The peasant production of opium in 19th century India / / by Rolf Bauer.

• VerfasserIn: Bauer, Rolf, 1984-
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill,, [2019]
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Economic History 12.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (236 pages).

The Peasant Production of Opium in Nineteenth-Century India is a pioneering work about the more than one million peasants who produced opium for the colonial state in nineteenth-century India. Based on a profound empirical analysis, Rolf Bauer not only shows that the peasants cultivated poppy against a substantial loss but he also reveals how they were coerced into the production of this drug. By dissecting the economic and social power relations on a local level, this study explains how a triangle of debt, the colonial state's power and social dependencies in the village formed the coercive mechanisms that transformed the peasants into opium producers. The result is a book that adds to our understanding of peasant economies in a colonial context.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Acknowledgements -- Illustrations and Tables -- Glossary -- Units of Measurement -- Introduction -- The Creation of a System -- The Functioning of a System -- A Local-Level Analysis of an Opium District: Saran -- The Costs and Benefits of Poppy Cultivation -- The Mechanics of a System: Incentives, Coercion and Dependence -- Conclusion -- Back Matter -- Appendix -- Bibliography -- Index.