334 JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. X. 



The influence of capital, the motive power of industry, 

 depends mainly upon the way it is directed, whether as the 

 ally of the labourer, or as his imperious taskmaster ; whether 

 to employ and remunerate him, or to exact as much work as 

 the lash or the bastinado may be able to extort ; whether to 

 divide it in just and reasonable proportion between the 

 labourer and the capitalist, or to absorb the whole, either by 

 the power of the State or by usurious exactions. In the 

 sequel of this review of the industries of Ceylon, it will be 

 seen that the absence of capital has been in some cases 

 scarcely more fatal than the abuse of the power exerted by 

 its few possessors. The needy goya, who has to pay fifty 

 per cent, for the use of his seed, would often be better 

 without it, and at the best he pursues his enterprise under 

 discouragement fatal to the future progress of his industry 

 or to the improvement of his own condition. 



The conduct of the Portuguese and the Dutch was charac- 

 terised by the avarice of adventurers, who were regardless 

 of the good of either the country or its inhabitants . Their 

 only care was to extract from both whatever they could 

 obtain, whether by force or guile. Their capital and the 

 command their fleets gave them of the sea, were employed 

 in the interest of their own country and commerce at the 

 expense of this Island and its people. Though they nomi- 

 nally purchased the produce of local industry, they actually 

 appropriated it on terms little better than pillage, the prices 

 paid being such as would have effectually suppressed the 

 production, which was therefore carried on mainly by means 

 of forced levies. Certain quantities of the various commo- 

 dities were exacted under severe penalties, and the prices 

 paid were such as to involve the producers in loss and grief. 

 Some industries were thus destroyed, and all were discour- 

 aged. Bertolacci relates that pepper to the extent of forty to 

 one hundred and fifty thousand pounds per annum was levied 

 at the rate of 1 to 1^ f anam per pound, worth many times that 

 paltry payment. Governor Schreuder on leaving the Island 

 advised his successor to reduce the exports, lest the trade 



