Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/58

 4C PUBLIC REVENUE. dian islands. Even amonjr the most civilized and populous tribes, by far the greater portion of the land is unoccupied and unclaimed, and it is the most fertile and productive alone that yields a rent. The first and rudest description of agriculture in these countries consists in snatching a fugitive crop of rice or maize from a virgin soil, the productive powers of which are increased by the ashes afforded by burning the stupendous forest that stood upon it. This expensive and rude process, from its very na- ture, supposes the land unappropriated ; and, w^herever it is practised, we find that no rent is pretended to be exacted. The appropriation of land, and the exaction of rent, in these countries, increased with the introduction of that improved husbandry of rice which consists in growing it by the help of water ; a fortunate discovery, which places, of itself, the agriculture of a rude people, in point of productiveness, on a level with that of the most civilized nations. The appropriation of the most fertile lands, and those most conveniently si- tuated for irrigation, with the construction of water courses and dikes, is at once the creation of a pro- perty of the most valuable description ; and a de- mand for rent must have been coeval with it. Wherever this description of husbandry prevails, the pretence for the sovereign's first demand of a share of the produce may be traced to the necessity of vesting in the state a general super-