PETROLEUM TRADE. 



219 



Table showing the estimated local consumption of crude oil from 



1880-81 to i8go-gi. 



Financial year. Viss of 3*65 lbs. 



1880-81 1,508,831 



1881-82 

 1882-83 



1883-84 

 1884-85 

 1885-86 

 1886-87 

 1887-88 

 1888-89 

 1889-90 

 1890-91 



1,376,750 



1,686,707 



1, 594,003 



762,695 



755,442 



736,831 



1,420,743 



248,760 



1,742,662 



2,503.278 



From the above figures we may assume that up to 1885 the local 

 consumption was something like 1 lakh of viss per month ; during 

 the years following the annexation, it fell off greatly, being a 

 little more than half a lakh of viss. If we consider that the oil is 

 chiefly used for industrial, not for illuminating purposes, we under- 

 stand that during the years of unrest which followed the annexation, 

 the local consumption must necessarily decrease. From 1887 the 

 above figures show strange fluctuations which cannot easily be ex- 

 plained. It is, however, certain that with the return of order in 

 Upper Burma, the local consumption greatly increased, and it is 

 certainly not far from the mark, if we estimate it at present between 

 3 2"~*3 takhs of viss per mensem. 



Section 2. -Import of crude oil from Upper into Lower 



Burma. 

 The oil fields at present exploited in Upper Burma being situated 

 on the banks of the Irawadi, there is only one way by which the 

 petroleum can be transported to Lower Burma and thence to 

 Europe, which is at the same time the shortest and cheapest, viz., the 

 river itself. Accurate statistics of the quantity carried down the 

 river would thus be of double value ; if compared with the figures 

 representing the export of petroleum from Rangoon, it would permit 



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