IN THE BURMHA DOMINIONS. l^;^ 



ing an old well they make the beft bargain in their 

 power with the miners, who rate their demand pej- 

 cubit according to its depth and danger from the 

 heats or mephitic air. 



iTHE amount, produce, and wages of the labourers 

 who draw the oil, as dated to me, I TLifpect was ex- 

 agge;rated or erroneous from mifinterpretation on both 

 fid^., 



The average produce of each well, per diem, they 

 faid was 500 vifs, or i825lbs. avoirdupois, and that 

 the labourers earned upwards of eight tecals each 

 per month ; but I apprehend this was not meant 

 as the average produce, or wages for every day or 

 month throughout the year, as mufl: appear from a 

 further examination of the fubje6l, where fa6ts are 

 dubious we muft endeavour to obtain truth from inter- 

 nal evidence. Each well is worked by four men, and 

 their wages is regulated by the average produce of 

 fix days labour, of which they have one fixth, or its 

 value at the rate of one and a quarter tecals per 

 hundred vifs, the price of the oil at the wells ; the 

 proprietor has an option of paying their fixth in oil, 

 but I underftand he pays the value in money, and if 

 fo, 1 think this is as fair a mode of regulating the 

 wages of labour as any where pra£lifed ; for in pro- 

 portion as the labourer works he benefits, and gains 

 only as he benefits his employer. He can only do in- 

 jury by over-working himfelf, which is not likely to 

 happen to an Indian -, no provifions are allowed the oil 

 drawers, but the proprietor fupplies the ropes, &c. and 

 laflly the king's duty is a tenth of the produce.- 



Now fuppofing a well to yield 500- vifs per diem 

 throughout the year, deducing one fixth for the la- 

 bourers, and one tenth for the king, there will remain 

 for the proprietor, rejetting fractions, 136,876 vifs, 

 which at i i- tecals, the value at the wells, is equal to 

 1710 tecals per annum. From this fum there is to be 



I 2 deducted 



