."No. 37.— 1888.] INDUSTRIES OF CEYLON. 329 



in various forms of luxury, waste, and war. The rulers may 

 and often do expend the surplusage in pomp and pageantry, 

 in displays of regal and monumental splendour, in religious 

 ceremonials and in court luxury. And the people, if they 

 have the means, may lack the inducement to thrift. In such 

 cases capital will not he created nor material progress 

 , made. 



In some countries accumulated wealth has proved to be so 

 great a source of danger that it has been sedulously avoided, 

 lest it should attract the predatory incursions of powerful 

 neighbours ; or it has been protected at prodigious cost. 



Hence China endeavoured to guard its territory and pos- 

 sessions by constructing one of the greatest works ever 

 achieved by man, a wall of over 2,000 miles in length, which 

 probably absorbed more labour and material than all the 

 pyramids of Egypt together. The immense armaments of 

 Europe in the present day, with the vast expenditure 

 necessary for their maintenance, have the same object, and 

 in like manner consume a large portion of the national 

 surplusage unproductively. 



Wealth offers the strongest and one of the commonest 

 inducements for aggressions of one country upon another, 

 and for the oppression of the weaker by the more powerful 

 < classes of the people. It is, however, in regard to individuals 

 rather than to collective bodies that the danger of possessing 

 wealth operates most innuentially in preventing the accumu- 

 lation of capital. Under native rule, it was not safe for any 

 private individual in this country to possess riches, as they 

 were certain to be seized by the ruler, or by his more 

 unscrupulous ^officials in his name. Knox says that the 

 Sinhalese will do " only what their necessities force them to 

 do, that is, to get food and raiment. Yet in this I must 

 :a little vindicate them, for what indeed should they do with 

 more than food and raiment, seeing as their estates increase 

 so do their taxes also ! And although the people be generally 

 covetous, spending but little, scraping together what they 

 can, yet such is the Government they are under, that they 



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