Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/363

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 347 that, allowing 4-6 per cent, for the intrinsic infe- riority of Java to the first, and 13^ per cent, to the last, it is still cheaper than the latter by 16| per cent. I know no where that rice is so cheap as in Java, except in Siam, and here it is exported as low as 10 Spanish dollars per coyan, or for one third the price even of Java rice. A great deal of the rice of this country is therefore exported to China by the junks. The low estimation of Java rice is not attributable to any real inferiority in the grain, but to the mode of preparing it for the market. In husking it, it is for the want of pro- per machinery much broken, and from carelessness in drying, subject to decay from the attack of in- sects or worms. When in the progress of im- provement, more intelligent methods are pursued in preparing the grain for the market, it will equal the grain of any other country. Machinery must be employed for husking the grain, and some de- gree of kiln-drying will be necessary to insure its preservation in a long voyage. Independent of the quantities exported from Java to the other countries of the Archipelago, there were exported to Europe in Dutch, American, and English vessels, in 1818, no less than QJ^S^lj tons, or 540,4*287 cwts., and to the Isle of France and Cape of Good Hope 1821f tons, or 36,428* cwts. The quantity exported in native shipping from year to year is certainly not less than this, so