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Winst of welzijn?
Het reguleren van opium in de Molukken aan het begin van de negentiende eeuw
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: De Achttiende Eeuw, Volume 56, Issue 2024, okt. 2024, p. 57 - 73
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- 01 okt. 2024
Samenvatting
This article examines how opium was used and regulated in the Moluccas at the turn of the nineteenth century. While much research has focused on the economic effects of this trade on the economy in Java, this article demonstrates the importance of opium in the Moluccas as well. Although the VOC imposed penalties on opium use, it was tolerated in practice and was popular as a painkiller and used within local court traditions. Additionally, opium was employed strategically: during periods of an oversupply of cloves – the most important cash crop on the Moluccas – its production was reduced by discouraging harvesting. Distributing opium among the population was one way this was implemented. The article also examines how opium regulation changed with the VOC’s bankruptcy and the onset of the colonial state in the early nineteenth century, and argues that, despite official rhetoric about the beginning of a new era, the opium trade continued.