B I R 



442 



B I R 



lut'-d'hau, from the name of the boll in which the bu 

 is Iran-acted, and consist* commonly of four officers, called 

 wun-t<yis, who have the right of deliberating and of vetting, 

 and four of less rank, called wun-dauks, who do not de- 

 liberate or vote; there are also eight secretaries, called 

 sare'-d'hau-gyis. The privy council consists likewise of four 

 officers, called atwen-wuns, and thirty secretaries. \Vhat- 

 manales directly from the king is first discussed in 

 thf privy council and then transmitted to the lut'-d'hau. 



Kcir internal administration the country is divided into 

 provinces, these into townships, the townships into districts 

 and the districts into villages and hamlets, and every one 

 of these divisions has its political head. The governor of a 

 province is called ruyo-wun, his first officer re-wun, who is 

 his deputy, and then follow the ak'hwon-wun, or collector ~f 

 taxes, and the akaok-wun, or collector of customs. 



The Birmans have no standing army, nor is there any 

 distinction between the civil and military classes, or between 

 civil and military employments. As the sovereign is con- 

 sidered the lord of all his subjects, every male adult is 

 obliged to become a soldier. In case of a war, all persons 

 able to bear arms are brought together through the agency 

 of the local officer*, by an order of the lut'-d'hau ; and they 

 serve under the same leaders as when dwelling in their own 

 districts or townships. The troops have no regular pay, but 

 are armed and fed at the public expense. An army thus 

 composed cannot be long kept together, and a defeat or dif- 

 ficulty is almost sure to disperse them. This accounts fur 

 the sudden disappearance of the numerous armies which the 

 Birmans opposed to the British at the beginning of the 

 last war. The Birmans, however, would be good soldiers 

 if they were well disciplined and armed ; but at present they 

 are unable to withstand a European force. In their last 

 contest with the English they displayed a good deal of skill 

 in the construction of field-works, but they seldom knew 

 how to defend them. 



In Birma there is no land-tax; but the sovereign, being 

 considered as the lord of all the inhabitants, assigns 

 the labour of the peasants or cultivators to his favourites 

 and public officers instead of stipends and salaries, or 

 appropriates them to the expenses of public establish- 

 ments, such as the war-boats, the elephants, &c. Those 

 to whom the townships or villages are aligned in this 

 way assess the cultivators at their discretion, usually by 

 levying a kind of capitation-tax, which, according to circum- 

 stances, is taken either in money, in kind, or in services. 

 This manner of taxing the country is exceedingly oppres- 

 sive, and whenever such high persons are in favour at court, 

 the cultivators have no resource against oppression but to 

 abandon the lands, and to take refuge in some other 

 place. Hence the decay of established towns and villages 

 and the rise of new ones is a thing of yearly occurrence. 



The lords of the land make yearly offerings to the king, 

 and it is supposed that these offerings amount to one-tenth 

 of the income derived from the grant. These offerings con- 

 stitute one of the principal sources of the kind's revenue. 

 The remainder arises from a tax on the petroleum, the 

 ngapi, salt, and teak-timber, besides the customs (>n Ilie 

 merchandise exported and imported, the former paying five 

 per cent., and the latter ten per cent. Crawfurd thinks 

 that the whole revenue of tlw) king does not exceed '.'5.000/. 

 per annum. But his expenses are still less, as no public 

 officer receives any fixed money salary. The principal officen 

 are paid, as already stated, liy a-signmcnts of land, or, more 

 ily, by an assignment of the labour and industry of a 

 (liven portion of the inhabitants ; and the inferior ones by 

 perquisites, and irregular emoluments. Money there- 

 fore Is seldom paid out of the royal treasury, unless for (lie 

 personal gratification of the sovereign. In extraordinary 

 cases, as for instance if a war be undertaken, an extraor- 

 dinary contribution is levied on the people. 



The circulating medium consists, for small payments, of 

 lead ; in the case of larger ones, of gold and silver, and chiefly 

 of the latter; but there is no coin of any of these metals. 

 The money must be weighed and generally assayed at every 

 payment. Silver may be considered as the standard, and 

 gold is about seventeen times as dear. Lead lliiciua; 

 cording to its market value. The weighing and assaying 

 of the metals, which is done by a class of broker-, 

 poe'-za, causes nn expense or loss of two and a half per 

 cent, at every disbursement. 



The commerce carried on in the interior of the country is 

 considerable, the different portions of the empire producing 



several things which are not found in others. The inha- 

 bitants of the sea-coast and the lower country take to the 

 capital and the upper provinces rice, salt, ngapi, dried fih, 

 and foreign commodities. The Shans briny to A\.i 

 and silk stuffs, some raw silk, varnisii. -nry, bee- 



wax, lacquer ware, swords, gold, lead, and tin : and take in 

 return the articles brought from the lower \ 

 cially salt, ngapi, and dried fish. Ava sends to the lower 

 provinces petroleum, saltpetre, lime, paper, lacquer ware, 

 cotton and silk fabrics, iron, cutlery, gome brass-ware, 

 catechu, palm-sugar, &c. 



The internal commerce is much facilitated by the easy 

 water-communication, especially in the lower country, where 

 the numerous branches and channels of the Irawaddi, to- 

 gether with the Pegu river and the Setaing, render the 

 transport of commodities so easy that roads are nearly un- 

 known. The hilly country north of it possesses the- 

 vantages only so far as it approaches the Irawaddi or Kyan- 

 Duayn. In this part roads are numerous, and the UK n 

 travel for security in caravans, as in other parts ul 

 The trading vessels used on the Irawaddi for the transport 

 of commodities are commonly small, not exceeding ten or 

 fifteen tons burden ; but larger vessels are also used, some 

 of which may be 100 tons. 



The foreign commerce of the Birmans is limited to that 

 with China, carried on over land, and to that with the na- 

 tions who visit the ports of the country. The traffic with 

 China is considerable, and entirely carried on by the Chi- 

 nese, who come in great numbers to the annual fairs of 

 Bhanmo and Midc. Bhanmo is situated on the banks of 

 the Irawaddi, and seems to be a considerable place. M 

 a small town about six miles to the north-east of Ava. 

 This traffic resembles that between China and Russia at 

 Kiachta and Maimatchin. The caravan arrives at Ava iu 

 the beginning of December, and is stated to be six weeks 

 in travelling from Yunnan. The commodities are br 

 on small horses, mules, and asses. The princip;. 

 is at Bhanmo, and few traders only come to Ava. The 

 articles imported from China are copper, orpiment or 

 yellow arsenic, quicksilver, vermilion, iron pans, i 

 wire, tin, lead, alum, silver, gold and gold-leaf, earthen- 

 ware, paints, carpets, rhubarb, tea, honey, raw 

 velvets and raw silks, spirits, musk, verdigris, dry : 

 paper, fans, umbrellas, shoes, wearing apparel, and a few 

 live animals. The largest article of import is raw silk, 

 which is worked up in the manufactures of the country. 

 TXe exports from Birma consist of raw cotton, ornamental 

 feathers, esculent swallows' nests, ivory, rhinoceros and 

 deer horns, sapphires, and noble serpentine, with a small 

 quantity of British woollens. Raw cotton is by far the 

 most considerable article. The average amount is stated 

 to be not less than 14,000,000 Ibs. The whole amount of 

 the export and import trade with China is estimated at 

 from 40U.OOO/. to 709,0001. 



The navigation of the Birmans does not generally ex- 

 tend bejond the Gulf of Bengal. The places visited by 

 their vessels are Chittagong, Dacca, and Calcutta in Ben- 

 gal ; Madras and Masulipatnam on the const of > 

 inandcl ; and the Nicobar Islands, and a few places in Su- 

 matra. Many foreign \ .Iy British, American, 

 and Chinese, \ isit the harbour of Rangoon. The articles ex- 

 ported seaward are teak-wood, terra Japonica or catechu, 

 stick-lac, bees-wax, ivory, raw cotton, orpiment, gold, - 

 rubies, and sapphires, with horses. Tiie most important 

 article is teak timber, which is principally carried to Calcutta. 

 Raw cotton goes to Dacca, and is used in the fabrication of 

 the fine muslins. 



The principal articles imported at Rangoon arc cotton 

 ;<K>ds, British, Bengal, and Madras; British woollens; 

 iron, steel, quicksilver, copper, cordage, borax, sulphur, gun- 

 powder, saltpetre, fire-arms, coarse porcelain, English i 

 ware, opium, tobacco, cocoa and ureca nuts, sugar and 

 spirits. After cotton piece-goods the most important ar- 

 ticles are areca and cocoa-nuts. The value of the i 

 piece-goods was estimated in Is-.'-J at 282.000/. Crawlurd 

 thinks that the value of all the imports of Rangoon is not 

 over-rated at 300,0001. a year, and that the ex|v>rts may be 

 taken at the same amount. [See RANGOON.] B;I 

 formerly was a place of considerable tratlic, and some Ku- 

 ropean nations had factories established there, but since the 

 foundation of Rangoon it has lost all its commercial im- 

 portance. 



(Symes's and Crawfurd's Embassiet to Ava; Cox's 



