No. 31. — 1885.] 



PLUMBAGO. 



193 



might be raised to Es. 900,000, and had Government always 

 got its own in the shape of royalty, the round million of 

 rupees would be considerably exceeded. 



Taking averages of qualities and periods, it is probable 

 that Ks. 200 per ton is too high a valuation for this mineral, 

 and that twenty millions of rupees would more nearly than 

 twenty-five millions represent the total value of the plum- 

 bago exported in fifty-one years, for which figures are given. 

 At any average price of less than Es. 100 per ton it would 

 probably not pay to dig plumbago, and as a matter of fact what 

 was evidently over-production between 1880 and 1883, led to 

 a reaction in 1884, when not only did exports fall off, 

 but operations in the preparing yards in Colombo were 

 stayed for a time by general consent, some not opening 

 again even when the probability of a war with Eussia 

 gave a fresh fillip to the trade. 



It is a melancholy fact that plumbago is one of the class 

 of articles like "villainous saltpetre" and some others, the 

 trade in which prospers when war has broken out or when 

 warfare is threatened. The reason in the case of our staple 

 mineral is, that the chief use by far to which Ceylon plumbago 

 is put is the manufacture of crucibles, nozzles, &c, employed 

 in the preparation of Bessemer and other steel, now in such 

 large requisition for shipbuilding, plates for ironclads, 

 torpedoes, shot, shell, &c; this, in addition to the melting 

 of the precious metals for which crucibles of refractory 

 plumbago are eminently suited from their superior strength 

 and perfect smoothness. There are many minor uses to 

 which plumbago is put, as will hereafter be shown, but 

 I believe I am right in stating that its extended con- 

 sumption (if that word can be correctly applied to an 

 article which is almost unconsumable) in recent years, 

 is due to the great and rapid advance of the steel industry 

 on both sides of the Atlantic, not merely to provide materials 

 for ships, durable and light, but for the dread weapons and 

 appliances of modern warfare, such as Krupp and Armstrong 

 guns, steel shot, &c. But the abundance of the ore in 

 Ceylon, and the enterprise and activity with which the 

 mining, preparing, and shipping of the mineral have been 

 pursued, have in this case, as in so many others, recently 

 led to production considerably in excess of demand, so that 



