CH. VI] CAPITALIST OR ESTATE AGRICULTURE 185 



When a few planters have established themselves in any 

 locality, the next step is usually the formation of a Planters' 

 Association. Ceylon has the best organised associations, there 

 being one in each of about thirty districts, while in Kandy there 

 is a general combined association, with over 1000 members. 

 These associations make it their business to discuss and call 

 attention to the wants of their members, as regards roads, 

 drains, medical attention, sanitation, hospitals, and what nob, 

 and to press these matters upon the attention of the Govern- 

 ment through the central association. In a prosperous colony 

 like Ceylon, where in one way and another the planting industry 

 provides the bulk of the revenue, such recommendations have 

 much weight with the Government. 



In Java, the associations are of planters of one product, as 

 of cinchona, tea, or coffee. This, while very good for the single 

 products, is perhaps not so good for the planting industry in 

 general, for the conflicting claims of the different industries are 

 not so easy to adjust. 



Having in the consideration of peasant agriculture dealt 

 with the idea that the country was to be entirely self-supporting, 

 growing all that it required, and consuming all that it grew, 

 we may now proceed to consider the other extreme, that of a 

 country in which all, or practically all, the land is the property 

 of, and worked by, large capitalist owners, the bulk of the 

 population consisting of paid labourers upon these properties. 

 This state of affairs may be seen in parts of Brazil, Ceylon, 

 India, and Java, where the whole district is practically owned 

 by a few individuals or companies, and the population consists 

 of coolie labourers, with the few overseers, shopkeepers, and 

 others necessary. Excepting that in modern times the labourers 

 are free, the general economic condition may be compared with 

 that of the older slave-labour period. Such a country is often 

 very prosperous, but its prosperity rests upon an unstable basis, 

 for as a rule there is in such cases but little diversity of in- 

 dustries, and all the eggs are in one basket. Such a state of 

 affairs has usually come about, where a country or district has 

 been found to be eminently suited to some one industry, into 

 which there has then been a rush, other industries being 



