232 An Account of the TefroleumlVdh 



tecal and a quarter per hundred vifs, the price of the oil at 

 the wells : the proprietor has au option of paying their (ixth 

 in oil ; but I underltand he pays the value in money ; and if 

 fo, I thhik this is as fair a mode of regulating the wages of 

 labour as any -where pracStifed ; for in proportion as the la- 

 bourer works he benefits, and gains only as he benefits his 

 employer, lie can only do injury by over- working himfelf, 

 which is not likely to happen to an Indian : no provifions 

 are allowed the oil drawers, but the proprietor fupplies the 

 ropes, &.C. ; and, laftly, the king's duty is a tenth of the 

 produce. 



Now, fuppofing a well to yield 500 vifs per diem through- 

 out the year, deducting one-fixth for the labourers and one- 

 tenth for the king, there will remain for the proprietor, re- 

 jecting fraclions, 136,876 vif^, which at i-J- tecal, the value af 

 the wells, is equal to 1710 tecalsper annum. From this fum 

 there is to be dedu(9:ed only a trifle for draw-ropes, &c, fori 

 could not learn that there were any further duties or expenfe 

 to be charged on the produce ; but the merchants fay they 

 gain only a neat 1000 tecals per annum for each well, and 

 as we advance we ihall have reafon to ihink they have given 

 the maximum rather than the minimum of their profits : 

 hence, therefore, we may infer that the grofs amount produce 

 per annum is not 182,500 vifs. 



Further : the four labourers fliare, or one-fixth, dedu6ling 

 'the king's tythe, will be 2250 vifs per month of thirty days, 

 cr in money at the above price twenty-eight tecals fifty avas, or 

 feven tecals twelve avas each man per month : but the wages 

 of a comnKJU labourer in this part of the country, as the 

 fame pcrfons informed me, are only five tecals per month 

 when hired from day today: they alfo admitted that the 

 labour of the oil drawers was not harder th-iu that of com- 

 mon labourers, and the employment no-ways obnoxious to 

 health. To me the fmell of the oil was fragrant and grateful^ 

 and, on being wore indirectly (|ue(tioncd (for on this part of 

 the fubjcct, perhaps owing to the minutcnefs of mv inquiries, 

 I obferved mofl-reforve), they allowed that their gain was not 

 much greater than the common labourers of the country : 

 uor is it reafonablc to expccl it fhould ; ior, us iliere is no 



nr)'itery 



