572 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



of its location in villages, was bound to go into the woods to cut and deliver, at certain 

 prices, a given quantity of cinnamon properly peeled and ready for exportation. This 

 system remained unchanged so long as Portugal was master of the country ; but the 

 forests in which the spice was found being exposed to constant incursions from the 

 Kandyans, who sought every opportunity to obstruct and harass the Chalias and 

 peelers, the Dutch were compelled to form enclosed plantations of their own within 

 range of their fortresses. The native chieftains, fearful of losing the profits derived 

 from the labor of the Chalias, who were attached as serfs to their domains, and whose 

 work they let out to the Dutch, were at first extremely opposed to this innovation, and 

 endeavored to persuade the Hollanders that the cinnamon would degenerate as soon as 

 it was artificially planted. The withering of many of the young trees seemed to justify 

 the assertion ; but on a closer examination it was found that boiling water had been 

 poured upon the roots. A law was now passed declaring the wilful injury of a cinna- 

 mon plant a crime punishable with death, and by this severity the project was saved. 



The extent of the trade during the time of the Dutch may be inferred from the 

 fact, that the five principal cinnamon-gardens around Nejombo, Colombo, Barberyn, 

 Galle, and Maduro were each from fifteen to twenty miles in circumference. Although 

 they were only first planted in the year 1770, yet before 1796, when Colombo was 

 taken by the English, their annual produce amounted to more than 400,000 lbs. of 

 cinnamon, as much as the demands of the market required. The profits must have 

 been enormous, for cinnamon was then at least ten times dearer than at present, the 

 trade being exclusively in the hands of the Dutch East Indian Company, which, in 

 order to keep up the price, restricted the production to a certain quantity, and watched 

 over its monopoly with the most jealous tyranny. No one was allowed to plant cinna- 

 mon or to peel it, and the selling or importing of a single stick was punished as a 

 capital offence. 



When the English took possession of the island, the monopoly was ceded to the 

 East India Company for an annual sum of £60,000 until 1823, when the colonial 

 government undertook the administration of the cinnamon-gardens for its own account. 

 In 1831 the produce sank to £16,000 sterling, and in the following year the ancient 

 monopoly was abandoned ; the government ceased to be the sole exporters of cinnamon, 

 and thenceforward the merchants of Colombo and Galle were permitted to take a 

 share in the trade, on paying to the crown an export duty of three shillings a pound. 

 This was afterwards reduced to one shilling, and ultimately totally abolished ; as not 

 alone India and Java, but also Martinique, Guiana, and Mauritius, where the cinnamon 

 tree had been introduced, were found capable of producing the spice; and the cheap 

 substitute of Cassia, a still more formidable competitor, was arriving in Europe in large 

 quantities from South China and the Trans-Gangetic peninsula. In Java alone the 

 export of cinnamon, which in the year 1835 amounted only ^to 2,200 lbs., increased so 

 rapidly that in 1845 it had already risen to 134,000 lbs,, and as it can there be more 

 cheaply produced, and the Dutch government was wise enough to limit the export 

 duty to one halfpenny a pound, an unrestricted free 'trade was evidently the only 

 means for preventing Ceylon from being entirely supplanted in the markets of the 

 world. Under these circumstances, the Singhalese cinnamon has lost its ancient 

 excellence, less care has been given of late years to the production of the finest 

 qualities for the European market, and the coarser and less valuable shoots have been 



