chapman's keport. 297 



these staple sources of wealth to her numerous 

 ports were adequately provided. 



Scinde in itself is a crying proof of this 

 prevailing want. Here, on account of the 

 scarcity of a coined medium, a great portion 

 of the Government revenue is annually paid 

 in kind ; and I have heard, upon good au- 

 thority, that it is not uncommon, in seasons 

 more than usually abundant, to see masses of 

 grain, which under other circumstances might 

 possibly have been the means of mitigating in 

 a distant part the horrors of famine, lying 

 rotting on the ground. This necessity is 

 further exemplified, in the case of the province, 

 by the great disproportion which exists in 

 the price of grain in the producing and con- 

 suming districts, as seen in the weekly tariffs 

 (vide page 108), evincing an absence of the 

 necessary means for regulating market prices, 

 and rendering apparent the existence of a mo- 

 nopoly in the supply of the necessaries of life, 

 which cannot but act prejudicially in any 

 place or state of society. 



A conviction of the general importance of 

 Scinde, as a commercial acquisition, has so 

 grown upon me during the course of the in- 



