ROO, L.W.G. de. - De verkoop van opium op Java. Open brief aan Dr. H.J.A.M. Schaepman lid van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal.Including: Verklaringen van opiumschuivers uit verschillende streken der residentiën Pasoeroean, Besoeki en Rembang.Nijmegen, H.C.A. Thieme, 1892. 4to. Half green cloth, marbled paper sides, title in gold on spine.

56, 71 pp.Address to H.J.A.M. Schaepman (1844-1903), the leader of the Dutch Catholics and first priest to become a member of the Dutch parliament in 1880 (Tweede Kamer). The author of the address, De Roo, a director of finance in Batavia, opposes Schaepman’s new proposals to discourage opium farming (the existing opium pacht system). Opium farming brought in tax revenues and made the opium trade a monopoly of the Dutch Government. The government regulation was originally designed to limit opium consumption, but in practice did just the opposite. Schaepman favoured an alternative proposal: the so-called new “Regie” (new regulations), whose system for opium distribution was supposed to eventually diminish abuses and eliminate the Chinese from the profitable opium trade (keeping the enormous profits largely for the Dutch Government) by strengthening the Dutch monopoly so that they could keep the opium prices high. This, they argued, would diminish opium use and increase profits at the same time.With library stamps of the Colonial Dept. in The Hague (“Doublet”) on title-page. Binding very slightly worn, some foxing in the endpapers, otherwise in good condition.l James R. Rush, Opium to Java: revenue farming and Chinese enterprise in colonial Indonesia 1860-1910 (Jacarta, etc. 2007), esp. pp. 211-213.

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