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



ANCIENT INDUSTRIES IN CEYLON. 

 By George Wall, f.l.s., f.r.a.s., Vice-President. 



(Read November 22, 1888.) 



'EYLON is fortunate in possessing a connected 

 history of the last 2,300 years, of which Tumour, 

 a most competent authority, says that " it is 

 authenticated by the concurrence of " every 

 evidence which can contribute to verify the annals of 

 any country." Like all ancient and nearly all modern 

 histories, however, the histories of this Island are almost 

 exclusively records of great national events and the pro- 

 ceedings of rulers, princes, and priests, and afford little, if 

 any, information respecting the industries of the people. 

 Historians, even to this day, fail to recognise the fact that 

 potentates are not possible without a people, and that a 

 people is nothing without its industries. In other words, 

 the position, power, and resources of kings are derived 

 entirely from industry as the fundamental source of all 

 wealth. The fact that unless the people earn by their 

 labour somewhat more than the necessaries of life there is 

 no resource for either princes or priests, outside of the ranks 

 of the people themselves, is generally regarded by historians 

 as unworthy of notice in a national record. It is nevertheless 

 a fact of such importance, and is so related to all those events 

 that figure prominently in history, that the condition of a 

 country, and the industries in which the sinew of the people 

 is employed, may, to a great extent, be logically inferred one 

 from the other. The slight mention of trade and commerce 

 in Sinhalese histories is attributed by Mr. Tumour to the 

 fact that they were exclusively written by Buddhist priests, 

 who are debarred from all secular pursuits. 



