Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/513

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 497 dent that the whole of this is an available source of revenue to the state, and if assumed on ju- dicious principles, will prove no obstruction to industry. To understand what these principles should be, it will be necessary to furnish a sketch of the management of this branch of revenue as hitherto conducted. The whole annual consump- tion of Java and Madura is estimated at 32,000 tons, or b'40,000 cwt., which, for a population of five millions, is at the rate of 143 lbs. for each in- dividual. The practice of the Dutch was to sell, for a period of years, the ea:clusive privilege of vending and manufacturing salt to a few great far- mers, who subset the farms to their agents, and thus the whole consumption was placed at the dis- posal of a few great monopolists. On the coast the monopoly price was generally about 1400 per cent, above the natural price, and, in the more remote j)arts of the interior, charged with the numerous profits of many petty dealers, as well as with the necessary ones of transportation, often at the exorbitant rate of COOO per cent. The only change effected by the British government was to take the management of the monopoly directly into its own hands, on the highly oppressive principle pur- sued in Bengal, and to fix a maximum for the price of manufacture, higher, however, than the price allow- ed before to the labourer by the farmers. Including the charge of transport to the depots, this maxi- VOL, III. - I i