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Auction: 21042 - The Opium Wars Collection
Lot: 109

First Opium War
The Continued Opium Trade
1850 (22 May - 21 June) entire letter (with two enclosures) from Francis Besley in Canton to Annuntram Sewpursad in Bombay, carried privately and without any postal markings. Carried on the 'Achilles', the letters give quantities of unsold opium, indicating the poor state of the market in China.


"... I regret to inform you that I have not been able to obtain a satisfactory offer for your remaining 18 half chests Malwa opium and Malta and consequently are yet unable to render your account sales of this shipment. The news of the high prices of Malwa at Woosung has caused holders here to demand much higher prices than were ruling last month. The Chinese however do not yet offer more than $625 for the first quality drug..."

"... I regret to say I have been unable to effect the sale of your 1½ chests of Malwa ex Malta still on hand - the drug has been examined several times during the month by the dealers without any offer being made for it and I now propose sending it over to Hong Kong where there is now some little demand for the junks going up to the north - an opportunity of making a sale shall not be lost..."

"...since the day of my last monthly report, our opium market has, notwithstanding, large deliveries, had a continued downward tendency in prices. After the departure of the last mail Bengal Drug Remained in an inactive state, holders expecting improved accounts from Woosung and the Chinese waiting to receive advices of the state of the market before entering any transactions.". here we see just how much demand there still was for opium, though an oversupply had depressed prices; most surprising is that opium was still being traded in Canton


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Estimate
HK$4,000 to HK$6,000

Starting price
HK$2800