THE RICE TRADE 159 



liid they been annexed to the British empire, and security of 

 !iie and property restored to their inhabitants, when they 

 licgan to flourish with a rapidity like that of their own luxu- 

 riant vegetation. 



Who ever heard, a quarter of a century ago, of the magnificent 

 |)(>rt of Akyab, which now harbours whole fleets as they arrive 

 fiom all parts of the world — from the east and from the west, 

 from China and Europe — to gather the inexhaustible supplies 

 of the Arracan rice-fields, and convey them to their distant 

 lioines? 



The exportation of Akyab rice amounted in 



1847 to 70,537 tons 



1853 „ 99,487 „ 



1854 „ 103,120 ,. 



1855 „ 165,047 „ 



and is still continually increasing. 



More than half of this enormous mass finds its way to Eng- 

 land, while the rest is divided, in a diminishing ratio, between 

 Holland, Bremen, Hamburg, Sweden and Norway, America, 

 and Belgium, which imports directly only about 4,000 tons, 

 but receives indirectly a much larger quantity from London. 

 ^Fost of the Arracan rice is exported in the unshelled state, or 

 a- paddy f and cleaned in Europe, where the operation can be 

 more effectually and cheaply performed than in the country of 

 production. The loss by waste is also found to be less on the 

 transport of paddy than of shelled rice. 



Thus, new branches of industry are constantly shooting forth, 

 through the growing intercourse of nations ; and every new vic- 

 tory of civilisation over barbarism, even at the very extremity 

 of the globe, reacts beneficially upon the trading interests of 

 Europe. 



Maize is no less important to the rapidly-growing nations of 

 America than the rice-plant to the followers of Buddh or of 

 Brama; and when hereafter the banks of the Mississippi, of 

 the Amazon, and of the Orinoco, shall be covered by as dense a 

 population as the plains of Bengal, the number of maize-eaters 

 will probably })e greater than that of the consumers of any 

 other species of grain. 



The time when the cereals of the old world — wheat, rye, 

 l)arley — were first transplanted from their unknown Asiatic 



