Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/381

Rh CEYLON 369 Cinnamon. Ceylon has been celebrated since the middle of the 14th century for its cinnamon, and during the period of the Dutch occupation this spice was the principal article of commerce; under their rule and up to 1832 its cultivation was a Government monopoly. With the aboli tion of the monopoly the quantity exported increased, but the value declined. European consumers contented them selves with the cheaper and coarser cassia, and the Ceylon producers then peeled the coarser and less valuable shoots of cinnamon to compete with the cassia, till the average price in London, which was 5s. Id. per ft in 1841, was reduced in 1857 to Is. 6d. per ft). Cassia during this period varied from Is. l|d. to 6cl. per ft). The customs returns give the exports for 1850 at 664,857 ft, valued at 64,486, and for 1873 at 1,160,754 ft, valued at only 58,037. Coffee. The most important cultivation is that of coffee, a branch of industry which since the year 1841 has assumed a position of great and ever-increasing prominence. Coffee was an article of growth and export from Ceylon so far back as the time of the Portuguese, but like the cinnamon it grew wild without any attempt at cultivation. Patches of it were to be seen around the Kandyan villages in wild luxuriance ; and the berry, gathered before it was ripe, and imperfectly cured, seldom possessed much flavour, and was lightly esteemed as an article of European com merce. Coffee cultivation on the West Indian plan was first commenced in 1824 by Sir E. Barnes, then gover nor of Ceylon, who hoped by his example to introduce coffee-planting by Europeans into the island. Until 1834, however, public attention does not seem to have been occupied with the subject ; but in that year the falling off in the supplies from other quarters brought capitalists into the field; and when in 1836 the home duty on East India coffee was reduced to 6d. per ft, a great impulse was given to coffee planting in Ceylon. During that and the following year about 7000 acres of forest land were purchased for this object ; and when at the end of a few years it became matter of notoriety that the soil and climate of Ceylon were capable of yielding a coffee equal in value to most kinds, the influx of capital from England for investment in this new branch of Ceylon industry became very great. The commercial crisis of 1847 gave a check to coffee- planting in the island, and caused the abandonment of several estates. But enforced economy induced more careful cultivation, and the coffee enterprise soon recovered. There are now 1,215 coffee plantation! f&amp;gt;f which 800 are owned by individual proprietors, 250 of whom reside on their own estates, and 400 more are resident in the island. The area is estimated at 250,000 acres, of which 195,000 are in bearing. The exports from these planta tions for the coffee seasou ending 10th Oct. 1874 were 850,000 cwts., giving an average yield from old and new estates together of a little over 4 cwts. per acre. Estates from 5 to 10 years old probably yield about four and half cwts. per acre, and older estates about three and a half cwts. per acre. The price for plantation coffee in the London markets in 1845 was 74s. per cwt. ; it has fluctuated considerably, and went down to 50s. in 1851, but it did not rise much above the price of 1845 till 1872, when it steadily rose till it reached 139s. on Feb. 7th, 1873. Land suitable for coffee is purchased from the Government in forest. It was formerly sold in large blocks at an upset price of 5s. an acre ; it is now sold in convenient blocks of 200 acres or less at an upset price of 1 an acre ; no laud, however, which is really well suited for coffee can be obtained at less than 9 or 10 an acre, and in 1 873 a lot of 306 acres of forest land sold for 18 per acre. Including the lands sold in small lots to natives, the Government granted from 1833 to 1844 267,373 acres, and between 1844 and 1874 693,886 acres; the average price per acre has risen from 10s. 8d. to 2, 12s. 4d. per acre. The exports of coffee in 1850 were 278,473 cwts., valued at 609,262, and in 1873, 951,591 cwts., valued at 4,220,750. Tea. The cultivation of tea has recently been intro duced. A small quantity of pure good tea is produced annually, and finds a ready market in the island. It has not yet become an article of export. Cinchona. Cinchona was introduced into the hill- districts of Ceylon and India from South America in 1860. It was brought direct from the forests, where it maintained an incessant struggle with other trees for existence. After patient and intelligent experiment its cultivation has been assured, and the object of its introduction secured. There is now provided an abundant supply of the bark at a price which will secure to the population at large the valuable febrifuge yielded by the alkaloids of cinchona. Sugar. The cultivation of sugar was commenced in 1836 near Kandy, and subsequently in several other parts of the island, but without any permanent success ; the sugar grown in the island forms a very small portion of the annual consumption. The sugar imported in 1873 amounted to 28,956 cwts., valued at 46,953. Cocoa-nuts. As an investment for English capital cocoa- nut planting has not proved remunerative. To the native cultivator a small cocoa-nut plantation adjoining his home stead is of the utmost value, as has been already explained under the head &quot; palms.&quot; It is estimated that the extent of land, held by Europeans and natives, bearing cocoa-nuts is 250,000 acres. Manufactures. The native manufactures are of the most primitive description. Coarse cotton cloth of a strong and serviceable kind is woven in rude looms, but the looms are rapidly disappearing with the introduction of the cheaper but inferior productions of Manchester. The fibre of the cocoa-nut is worked up in large quantities into coir yarn and cordage, which is admirably adapted for use in salt water. The country trading vessels employ no other cordage or rope than this, and indeed the planks of their small vessels are held together solely by coir yarn, without the aid of a single nail. Cocoa-nut oil is expressed from the dried kernel of the cocoa-nut in native mills, which are simply a rough mortar of wood or stone in which a heavy pestle of hard wood is made to revolve by means of a pair of oxen at the end of a long pole, secured by a bamboo to the upper end of the pestle, the whole machine forming a simple kind of lever, by the action of which the oil is extracted. Steam-power is now used by European merchants in manufacturing this oil and in preparing and pressing coir fibre, and oil and coir have become important articles of export. In 1850 the exports of coir rope, yarn, &c.,were 39,886 cwts., valued at 20,435, and in 1873, 65,048 cwts., valued at 45,363. Of cocoa-nut oil the exports in 1850 were 32,785 cwts., valued at 35,035, and in 1873, 113,872 cwts., of the value of 141,818. Trade and Commerce. The trade of Ceylon shows a steady im provement. The earliest returns of imports and exports are those for 1825, which give the following figures: Imports, 296,301 ; exports, 224,388; total, 510,689. The latest returns show that in 1874 the imports and exports together were valued at nearly ten millions, as against half a million in 1825, that is half a Century ago. The figures are as follows : Year. Imports. Exports. Total. 1835 352,070 199,268 551,344 1845 1,495,127 583,100 2,078,227 1855 2,388,191 1,974,777 4,362,968 1865 5,022,179 3,565,157 8,587,336 1874 5,336,119 4,394,427 9,730,546 V. - 47