NO. 37. — 1888.] INDUSTRIES OF CEYLON. 



331 



Much may thereby be learnt respecting the condition of 

 the people and the character of the rulers of those times. 



Probably Egypt is the most remarkable example in the 

 world's history of the profusion of natural resources. There, 

 in fact, little is left for the labourer to do but to reap and 

 garner the harvests for which the soil is prepared and tilled 

 by the fertilising floods of its great artery, the Nile. These 

 bring every year fresh soil from the mountains of the in- 

 terior and spread them over the sunny surface of the country, 

 ready to receive the seed from the husbandman, who follows 

 the retreating waters in his punt. So lavish has nature been of 

 her bounties there that notwithstanding the waste involved 

 in the stupendous monumental edifices that still stand to 

 attest it, the national wealth sufficed beside for the construc- 

 tion of one of the grandest examples of economic engineering 

 the world has ever produced, the river of Joseph. By its 

 means was the Nilotic alluvium extended artificially over an 

 area almost equal to that of its natural reach. The ruins of 

 this marvellous work, like those of our own magnificent 

 tanks, are eloquent witnesses of the results of the arbitrary 

 proceedings of despots, and of the consequences of their un- 

 checked control of a country's sinew and resources. 



In strong contrast to these instances of the profusion of 

 natural resources and the waste or neglect committed by 

 those who controlled them, may be cited that of the British 

 nation, where surplusage has been obtained under compara- 

 tively adverse conditions, and where, nevertheless, the fruits 

 of labour have so accrued, in accordance with true economic 

 principles, that capital has accumulated to an extent greater 

 than that of the nations most highly favoured by nature, and 

 has raised the country to an unrivalled pitch of industrial 

 wealth and glory. The production of capital in North 

 America has been even more rapid than in Britain, the un- 

 bounded extent of virgin soil there having been utilised in 

 conformity with principles favourable to the development 

 and progress of industry. 



These illustrations show that natural resources conduce to 



