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A 31
IX.
THE PRICE OJ!' PREP AB.ED OPIUM.
Advantage has been l taken of the introduction of the Government
Monopoly system to increase steadily the price of prepared
opium with the primary intention of reducing consumption, and
it is to our minds an important aspect of our inquiry to investigate
the results and state whether any further steps in the direction
of increase of price are desirable.
2. We have shown earlier in this report a clear and considerable
diminution in consumption concurrent with past increases of
price. We realise that the reduction in consumption has not been
proportionate to the increase of price but in that connection the
increase of. the price of all articles since the outbreak of the recent
war must be borne in mind.
3. The increase in price of articles has necessarily been accompanied
by an increase in the wages of labour, and these factors
must be remembered in drawing any inferences as to the effect of
increase of price OJ?- extent of consumption.
4. A table showing the past and present prices of prepared
opium is put up as Appendix XV printed at page B 15 et seq and
we propose to offer a few observations on that table.
5. In the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States and
the Unfederated States of Johore, Kedah and Perlis the. present
wholesale price is (almost universally) $12 per tahil or twice the
pre-war·price of $6 per tahi!.
6. It is impossible for us to lay down any formula of universal
applicability for the comparison of pre-war with present day local
wages of Chinese labour, but we can confidently assert that it would .
be. wrong to infer that the proportionate cost of his pre-war prepared
opium to the labourer was as low as one half of his post-war
prepared opium.
7. It is interesting, at the expense of repetition, to contrast
the 1914 consumption of $6 per tahil prepared opium with the
1922 consumption of $12 per tahil prepared opium by means of index
numbers based on 1922 consumption :-
Straits Settlements
Singapore
Penang
Malacca
Federated Malay States ...
Perak
Selangor
Negri Sem bilan
Pahang
Johore
Kedah
Perlis
Index number
1914.
104
93
127
130
202
209
206
177
163
119
132
93
Index number
1922.
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100