Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/443

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 427 island has again restricted the trade, and the tim- ber is now sold 200 per cent, dearer than when the island was in the British occupation. Under the British administration, some ships wholly built of teak were constructed by British ship-builders. In the year 18 17, it was estimated that the hull of a ship, well fastened and sheathed with copper, could be easily constructed at the rate of L. 12 per ton. Besides teak, inferior, but still valuable woods abound, fit for house and ship- building. The large trading praos of the Ma- cassars and Bugis, called padewakan, the best na- tive vessels of the Archipelago, are constructed of a timber called katu7ideng, a hard durable wood found abundantly in the mountains of Celebes. Many vegetable productions might be mention- ed which, in the event of colonization, European ingenuity and capital might manufacture into a form to fit them for a distant market. The bound- less forests of these countries suggest, for example, the probability that industry might be well reward- ed in the manufacture of pot and pearl ashes, which require comparatively but a moderate share of skill and capital. Should European coloniza- tion take place in the Indian Islands, and an useful freedom of commerce be established, it might be suggested that China, from its vicinity, the density of its population, and the high price of the produce of the soil, which is the consequence of this state of