Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/482

 466 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF question but they would be as inaccessible to them, for all useful purposes, as if buried a league in the crust of the earth. The tin of Banca and the other Indian Islands finds its way into almost eveiy part of the world ; but China and the Continent of India are its principal markets. The average annual importation into Bengal is COOO cwt. By European ships there are miported into Canton 6068 piculs, or 7^^"^ cwt. The Dutch, in the days of their commercial admi- nistration, sent to China annually 11,690 piculs, or 16,700 cwt. The quantity sent to the different ports of China by the Chinese junks it is impossi- ble to conjecture, but it is very considerable. The most recent prices in the different countries in which the tin of Banca finds a market may be quoted as follows : In China, 83s. 2d. per cwt. ; in Bengal, including duties, 97s. ; in New York, where it comes into competition with Spanish tin, 100s. 9id. ; and in Amsterdam, 82s. 8|d. All these prices, allowing for the intrinsic superiority of the metal, are cheaper than Cornish tin in the London market. I shall conclude this account of tin by throwing out some hints towards a better system of admini- stration for the mines of Banca than has yet been pursued. The lands and the mines are the proper- ty of the sovereign ; and whether that sovereign has been native or European, the tin has been made a