Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 10 (2nd edition).pdf/519



OUDH, 507 the purchase of petty necessaries. Duties are levied in Nepál, either by load or by weight, upon all articles both of export and import, at an average rate which approximately corresponds to 7 per cent. ad valorem, The right of levying these duties is farmed out to the highest bidder. It is said that they seldom vary, and, being known to all concerned, do not operate as a hindrance to trade or as a means of extortion. The principal exports from Oudh into Nepál are Indian and European piece-goods, salt, sugar, tobacco, spices, and chemicals. The principal imports, which largely exceed the exports in value, are rice and other food - grains, timber, oil-seeds, ghi, or clarified butter, metal wares, spices, drugs, and cattle. No Province of India is more destitute of wholesale manufactures than Oudh. Excepting Lucknow, there is not a single town of the first magnitude, and there are few industries carried on by European capital, such as the preparation of indigo and tea. Indigo is rapidly developing in Oudh into a considerable and lucrative industry. The number of indigo factories in 1883 was 40, of which were in European hands, the whole number affording employment to nearly 1400 persons. A paper mill recently established at Lucknow employs 340 hands, and in 1882-83 turned out goods to the value of 30,035. Heaving, pottery', and smith's work of a coarse character are carried on in many villages, but not to a sufficient extent to meet the local demand. Almost all manufactured articles of any require to be imported. The only specialities are gold and silver lacework, silver chasing, muslin (chikan), and rich embroidery, all confined to Lucknow. At Lucknow the well-known diamond-cut pattern of silver bangles is turned out, as well as the bidri damascened work in thin silver leaf, and the carbulant work in which the pattern is raised. But the city is best known in India for its gold embroidery; in 1882 the number of firms employed in this industry was 127, and the number of artisans, 683. The weaving of a peculiar class of cotton goods still flourishes at Tanda. The Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway forms the great channel of communications. Entering the Province opposite Benares, the main line runs viâ Faizábád to Bara Banki and Lucknow. Thence it passes north-westward through Hardoi to Shahjahanpur and Bareli, rejoining the East Indian system at Aligarh A branch runs from Lucknow through Unao to Cawnpur; and another diverges at Bara Banki for Bahramghat on the Gogra. The whole railway thus forms a semicircular connection or loop-line between the East Indian and the Sind, Punjab, and Delhi systems. A line 273 miles long to connect Bahraich and Sonpur, opposite Patna city, is (1885) under construction. Metalled roads of excellent construction connect all the principal towns, and much traffic still passes along the great rivers which bound or 111