430 



INDIA. 



443,930 rupees. The merchandise exports were 

 884,395,780 rupees in value ; treasure, 16,844,- 

 210 rupees; total, 901,239,990 rupees. The 

 imports of Government stores and treasure 

 amounted to 31,158,890 rupees, and the exports 

 to 774,610 rupees. The total imports of gold 

 during the year were 28,285,610 rupees ; of 

 silver, 82,197,610 rupees; exports of gold, 

 6,564,920 rupees; of silver, 10,639,330 rupees. 

 The principal countries that participated in the 

 trade of India in 1887 and their respective 

 shares in the imports and exports of merchan- 

 dise in rupees were as follow : 



The imports of cotton manufactures were 

 291,648,850 rupees in value; of metals and 

 hardware, 55.544,950 rupees; of silk, raw and 

 manufactured, 21,771,111 rupees; of sugar, 

 20,805,390 rupees ; of woolen goods, 15,288,650 

 rupees; of liquors, 14,597,740 rupees; of rail- 

 way material and rolling-stock, 14,351,240 ru- 

 pees ; of oils, 14,084,300 rupees; of machinery, 

 13,714,590 rupees; of coal, 13,166,150 rupees. 



The imports by way of the land frontiers 

 were valued for the year 1887 at 51,410,386 

 rupees, and the exports at 3,463.343 rupees. 



Agriculture and Industry. There are 364,- 

 051,611 acres of land in British India, exclu- 

 sive of 40,185,729 acres of forests; but only 

 152,834,640 acres are actually cultivated, in- 

 cluding 22,725,391 acres of fallow land. Of 

 the 166.492,458 acres of uncultivated land, 

 about half is fit for cultivation, affording enor- 

 mous scope for the extension of the wheat, 

 cotton, coffee, tea, indigo, and other crops of 

 exportable produce. The distribution of the 

 crops in 1887 was as follows: Eice, 23,114,- 

 662 acres; wheat, 19,883,040; other grains 

 and pulse, 71,439,218; tea, 226,412 ; cotton, 

 9,852,654 ; oil-seeds, 7,678,382 ; indigo, 1,034,- 

 889. The exportation of wheat, which was 

 always one of the principal crops of India, 

 was rendered possible by the abolition of the 

 export duty in 1873, and has grown to its pres- 

 ent proportions in consequence of the develop- 

 ment of the Indian railroads and the Suez 

 Canal. Oil-seeds were freed from the export 

 duty in 1875, and their exportation increased 

 from 4,000,000 cwt. before that time to 18,- 

 000,000 cwt. in 1885. The export of indigo in 

 1887 showed an increase of 15^ per cent, over 

 the preceding year in quantity, but prices fell 

 heavily, except in the qualities demanded in 

 the American market, owing to the competi- 

 tion of the Java indigo, which is said to 

 rival the best produce of Tirhut. The pro- 



duction of tea in Assam for 1886-'87 was re- 

 ported as 61,719,678 pounds, which, added to 

 16,500,000 pounds produced in Bengal, makes 

 the total product of India more than five 

 times greater than in 1872. There was a 

 failure of the wheat-crop in the Punjab and 

 the Northwest Provinces in 1886-'87. 



Cotton- weaving by hand was an important 

 industry in India until it was crushed by the 

 competition of the Lancashire mills. Steam- 

 mills have since been established, and the manu- 

 facture is expanding with great rapidity. In 

 1884 there were one hundred mills for the manu- 

 facture of cotton and jute, with 22,000 looms 

 and 2,000,000 spindles, giving employment to 

 110,000 people. The manufacture of iron by 

 modern methods is a new industry that has 

 not yet passed the experimental stage. There 

 is an unlimited supply of iron-ore and of coal, 

 but facilities for transportation are lacking, and 

 new methods of smelting must be devised be- 

 cause the Indian coal contains from 14 to 20 

 per cent, of ash, six or eight times as much as 

 English coal. This difficulty has been over- 

 come in the application of coal to locomotives 

 and steamboats, and partly overcome in metal- 

 lurgical industry. 



Gold-Mining. Gold in Southern India is gen- 

 erally found only in quartz reefs at depths 

 where the native miners have been unable to 

 quarry, but which are accessible with the 

 modern appliances for draining and ventilating 

 mines. The gold-bearing rocks of India seem 

 to be much richer on the average than those 

 of Australia or California. In Mysore there 

 are a large number of reefs, which even at 

 shallow depths yield from one to two ounces 

 per ton. The Mysore Gold Company, the 

 first one in India to go into practical operation, 

 has thus far worked with profit what appears 

 to be a true fissure vein, paying twenty per 

 cent, dividends. Other mines have been 

 opened in the same state, and the Maharajah 

 and his Prime Minister do all that they can to 

 promote the industry, and have become share- 

 holders in several of the companies. The pion- 

 eer company has now sixty stamps at work. 



Navigation. The tonnage entered and cleared 

 at the ports of British India in 1887 waa 

 7,172,193. The number of vessels arriving 

 and departing by the Suez Canal was 1,671 of 

 2,946,650 tons." Of 5,140 vessels of 3.514,672 

 tons entered at all the ports, 1,903 of 2,745,- 

 162 tons belonged to England or her colonies; 

 1,011 of 133,865 tons were British Indian; 

 1,446 of 75,784 tons belonged to native states; 

 and 780 of 359,861 tons were foreign vessels. 

 The total number cleared was 5,444; the ton- 

 nage, 3,657,521. Coasting-vessels are not in- 

 cluded in the foregoing figures. Of these 

 there were entered 112,371 of 7,932,226 tons; 

 cleared, 108,321 of 7,941,851 tons. 



The Post-Office. The number of letters, postal- 

 cards, and money-orders that passed through 

 the Indian Post-Office in 1886 was 216,145,- 

 796; of newspapers, 20,341,814; of parcels, 



