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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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TLC.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
opinion was amongst those who dissented from the course which the Government were disposed to pursue, of reducing only part of the duties; they were desirous that the entire should be removed at once; that is, that the whole duty upon cinna- mon should go simultaneously with all the other export duties."
(4136) "It appears, upon the evidence before this Committee, that Mr. Wode- house, speaking as a member of the Legislative Council, was not in favour of giving up the export duties at that time, on the ground that nobody felt the
pressure of those duties; and in answer to 4678 and 4680, Mr. Wodehouse stated that he did not think the repeal of the export duties was parti. cularly called for. Did Mr. Wodehouse, in, the Executive Council, express that opinion, and advise the Governor against that repeal?-On the con- trary, Mr. Wodehouse's advice to the Governor in the Executive Council, was the immediate repeal of the whole of those duties, without the reservation even of the remnant of the cinnamon trade;" and he produced Mr. Wodehouse's minutes to establish this contradiction.
As to the occasion on which the minutes were written.
In November 1845, Lord Stanley had desired Sir Report of Earl Grey's Committee.
Colin Campbell, the immediate predecessor of Lord Torrington in the Government of Ceylon, to state his own views, and those of the Executive Council, "as to the real pressure and effects of Taxation in Ceylon, and the practicability of mitigating or better adjusting the burthen." Mr. Gladstone, in April 1846, repeated the directions of Lord Stanley, and desired Sir Colin Campbell to bring the subject before the members of the Executive Council, “and request them to furnish a detailed and reasoned report upon the various existing branches of
revenue.
April 13, 1847, p. 39.
Page 39.
In October 1846, Sir E. Tennent, the Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, at the instance of Sir Colin Campbell, made to him an elaborate report "on the Finance and Commerce of the island."
Page 46.
Page 38.
Sir Colin Campbell, in a despatch of November 1846, to Lord Grey, transmitted this report of Sir E. Tennent, together with minor reports from other members of the Ceylon Government, and conveyed generally his approval of them.
Report of Earl Grey's Committee. April 18, 1847.
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Page 5.
Page 7.
Page 102.
Page 52.
Page 61.
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Lord Grey, upon the receipt of this despatch, procured the appointment of a Committee, consist- ing of four members of different departments of the Home Government, to review and consider "the Colonial reports on the Finance and Commerce of the Island Ceylon."
This Committee made their report on the 13th April, 1847.
The suggestions in Sir E. Tennent's report are, substantively, not further noticed, because they are all discussed in the report, abstracted below, of Lord Grey's Committee, except the suggestion of a shop-tax, "which," Sir E. Tennent says, "it has occurred to me to suggest, but which I hesitate to recommend, in the absence of more accurate information."
A few words, however, on the financial condition of Ceylon will contribute to a correct appreciation of the extent, not only of the changes subsequently proposed by Lord Grey's Committee, and adopted
or set aside by the Ceylon Government, but also of the dissent or concurrence of Mr. Wodehouse.
In 1845, the revenue amounted to about 430,0001. 8-year. The prominent items in this revenue were the import and export duties, and an assessment on the cultivation of rice and paddy and other grain. The import duties (except upon rice) were 10 per cent, ad valorem on Foreign produce, and 5 per cent. on British produce. The import duty on rice ranged from 50 per cent, on the lowest description of rice, to 25 per cent. on the highest qualities. The export duties were ls. a lb, or nearly 100 per cent., on cinnamon, and 2} per cent. on coffee and all other articles. The import duty on rice and paddy alone produced about 75,000l., and the assessment on their cultivation, about 47,0001. In the same year, the export duty on cinnamon produced about 20,0001., and on coffee and all other articles, about 12,0001.; and of this last sum about 9000%. was paid by coffee alone. The export duty on cinnamon had originally been 3. a lb. ; intermediate reductions in this duty were made in 1897 and in 1841; and in 1849 it was reduced to la.