Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/433

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 417 cultural industry, when dressings are never applied to inferior lands to fit them for growing tobacco, the growth of the plant is necessarily restricted to a few favoured spots, which consequently pay an enormous rent to the landlord, by which the price of tobacco is necessarily enhanced. At the same time, the state of commercial intercourse, the pe- culiar preparation of the drug, and the long esta- blished prejudice of the consumer in its favour, contribute to give the Javanese commodity a mono- poly of the market, and to exclude the compe- tition of foreign produce. This naturally accounts for its high price, compared to the raw produce of the same soil. Java tobacco, as it appears in commerce, is pre- pared by the Chinese, who pack it very neatly in little parcels of a few ounces in Chinese paper, which is stamped with their seals. A certain number are contained in a basket, which are sold by kodis, corges, or scores, one of which weighs 1100 lbs. a- voirdupois. The cost at the market of Samarang, after payment of inland duties, and charged with the heavy cost of transport on men's shoulders, over sixty or seventy miles of difficult road, may be reckoned, for the lowest sort, 40 Spanish dollars, or 18s. 4d. percwt. ; for the second sort, 80 Spanish dollars, or 86s. Sd. ; and for the first, 120 Spanish dollars, or 55s. per cwt. Of drugs and ^erfumeSj a considerable number VOL. III. D d