May i, 1885.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



861 



some ground for supposing tliat his advanced opinions 

 stood in tbe way of his promotion. The essay has 

 long been out of print, and copies se<>in to bo very 

 scarce so that it was only after a long search that 

 Mr. E. Knight was ablo to obtain one for the pur- 

 pose of making tbe present reprint. 



The change in the value of produce and of labour 

 is shown best in the following table given by Mr. 

 Knight iu a note which he prefixes to the reprint : — 

 1703. 1884. 



25,00(1,0110 00,000,111111 

 31,009,000 70,0110,000 

 4 crores 

 As. 8 to 12 

 As. 3 

 R. 4 to 5 

 As 8 

 R. 1 



Population 



Acres under tillage 



Gross rental on Hyots... 



Graiu per mauud 



Ghee per seer 



Cattle per head 



Agricultural Monthly Wages 



Urban do 



13 crores 

 R. 2 to 3 



As. 12 to 13 



R. 20 to 30 



R. 2 



R. 6 to 7 



£30,000,000 

 33 



250 crores 

 1 twentv-lifth 



Value of exports ... £2,000,000 

 Value of money ... 100 



Gross value of harvests 32 crores 



Proportion rents to harvests 1 eighth 



If we accept these figures we cannot help being 

 struck by the enormous change in the value of labour 

 and produce during the last ninety years, and we 

 see how great a loss the Permanent Settlement was 

 to the revenues of the country. 



Leaving the debateable ground of rent we turn 

 with interest to what Mr. Colebrooke relates of the 

 commerce of Bengal in 1794. Internal commerce was 

 much hampered by the want of roads, for at that time 

 there were no roads in Bengal suitable for carts, 

 and all goods had to be carried on bullocks, or 

 horses, to places that lay at a distance from the 

 great rivers. Still the cost of carriage was not ex- 

 cessive, for he calculates that by water the freight 

 did not exceed R4 on a hundred maunds for a hundred 

 miles, while by land it. might be taken on an average 

 of Rl a maund for hundred miles. The export of 

 sugar to England bad just begun before tbe pamphlet 

 was written but the trade was greatly hampered by 

 the excessive charges for freight and duty, East Indian 

 Bugar being charged an ad valorem duty at the rate 

 of £37-16-3 per cont while West Indian sugar had 

 to ray only 15s. a ton. The cost of the best sugar 

 in Calcutta was then about 6 sicca rupees for the 

 factory maund (of which 30 went to the ton) and a 

 calculation made by Colebrooke shows that at the 

 price the sugar then obtained in the London market 

 a profit of £8,423, could be made on a consignment 

 of 500 tons, reckoning freight at £6 per ton, and 

 duty at tbe West Indian rate. But the freight of 

 £15 per ton charged iu the Company's ships, and the 

 high duty charged with the object of protecting the 

 East Indies, really changed this possible profit 

 into a loss of £1,523. Similarly in the case of cotton; 

 the best cottou could be bought iu the Calcutta 

 market at £2-15 per cwt., and with freight at i'15 per 

 ton could he landed in Loudon at 12^d. per pound, and 

 with freight at £6 per ton at 9Jd. per pound. At the 

 time of writing the cultivation of iudigo had just 

 been revived, and was beginning to become of com- 

 mercial importance. The average price was about 120 

 sicca rupees per maund which however left only a small 

 margin of profit to the cultivator. Saltpetre was even 

 then manufactured to the extent of '200,000 maunds per 

 annum, and cost the Compny about RG7 per ton, 

 while at the same time the cost of manufacture in 

 Spain was not less than £8S-10 per ton, but the trade 

 was greatly hampered by restrictions placed on its 

 export. Turning next to articles which had only been 

 exported on a small scale Colebrooke points out how 

 important the trade in hides might become, and all 

 know how fully his expectations in this respect have 

 beeu realized. His estimate of the possible profits on 

 this trade in 1701 is as as follows : — 



ion buffalo hides at R. 2,', K. 250 

 225 bullock do „ H „ 337 8 



-587 8 or £58 15 



Freight at £6 per ton ... ... 12 



Insurance and uncovered risk at 10 per cent 7 10 

 Charges, duties &c.,at 15 p. ct. on 77 16'G. 10 13 



Sale of 100 hides at 10s 

 *25 do. — 5s 



50 

 5G 5 



5 



£88 10 



£100 

 Leaving a profit of £17 15 

 Other less important commodities did not escape 

 Colebrooke's attention, and we find him pointing out 

 the value of such articles as gums, annotte, madder, 

 coffee, cocoa and cochineal, and he writes "no argu- 

 ment occurs against the probability of . . . even 

 tea thriving iu British India." He saw at the same 

 time that the only way of developing the resourcesof 

 India was by the introduction of free trade, and the 

 removal of the many restrictions which rendered 

 private enterprize impossible at the time at which he 

 wrote. — Madras Mail. 



A WOMAN TO WOMEN ON COFFEE AND 

 TEA. 



I have previously referred to coffee in my article 

 on tea, and propose to say a few words thereon. 

 Not coffee- tea— though that exists as the great 

 beverage iu Sumatra and the islands of the Eastern 

 Archipelago, tea being made from the roasted coffee 

 leaves, of a very nourishing and supporting quality. 

 It is, however, of coffee as we know it and use it that 

 I would speak. Very few people iu England, unless 

 they are connoisseurs in the matter, care what kind 

 of coffee they drink, but they may speedily detect the 

 real kinds when fbey see them unroasted ; for iustance 

 the Arabiau, or Mocha, coffee is small and of a dark 

 yellow colour ; tbe Javan, or East Indian, a blueish or 

 greyish green tint. Now tbere is a very curious fact 

 about coffee, which is that it distinctly improves with 

 keeping. The Arabian takes three years to ripen, 

 and even the woist American coffees in ten or fifteen 

 years become nearly as good as tbe best Oriental ones. 

 There is a great deal in the way cotl'ee is roasted ; 

 and to drink it in perfection, of course, it should be 

 made immediately after roasting and griudintr. It is 

 also best to buy it in the bean and grind it yourself 

 as the ready-ground coffee admits of more adulter- 

 ation. 



Many people like an admixture of chicory in it. 

 First used as an adulteration, ths use of chicory 

 became so general that the sale of it was legalized 

 It adds a bitter taste and a dark colour to coffee, and 

 is supposed to he an economy iu the use of the latter • 

 but it is a doubtful good to those who can afford to 

 buy pure coffee, as chieoiy is as much adulterated as 

 coffee, itself I quote from Prof. Johnson, an authority 

 iu these matters :— " Pure chicory is as difficult to 

 be met with in the market as unadulterated coffee. The 

 common ground chicory of Berlin contains half its 

 weight of wasted turnips. On the Rhine the carrot 

 is used along with other roots instead of the turnip. 

 Venetian red is also very commonly employed to im- 

 part to the chicory a true coffee colour ; and it is 

 curious to observe how the practice of aduheration 

 extends itself from trade to trade. The coffee-dealer 

 adulterates his coffee with chicory to increase his 

 profits ; the chicory maker adulterates his chicory 

 with Venetian red to please the eye of tbe coffee 

 dealer ; and, lastly, the Venetian red manufacturer 

 grinds up his colour with brickdust, that by bis 

 greater cheapness, and tbe varietj of shades ho 

 offers, he may secure the patronage of the traders in 

 chicory. 



