The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke

That the grant of the foregoing contracts, and the permission afterwards annexed to the
second of the said grants, become much more reprehensible from a consideration of the
circumstances of the person to whom such a grant was made.

That the due performance of the service required local knowledge and experience, which
the said Archibald Frazer, being an officer in the Supreme Court of Justice, could not have
possessed.

XII.—CONTRACTS FOR OPIUM.

That it appears that the opium produced in Bengal and Bahar is a considerable and lucrative
article in the export trade of those provinces; that the whole produce has been for many
years monopolized either by individuals or by the government; that the Court of Directors
of the East India Company, in consideration of the hardship imposed on the native owners
and cultivators of the lands, who were deprived of their natural right of dealing with many
competitors, and compelled to sell the produce of their labor to a single monopolist, did
authorize the Governor-General and Council to give up that commodity as an article of
commerce.

That, while the said commodity continued to be a monopoly for the benefit of government,
and managed by a contractor, the contracts for providing it were subject to the Company's
fundamental regulation, namely, to be put up to auction, and disposed of to the best bidder;
and that the Company particularly ordered that the commodity, when provided, should be
consigned to the Board of Trade, who were directed to dispose thereof by public auction.

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