25 



climate, or to such as demand the heat and rains of the 

 tropics, all have been alike neglected with the exception of 

 Sugar and Indigo. For Tea we have continued to trust to the 

 Chinese, although vast regions in our own possession are 

 suitable to its production, and we probably would have still 

 remained supine had not the Chinese monopoly been wisely 

 broken through. The raw Cotton of Bengal has, with a few 

 exceptions, been the most worthless in the market; in 1833 

 that of Surat was sold in the Liverpool market as low as i^d. 

 a pound, while the worst Carthagena Cotton was worth 7d. 

 a lb. ; and in 1832 little more than 18,000,000 lbs. of East 

 India Cotton was consumed in England and Scotland, while 

 the consumption of American Cotton amounted at the same 

 time to above 212 millions of pounds. And so of Tobacco; 

 while in the year 1834 nearly 21 millions of pounds paid 

 duty in the United Kingdom, the importation from the East 

 Indies was so small that there was in the market no price 

 for Indian samples. {Maccullock.) And yet there cannot be 

 the slightest doubt that India alone might have furnished the 

 whole British consumption of these articles, if their cultiva- 

 tion had been properly directed. 



The subjects which have hitherto received the attention 

 of the Committee are in the first place Caoutchouc. This 

 valuable substance has as j'et been obtained chiefly from 

 Para; and when in the year 1828 samples of it were sent 

 from Assam to one of the principal agency houses at Calcutta, 

 no opinion could be given of its value, although it was at 

 that time selling in London at two shillings a pound. But 

 in Sylhet, one of the poorest and most unproductive of our 

 Indian provinces, there are forests of trees yielding this sub- 

 stance, as was long since stated by Dr. Roxburgh, and now 

 that attention has been called to its value, it appears that 

 '- several individuals are engaged in collecting it, and that 

 enough will be doubtless procured to meet all the demands 

 of this country." One person alone is reported to have col- 

 lected 80,000 lbs. weight in a single year, in Lower Assam. 



Other subjects of enquiry have been the vegetable secre- 

 tions yielding tannin, in which India is known to abound, 

 the production of cotton, silk, salt fish, medicinal plants, timber, 

 lime juice, oil seeds, dyeing substances, &c. and it would appear 

 that in all these branches of trade India possesses ample re- 

 sources well adapted to commercial purposes. 



