CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 177 



gains on the sale of the article. This duty was farmed, and 

 a portion of the proceeds given to the servants of Government 

 as compensation for their loss of the profits in the trade which 

 they had previously shared. Some articles such as Coffee, 

 Pepper, Betel-nuts and Coir were obliged to be delivered into 

 the Company's goclowns at certain fixed rates determined by 

 themselves. Pepper for instance was deliverable at 1 and 1| 

 fanam per Jfe, Coffee at 1 fanam per Coir-yarn at 4| 



fanams per bundle of 24 Jfes, Betel-nut was received at 3 Rds. 

 and afterwards at 5 and 6 Rds. per aramonara, all of these ar- 

 ticles were originally exported by the Company alone, but in 

 later days were disposed of by them to private individuals wish- 

 ing to ship them on their own account. 



Farmed Revenues. 



Under this head were included many taxes and duties the 

 collection of which by our system is always retained in the 

 hands of the Crown. Some of the articles were so small in 

 amount as not to have been worth consideration unless to na- 

 tives who rented them. It not unfrequently happened that cer- 

 tain taxes or duties were farmed out to the servants of the 

 Government who were thus enabled to add greatly to their in- 

 comes. In some cases duties and even profits on the monopoly 

 of certain articles such as Native Cloths and Coir Cordage were 

 set aside and divided among the Commandant, Master Atten- 

 dant and other officials in respective proportions to their rank. 

 Several instances are related in the Dutch books of the ser- 

 vants of Government who rented Import Duties at an advalorem 

 rate of 20 per cent, admitting them on payment of 10 per cent 

 convinced that the former rate was too high, and we are told 

 that they realized a larger profit under the reduced scale than 

 previously when the high rates was enforced. 



The table which accompanies this (No. 1) presents in a con- 

 densed form the Revenue of Ceylon for 1 79 i -2 under the three 



