CHAPTER VI 



SPICES 



Cinnamon. This spice was the earliest article of export 

 from Ceylon upon any important scale, and was much the most 

 famous of the island's early exports to Europe. Until 1833 its 

 cultivation was a Government monopoly, first under the Dutch 

 and afterwards under the British Government. " The trade was 

 at its height when Nees wrote a disquisition upon it in 1823; but 

 opinion was already arraying itself against the rigidly exclusive 

 system under which it was conducted. This was looked upon 

 as the more unjustifiable, owing to the popular belief that the 

 monopoly was one created by nature ; and that prohibitions 

 became vexatious where competition was impossible. Accord- 

 ingly in 1832 the odious monopoly was abandoned; the 

 Government ceased to be the sole exporters of cinnamon, and 

 thenceforward the merchants of Colombo and Galle were per- 

 mitted to take a share in the trade, on paying to the crown an 

 export duty of three shillings a pound, which was afterwards 

 reduced to one. 



" The adoption of the first step inevitably necessitated a 

 second. The merchants felt, and with justice, that the struggle 

 was unequal so long as the Government, with its great estates 

 and large capital, was their opposing competitor; and hence, in 

 1840, the final expedient was adopted by the crown of divesting 

 itself altogether of its property in the plantations." 



Since that period the cultivation has greatly extended, 

 chiefly on the light sandy soils near the southwest coast, where 

 the spice is native ; and though various other countries grow 

 trifling quantities, no serious competitor has yet arisen for 

 Ceylon. At the present time about 35,000 acres are in culti- 

 vation. Left to itself, the cinnamon plant (Cinnamomum 



