THE CHANK BANGLE INDUSTRY. 
431 
The actual Ceylon production is larger, amounting in normal years to not less 
than 20 lakhs, but a considerable proportion is not exported, being too small in size 
or too inferior in quality to be of use for bracelet manufacture. In years when a pearl 
fishery is held in the Gulf of Mannar, the production of chank shells usually decreases 
considerably (from 25 to 33 per cent.), while in favourable seasons with no counter 
attraction of a pearl fishery to divert the attention of the diving population, the annual 
yield may go well beyond the average given. 
The Tuticorin and Ramnad annual export of shells although together they amount 
to four to five lakhs only — roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of the total Bengal consump- 
tion — have an importance much beyond what we should infer from their numerical 
ratio. They are the elite of their kind on account of the purity of their colour and 
of the high vitreous polish they are susceptible of ; for these reasons they are neces- 
sary for all work of the best quality — all ornamental bracelets must be made from 
these shells. Jaffna or Ceylon shells on the average serve only for second and other 
yet inferior qualities of work. Hence while the cutters will give Rs. 160 per 1000 for 
Tuticorin and Ramnad shells, those from Ceylon range between the limits of Rs. 30 
and Rs. 100 per 1000, the bulk inclining to the lower price rather than the higher. 
The first circle in the distributing wholesale trade for many years past has been 
in the hands of a ring of merchant middlemen who have successfully maintained until 
now a strict monopoly of the Calcutta import trade. The principal men in this com- 
bine hail from Dacca, maintaining however offices and godowns in Calcutta where 
some members of each firm usually reside ; most of these merchants are related to 
one another, their families for generations back having followed a similar vocation. 
They are indeed the representatives of lines of hereditary middlemen. The majority 
have establishments in Dacca for the cutting of shells and the making of bracelets, but 
their chief profits arise from wholesale dealing. Calcutta being a far cry from the 
Gulf of Mannar, the combine, as I may term for brevity this association of exclusive 
wholesalers, has seen fit for business reasons to admit to their circle a Rabbai trader 
of Kilakarai in order to have the advantage of special local knowledge in conducting 
their operations in South India and in maintaining intact their monopoly. He is in 
fact their local expert and managing agent in South India. It is in his name that the 
combine usually bids when the Tuticorin shells are offered for tender, and it is in his 
name that the combine rents from the Ramnad zamindari the chank fishery off the 
island of Rameswaram and the coast of Ramnad. Rast year a Dacca speculator 
entered into competition with the chank combine for the Tuticorin shells with the 
consequence that to defeat his tactics, they increased their bid Rs. 22 per 1000 beyond 
that paid for the preceding season’s catch (from Rs. 99-9-7 to Rs. 121-9-9 per 1000). 
By having the Ramnad lease and the whole of the Tuticorin catch the members 
of the combine obtain complete control of the market for the quality necessary for 
ornamental bracelets. They also, I believe, in some degree control the Ceylon trade 
and are thus able to dictate, within certain limits, their own terms of sale. I believe 
that each member of the ring pays a fixed proportion of the cost of the working of the 
combine and receives a corresponding share of or in the shells imported. This com- 
