Chap. IV.] TAXATIOX. 1G9 



the British before 1812, when the rule was relaxed which 

 forbade the tenure of land by Europeans. 



Monopohes are to the present day a prominent feature of 

 the Ceylon revenue. The fishery of pearls and chanks has 

 been from time immemorial in the hands of the sovereign, 

 as well as the right to collect salt ; and to these in later 

 times has been added the privilege of distiUing arrack from 

 the juice of the coco-nut palm. 



Odious as the name of monopoly sounds, its reahty 

 could scarcely be less offensive than in the instances in 

 which it prevails in Ceylon. The supposed injustice of 

 keeping guard over the pearl hanks has been the tlieme 

 of a pohtical romance ^ and adduced as an illustration 

 of the wrouijf assumed to be inflicted on those whom it 

 apparently excludes from legitimate labour. But tlie 

 employment it affords does not extend beyond a few 

 weeks at uncertain periods, and generally with intervals 

 of many years interposed. Besides, when a pearl fishery 

 is proclaimed, although every indi\ddual is enabled to 

 participate to the extent of his capital, so indifferent 

 are the Singhalese, that few ever engage in it, and the 

 divers and boatmen employed come chiefly from the op- 

 posite coast of India. Tiie monopoly of salt as it prevails 

 in Ceylon is common to every country of the East, and 

 seems the only expedient by which oriental sovereigns 

 have ever succeeded in obtaining a minimum of taxation 

 from classes incapable of bearing in any other shape an 

 equitable share of the public biuthens ; — and the restric- 

 tions on distillation^ if properly administered, are suscep- 

 tible of being used as an effectual check on the ruinous 

 abuse of arrack. 



But a tax more objectionable than these ancient 

 monopolies, is the hea\"y impost laid by the Ceylon 

 government, not only on the import of lice and grain, 

 but on its home cultivation. The duty on foreign 



^ Cinnamon and Pearh, by INIiss Majrtikeait ; Illustrations of rolitical 

 Econo)ny, vol. vii. p. 149. 



