CO882-(1-2) — Page 174

[

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

1

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

5

produce for market, but to a great extent it is their substitute for money.

Money itself is but recently known in the Kan-

dyan country; and to this day native coffee is bartered in exchange for all the necessaries of life;

for salt, cotton cloth, earthenware, and all the manufactures they consume.

Any variation in the price of native coffee imme- diately affects their supply of all the luxuries and almost the necessaries of life.

Native coffee has been so low, that since I came

to Ceylon, I have known the native to receive 6s. a cwt. in money, and that he readily exchanged two measures of coffee to obtain one measure of salt.

Between 1840 and 1847 the depreciation in the price of this important article had been extraordinary; it fell from 90s. to 21s., and it has even been so low as 148. a owt. England.

It at present sells for 41s. in

The remission of 2 per cent. may have been unimportant to the European planter, who got an average of 50 or 60 for his plantation coffee; but on the indigenous crop of the native Singhalese, it enabled the buyer to give the whole benefit of the reduction to the grower, which was therefore nearly equal to 5 per cent. rather than 24; the value of the native coffee cleared for shipment being about double the first cost.

This to the Kandyan peasantry was a matter of importance, though to the Chamber of Commerce it might not be altogether so attractive.

As regards cinnamon no one seems to question

its necessity, so that it is only necessary to point

attention to its successful result.

The export of cinnamon was 662,704lbs. in 1843,

and 1,057,841 and had fallen to 408,211

1844, 1845,

401,656

1846,

1847.

and to 407,369

But in 1848, when the duty was reduced from 8d. to 4d. per lb., the export rose to 491,687 lbs., and exhibited a further increase in 1849.

Taking the returns by the period of each year, which includes the preparation and shipment of the

year, crop which properly belongs to the the result is as follows:

*6

Cinnamon shipped.

12 months ending 31st August, 1847, 3,624 bales.

"

1848, 2,075

1849, 8,460