30 Dr. Falconer's Description of Aucklandia, 



Hurry Singhee rupee being a debased coin, equal in value to 10 anas 8 pie of 

 the Company's rupee, at the average rate of exchange. Taking the Com- 

 pany's rupee at 2s., and assuming Rs. Hurry Singhee 3, which it sometimes 

 reaches, to be the average price of Koot per khurwar, the cost of collection 

 and transport to a mercantile depot in Cashmeer would be 2s. Ad. per cwt., a 

 fact which will hardly be credited in England, and strongly indicative of the 

 depressed condition of the valley, and of the great abundance of the article. 

 Koot, however, is not allowed to reach its fair mercantile value, as the Go- 

 vernor keeps the trade in his own hands by forcing contracts on the zumeen- 

 dars, who alone collect it. The commodity is laden on bullocks, and exported 

 to the Punjab, whence it finds its way to Bombay, and a portion gets to Cal- 

 cutta through Hindoostan. Immediately before it enters the Company's ter- 

 ritories the value is enhanced at Jugadree on the Jumna to Company's ru- 

 pees, 6. or 8. per maund, or about 16.?. 9d. to 23*. Ad. per cwt. At Calcutta 

 and Bombay it is readily bought up for the China market, where, according to 

 the Canton price-current lists*, it fetches 13 Spanish dollars the pecul : taking 

 the pecul at 133 lbs., and the Spanish dollar at 4*. Ad., the commercial value 

 of Koot at Canton is A7s. 5rf. per cwt., an immense increase upon the prime 

 cost of the article in Cashmeer. 



The Chinese burn Koot, like the ancients, as an incense in the temples of 

 their gods ; and they also attach great efficacy to it as an aphrodisiac. Taking 

 into account the vast population, and the uniformity in manners and customs 

 which prevails all over China, it is probable that the consumption of Koot by 

 the Chinese is at present limited by the supply, and that they would readily 

 take a much greater quantity than under existing circumstances finds its way 

 into the market. The demand for the article in Cashmeer is so lively, that a 

 surplus stock never remains in hand for any length of time ; and as the plant 

 is not an annual, but a perennial, which requires several years to mature the 

 root into a commercial quality, it seems probable that the valley could not 

 urmsh any considerable increase upon the quantity now collected, without 

 tendmg to extirpate, or, at any rate, greatly suppress the numerical amount of 



• M'Culloch's Dictions of Commerce, Art. < Canton/ p. 237. 



