391 



The diminished export was caused by the prospective abolition 

 of the export duty, ^^^hich came into operation on the 1st July last. 

 The quantity that will be sent to the English market by the close 

 of the year (1853) will be something prodigious compared with the 

 average consumption. From October 10, 1852, to July 22, 1853, 

 the shipments were 406,326 lbs. 



HETUKN OF CINNAMON EXPORTED FROM CEYLON, SHOWING THE QUANTITY 

 AND VALUE. 



Quantity, Value, 

 Year. lbs. £ 



1836 , 724,364 — 



1837 558,110 — 



1838 398,198 — 



1839 596,592 — 



1840 389,373 — 



1841 317,919 24,857 



1842 121,145 15,207 



1843 662,704 66,270 



1844 1,057,841 105,784 



1845 408,211 40,821 



1846 491,656 49,165 



1847 447,369 44,736 



1848 491,688 49,168 



1849 733,782 73,378 



1850 644,857 64,485 



1851 500,518 50,051 



1852 427,667 42,766 



The question of the export duty on cinnamon has, during the last 

 twenty years, occupied a considerable spacein Ceylon correspondence 

 and the Island journals. This duty was first imposed in 1832, on 

 the abolition of the Grovernment monopoly, and was then fixed at 

 the rate of 3s. per lb, on all qualities. I'rom the 19th April, 1835, 

 it was fixed at 3s. per lb. on the best, and 2s. on the second quality. 

 It was reduced in January, 1837, to 2s. 6d. on the first and second 

 sorts, and 2s. on the third ; and in June, 1841, to 2s, on all quali- 

 ties ; in 1843, to Is. ; and in September, 1848, to4d. per lb. Such 

 a rate of export duty could be maintained only on an article for 

 which there was a considerable demand, and which could not be 

 supplied from other places, and this was for a long time the case. 

 The circumstances are now difierent, and the abolition of the duty, 

 which has so repeatedly been brought under the notice of the 

 Treasury, has at length been determined on. The quantity of 

 cinnamon, &c., taken for consumption in the United Kingdom, 

 scarcely amounts to 2,800 bales per annum. The sale and con- 

 sumption is nearly stationary, and cinnamon is only in demand for 

 those finer purposes for which cassia, its competitor, cannot be 

 used. Whilst we imported the large amount of 700,095 lbs. in 

 1850, only 28,347 lbs. went into consumption. The consumption 

 has declined in the last two years to about 21,500 ibs. Cinnamon 

 is now imported into the United Kingdom duty free. 



The land under cultivation with cinnamon in Ceylon is about 

 13,000 acres, principally in the western and southern provinces. 

 The number of gardens being eleven at Kaderane, seven at Ekelli, 



