9 2 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1889. 
sacred books; they are unique — British Museum does 
not possess their fellows. They are in the Pali lan- 
guage, and in them lie hidden ideas of religion that were 
in vogue long before Moses went to school at On, or 
Aaron doffed for the first time his Bacerdotal robes." 
" I thank you a thousand times, Mr. Unger," said I, 
" for the very interesting things you have shown me, but 
if you will allow me to say so, and can spare me 20 min- 
utes, I have come to talk about rubies, and, if you will 
further permit me, I will put to you a few questions, 
suggested by a perusal of the Blue Books our editor has 
sent me. In the first place I find in one of your letters 
to Sir Edward Buck, Chief of the Indian Revenue De- 
partment, you say that the offer you were prepared to 
make was calculated to add about 400,0002 per annum 
to the revenue, and that for an indefinite term of years 
The difference between that sum and the four lakhs of 
rupees offered by Messrs. Streeter is so great that I 
should like to know what you had in your mind as the 
base of such an offer." 
" I will tell you. I have been twice toBurmah upon 
this business. Upon the first occasion I was the bearer 
of letters of introduction to officials of the old regime 
that secured me a reception from them, and opened 
sources of information that I venture to say were ab- 
solutely inaccessible to others— above all, those coming 
under the direct protection of the British invaders. 
Utilising these sources of information, I found that the 
former lessee from Tbeebaw paid him one and a haif 
lakhs per annum for the mines, giving up, however, all 
stones of a value exceeding R1,000. About six months 
before his decheance Tbeebaw obtained abetter price, 
viz., 1\ laks per annum. I set to work to find out what 
probable profit this lessee and his partners netted, and 
I discovered that by their charge of 15 per cent 
upon the value of all stones sent by them to the 
Ruby Hall at Mandalay, there accrued to them 
something over 3 lakhs per annum, after paying all 
expenses and the rent dug to the King. Hence I 
obtained my first item, viz. 200,0007, the value of stones 
yearly consigned to the Ruby Hall. Then I found 
that by various routes rubies were sent in very con- 
siderable quantities to Siam and China by circuitous 
ways through the mountains to Rangoon, and by spe- 
cial messengers direct to Calcutta, the principal ruby 
mart of the world. This trade was smuggling pure and 
simple, and a reliable estimate of its extent could only 
be arrived at by most searchiug enquiries. In such 
a business as Ruby smuggling the ' cutest Chinee 
must take a back seat to a Burman, and I was not sur- 
prised at finding the best informed natives estimated 
that the value of these smuggled stones very consider- 
ably exceded the total of the recognised trade. I how- 
ever set it down for the purposes of my estimate 
at an equal value with the legitimate trade, and 
so let us call it another 200,0002. Let us now 
add the value of the large stones (R1.000) 
and over) which the lessees were compelled by their 
agreement to surrender to the King, and take also 
into consideration those given by them as bribes to 
the scores of ministers and officials that surrounded 
him, I will not put this value to figures, nor will I 
say anything of the hundreds of valuable stones that 
were buried by the finders and smugglers, except 
that I know from the numerous purchase I made 
myself the total must have been magnificent. I will 
simply say for the moment that I have shown you a 
reasonable estimate exceeding 500,0002 per annum." 
" Had you any other means of calculating the output 
of the mines ?" 
"Yes I had another base of calculation. Under 
Theebaw there existed in Mandalay a British post 
office through which there passed rubies to the 
annual value of about 30 lakhs, 300,0002. I esti- 
mated the indirect trade before mentioned, the 
smuggled and buried stones, the bribes and the King's 
portion ; in fact, all those that did not pass through 
the post office at an equal sum, viz., 300,0002, and so 
I was able to show the friends in Europe with and 
for whom I was acting, that I was well within the 
mark in estimating, that under Theebaw's rule and 
with the primitive methods of working then obtaining' 
the annual yield could not have been lo8S than 500,000 
This was taking the rubies at Burmese valuation, 
which, when I first arrived there I found to be certainly 
not over 50 per cent of their European value." 
" Then mav I take it that you seriously put the 
total production of the mines under Theebaw at 
1,000,0002. sterling per annum ?" 
"Well, yes; at any rate I clearly saw that with 
modern appliances and methods and by the restriction 
of smuggling and stealing, which would result from 
adopting the system of keeping the miners in com- 
pounds, that prevails on the South African diamond 
fields (where. as you know, I had a long experience), 
the mines could easily be made to yield a round million 
per annum. It was with thesp facts in my mind, and 
with the intention (if allowec' b~< tender for the con- 
cession of offering the Governments per cent of the 
profits that I wrote the letter to Sir Edward Buck to 
which you have called my attention." 
" Can you tell me, then, how it was that the first con- 
cession could have been given to the Streeter Syndi- 
cate for such an apparently inadequate sum as four 
lakhs?" 
" Well, to begin with, you must not assume that 
I communicated to the officials every item of informa- 
tion that I accumulated. In fact, to have simply men- 
tioned some of mv sources would have been to have 
closed them. But I do not profess to have had a mono- 
poly of the power of obtaining information. On the 
contrary, I think the information that must have been 
acquired by Col. Sladen during his long residence in 
Mandalay as political agent would have been simply 
invaluable at this juncture. Looking back, however, it 
appears to me that Sir Charles (then Mr.) Bernard 
went upon the simple plan of taking a rise upon the 
first bid made him. Messrs. Gillanders, Arbutbnot 
and Co., of Rangoon and Calcutta (a house that 
has the honour of counting a son of Mr. W. E. 
Gladstone as one of the members, and who had 
always extended to Mr. Bernard their political sympa- 
thies), were the first to make offers for the mines. 
They bid ultimately 1\ lakhs, and, as you will see by 
vour Blue Book, were warmly supported by Sir Charles 
Bernard. Messrs. Streeter's representative. Captain 
Pa ton, who had enjoyed the great advantage of in- 
timate acquaintance with Mr. Streeter's personal 
friend, Col. Sladen, and who was then at Simla, cut 
in with a direct offer to the Viceroy of 4 lakhs. An 
intimation of this offer was immediately telegraphed 
to Sir Charles Bernard who could hardly do less than 
recommend its acceptance. I protested, as you will 
see, against this, or any other offer being taken be- 
fore the Government were in possession of the mines, 
and before they had had a fair chance of undistur- 
bedlv estimating their value — but in vain. Through 
mv legal agents, Messrs. Allen and Van Someren of 
Rangoon, I also offered to send up to the mines 
at my own expense a competent engineer who should 
report direct to the Government; but again in vain. 
Please do not think, however, that I have any per- 
sonal grievance to establish. Is there anything else 
you wish to know?" 
" Yes, I should like to know whether you do not 
think that when the company get to work with 
machinery, they mav glut the market ? " 
" No. Why should they ? They have, to begin 
with, an absolute monopoly, for the true Oriental 
rnbv is found nowhere else. The supply in reserve 
in their mines is, I have no doubt, practically unli- 
mited, and the former rate of production will be in- 
creased, but there is nothing to oblige the company 
to put out all they might, and they will of course, re- 
gulate the supply to the demand." 
" What then do you think is the approximate value 
of rnbiPB that the markets can absorb ? " 
" The Western markets, Europe and America, can 
easily take a million pounds' worth of fine and me- 
dium qualities without danger of affecting values, 
while the eastern trade will always absorb an unli- 
mited quantity of the lower qualities. I must tell 
you that although the far largest proportion 
of rubies produced are inferior, yet there is alwavs a 
sure market for them in India and the East, where 
they arp used to inlay jade and other ornaments, 
