information . nlykind known in commerce. In the 13th century opium thcbaicumis mentioned by Simon Januensis, physician to Pope Nicholas IV.,while meconium was still in use. In the 16th century opium ismentioned by Pyres (1516) as a production of the kingdom ofCouS (Kuch Behar, south-west of Bhutan,) in Bengal, and Its introduction into India appears to have beenconnected with the spread of Islam. The opium monopoly was the property of the GreatMogul and was regularlysold. In the 17th centuryKaempfer d
The encyclopædia britannica; a dictionary of arts, sciences, literature and general information . nlykind known in commerce. In the 13th century opium thcbaicumis mentioned by Simon Januensis, physician to Pope Nicholas IV.,while meconium was still in use. In the 16th century opium ismentioned by Pyres (1516) as a production of the kingdom ofCouS (Kuch Behar, south-west of Bhutan,) in Bengal, and Its introduction into India appears to have beenconnected with the spread of Islam. The opium monopoly was the property of the GreatMogul and was regularlysold. In the 17th centuryKaempfer describes thevarious kinds of opiumprepared in Persia, andstates that the best sortswere flavoured with spicesand called preparations wereheld in great estimationduring the middle ages,and probably supplied toa large extent the placeof the pure drug. Opiumis said to have been intro-duced into China by theArabs probably in the13th century, and it wasoriginally used there as amedicine, the introduc-tion of opium-smokingbeing assigned to the17th century. In a1700 both the plant and. Fig. 1.—Opium Poppy {Papaversomniferum). Chinese Herbal compiled beforeits inspissated juice are described, together with the modeof collecting it, and in the General History of the SouthernProvinces of Yunnan, revised and republished in 1736, opiumis noticed as a common product. The first edict prohibitingopium-smoking was issued by the emperor Yung Cheng in to that date the amount imported did not exceed 200 chests,and was usually brought from India by junks as a return the year 1757 the monopoly of opium cultivation in Indiapassed into the hands of the East India Company through thevictory of Give at Plassey. Up to 1773 the trade with Chinahad been in the hands of the Portuguese, but in that year theEast India Company took the trade under their own charge,and in 1776 the annual export reached 1000 chcsls, and 5054chests in 1790. Although the importation was forbidde
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