Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/512

 4y6 COMiMEIlClAL DESCRIPTION OF clay or mud obtained oa the spot. It follows, from all tliis, thatlands on which salt can be manufactured, like those afford ing vegetable productions of use to man, or like mines, will yield a rent strictly so called. Salt is, in this case, the produce of the earth, and rent is the portion of its produce paid for the original and indestructible powers of the soil to produce this commodity. The rent of the salt lands of Java is, generally speaking, the differ- ence which arises from the superior productive powers of these lands over all other means to pro- duce salt, which, in the natural state of things, is likely to come in competition with the salt of Java. In the Indian Archipelago the salt of Java comes into competition with that of Coromandel, Siam, and with other native salt, and a great proportion of Borneo, Sumatra, and all the more easterly islands, is supplied with it. The country traders can afibrd to give for it in the island about four- fold the cost of manufacture, or about ~^^ Spanish dollars per cwt. The difference between this and the cost of production is j^'77 Spanish dollars, and as, from what has been said of the process of ma- nufacture, a very trifling portion of this is to be accounted the profit of stock, we have a means of conjecturing the proportion of the whole produce which ought to be reckoned as rent. This may be roundly estimated at ^^.^ Spanish dollars per cwt. Where no private right can be invaded, because no private right to the soil is claimed, it is evi- 6