TNT History Archives: Ottoman Opium & Morphine Marketing to Europe (1866)

//Ed. note: In this 1866 directive sent to Ottoman agriculture
directors, the value of opium and its morphine content were
emphasized, as was the need for Turkish producers to 
improve their related activities to enhance opium sales to 
European buyers.//





The value of the abundant opium that is exported to France, England and
Germany from the Ottoman Dominions, for use in medicine and
industrial factories, is dependent upon the amount of morphine in the
opium.  Since the morpine content can range from 3% to 15%, the price
of the opium will vary accordingly.

Consequently, as long as the amount of morphine in the best opium that
Istanbul offers for sale is not understood, they will not purchase it. So
what mostly happens is they  buy abundant opium from here at low
prices, send it to Europe and sell it for twice the price there.

Desireable opium must not only be obtained from big cities. Samples

must be obtained from the smallest villages, and even from places

where it is not cultivated for commercial purposes, and sent. Extreme 

care must be taken to obtain the purest and cleanest opium from the
cuts in the poppies and then ensure that no foreign matter of any kind
mixes in with the opium.

Directors will be sent strict warnings to make sure that there is no 

fraud and alteration involved when the crop is taken.  Pictures and

sketches that have heretofore been done by every locale of the parts of

the opium considered rotten will be made, and even the names of the 

wrapped leaves and seeds will be indicated.  

A description will be sent with each sample explaining how opium

is cultivated in the locale, how it is raised, how the opium is produced

and the tools that are used to cut the poppy heads. All of this descriptive

information will be collected and sent, along with even one of the 

aforementioned tools.  

Together with the opium samples obtained from every locale, seeds of

the sample, the soil in which it was grown and an uncut and carefully

dried poppy head will be sent.  Report an estimate of how much 

cultivation it takes to obtain a 'kıyye' (about 1300 grams) of opium

and how much the locale spends to produce each 'kıyye' of opium.

The selling price of the annual amount of opium from each locale will

be stated.  The desireable - as described above - opium samples from
the fields will be obtained and the local government will verify that the
opium is pure and unadulterated.  Besides these samples, every week
opium from each locale sold at the market on a particular day will be
purchased and sent.  Whatever foreign material the farmers may have
added to the opium before bringing it to the market should be secretly
investigated and made known.

The samples sent to Istanbul should be contained in safe and sealed
boxes, marked with labels and wrapped in oilcloth, along with the soil,
seeds and poppy heads.  Each one of  the opium samples should consist
of at least ond and a half a 'kıyye' but smaller locales with limited
cultivation may send one 'kıyye' or whatever amount is possible. As
for seeds, 100 'dirhem' (3.2 grams) of each type of seed, and as for
soil, one 'kıyye', and as for poppy heads, twenty will be sent.




For increased production, the proper water, weather, soil and cultivation
conditions are required.  In other words, to obtain more opium,
information must be obtained from farmers about the proper weather
and soil conditions, along with how to cultivate poppies and how to
train others to do so. 

Information will be provided about at which market each market can
sell its opium or to which port it should be transported to.

Date 9 Cemazilevvel year 1282 (1866)

Printed by the government printer.