July 29th, 2001

The India trade was the most lucrative and rewarding commercial activity from ancient times. Spices and sugar textiles and handicrafts dancing girls and musicians made a rich and resplendent cargo which excited the people with money anywhere in the world and gold flowed into the country. This situation continued until the 18th century conquest of Bengal Bihar and Orissa,(1757) the U.P.( 1765) and Karnataka (1799) by the British East India Company. This shortsighted lot effectively killed the goose that laid the eggs of gold and the recovery is only now taking place albeit in a most halting manner.

A by product of the India trade was the discovery not only of the New World but also Mauritius. This paradise of ebony trees and the Dodo bird had no human habitation. The Portuguese had sighted it as early as 1507 but made no attempt to acquire it. The Dutch Admiral Van Warwyck landed in 1598 and named it after Prince Maurice. In 1648 the first of many attempts was made to “settle” Mauritius. Widespread slave desertion and horrendous cyclones thwarted the plans and in 1710 the Dutch left for good after having stripped the island of all its precious ebony and killed all Dodo birds. The island next passed to the French (1715)who renamed it “Ile de France” and tried to make it an earning member of their empire by using slave labour to raise cash crops. While the success or failure of their venture has not been assessed we know that the number of slaves rose from some 600 in 1735 to 37,915 in 1788.

Also that there were neither roads nor wheeled transport on the island. These essential tools for economic developments and especially the roads had to await the skilled hard work provided by Indian convicts transported to Mauritius by the East India Company from the prisons of the Presidencies of Bengal and Bombay.

Our story is about attempts to introduce the two most lucrative Indian industries, silk and opium into Mauritius. Toussaint Antoine de Chazal established what was perhaps the first silk “magnanerie” at Mondrain in the district of Plaines Wilhelms in 1799. He had been exclusively dependent upon using slave labour until the first lot of Indian convicts arrived. Chazal applied to Governor Farquhar and was allocated 28 Indian convicts. He put these men to work on silk and his new enterprise, opium. He thought that Indian Convict labour, with its skills and hard working nature would help him get his foot into two of the most rewarding areas of Indian trade, silk and opium.

When the government tried to withdraw the convicts Chazal resisted the attempts as long as he could. When he was forced to return them he petitioned for their restoration. The government withdrew convicts on the grounds that convicts should, in principle, only be employed in public works and not be farmed out to private enterprise. Chazal”s petitions asserted that silk production was public rather than private enterprise.

The convicts were restored in 1819. A committee was established in 1820 to investigate the enterprise in 1820 and reported that ten convicts were working on silk, six in opium production, four in poppy oil extraction four in ploughing the fields and four in building with bricks.

There were sixty five acres under mulberry trees and another twenty-five cleared for extension. The success of convict labour could be judged from the fact that when they were restored to Chazal 35 acres were under opium poppy and because of augmentation a further 20 acres had been sowed.

The opium produced was sold to individuals as well as to the hospital. A consignment of 50 pounds avoirdupois had been sold to Batavia in 1819. There had been reports from England that the opium had been tested and found to be of very good or premium quality

The conditions in which the convicts lived were found to be of a satisfactory standard. Each convict had a hut to himself and a small piece of ground for a kitchen garden where vegetables could be grown. This provided satisfaction to the convict and reduced the costs of Chazal.

Unfortunately this was too good to last. Chazal gradually became a user of his own product, Opium. It should be remembered that Opium was quite a popular intoxicant tension remover and palliative. People like Samuel Taylor Coleridge were addicts.

Governor Farquhar had a Christmas party in December 1822 at which Chazal indulged his addiction for Opium. Unhappily for him and for the future of silk and opium in Mauritius the indulgence was overdone and he died of overdose.

Chazal”s widow tried to continue the good work of her husband but was unsuccesssful and the convicts were withdrawn in 1824.