Sept. 1, 1902] THE .TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
179 
You can travel by train and croaa over the sea 
And then come buck again to the totam and me, 
Paying nothing whatever ; your bill uomes to mei 
it you 'V3 only the little tin ticket. 
If yonr brother can't get from his dorai a pass 
A3 that clorai belonss to a curioaa class 
Of animal known for ita patience, alas I 
He must go without any tin ticket ; 
But eie he comes back he can write him and say 
He is ready to start on the very first day 
loathe 's able to travel with nothing to pay, 
And he must have a little Tin Ticket. 
Newlyn Pierce. 
♦ 
MERCANTILE LIFE IN COLOMBO 
40 YEARS AGO. 
(By the Senior Ed. " C. O.") 
A stirring and even romantic chapter might 
well be written on the " ups and downs" of 
mercantile life in Colombo during the past 70, 50 
or even 40 years. We can merely touch the 
fringe of the subject in this preliminary note. 
Of course the traditions of the "thirties" and 
" forties " were familiar talk in the Fort in the 
earl} " sixties." We had a real Foi-t then, en- 
closed by walls as well as batteries, a deep wide 
moat crossed by drawbridges with sentry-mounted 
mediseval winding gates which bore the mark of 
Cohorn and the 
DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY. 
The 24 European mercantile houses in 
Colombo and their 60 to 70 resident part- 
ners and European Assistants* were na- 
turally thrown much together ; they had their 
cliques, likes and dislikes and yec approached 
nearly 'o one big circle of friends, living under 
the shadow of banishment from " home " with only 
a fortnightly mail (by P & O) via Galle, and no 
telegrams, while most of the travelling (and all the 
heavy freight) between Ceylon and England, 
passed round the C'ape of Good Hope, a voyage 
of 15,000 miles occupying from 80 to 110 days 
according to the vessel and weather. 
Among the early Fort traditions was the strong 
opposioion of the Merchants to the Government 
of Sir Kobert Wihuot Horton (1831 to 1837) and 
how (in 1834) they started the Observer, the firsfr 
newspaper independent of Government in Ceylon, 
and placed one of their number, 
MR. GEORGE WINTER 
in charge of it as Editor. The Governor could 
get no European to enter the newly-formed 
Legislative Council and was obliged to fall back 
on pensioners or recognised Government protegees 
to fill the Ceylonese seats. Ihe mercantile 
opposition gradually died down, however ; Mr 
Winter got tired of his task ; and the paper 
was sold to Dr. Elliott. With the next Gov- 
ernor, the Rt. Hon. Mr Stewart-Mackenzie, the 
merchants worked amicably ; but the ablest man 
amongst them — Mr Acland — was alwuys more or 
less in opposition. The burst into coffee atid the 
great boom from 1837 to 1845 followed by the finan- 
cial crash in the latter year, tried Coloiubo houses 
Tery severely and many disappeareil. In the 
dull time that followed, there were some happy 
hits in money-making. One proprietary planter, 
but who had a Liverpool mercantile training, 
bought up all the 
* In 1902, there are not fewer than 90 Firms ia 
the Fort with nearly 400 Europeans on their ofi&oo 
"NATIVE COFFEE" 
— a big crop in those diys — I'or "a mere song" 
{as he told us long after), shipped it ronnd th^ 
Cape and it arrived in London six monl lis alter, 
to a vastly improved market, so that lie cleared 
cent, per cent., and immediately founded a 
mercantile house in Colombo, with later on a 
branch in Madras, and both continui'd for thirty 
years until the partners having made fortunes 
in cotton, gradually cleared out. But the head 
could not be idle and speculating with the great 
" Collie's " lost his all and had to begin life again in 
his old age. What an extraordinary record of 
both planting and mercantile experience the 
story of "C.S." would afi'ard, if he only con- 
tinued the tale, from his last instalment in our 
columns published a good many years ago ! 
It may well make brisk young mercantile men of 
today to stare, to learn that forty years ago, it 
was not considered "good form" to advertise 
any special consignment— say of 
QUARTER-CASKS OF MADEIRA ! 
— until your neighbour had got rid of his stock. 
To go and compete at a Kandy land sale with 
a man who had selected any particular jungle 
" block " for himself by going to the spot, was 
thought most dishonorable— up to the time that 
Tottenham gob a number of Haputale forest lots 
pub up, and the spirit of competition became 
too strong and old-fashioned anangements broke 
down. [On one occasion thereafter, seven would-be 
purchasers met at the Kandy Kachcheri and finding 
that 7 blocks were to be sold, drew lots and ar- 
ranged the matter amicably ; but alas before the 
last two were offered, one or two strangers to the 
bargain, dropped in and there was a severe struggle 
and high prices to the advantage of the revenue.] 
The American Civil War — 1861-5— and the 
blockade of cotton, enabled longheaded Bombay 
and Colombo merchants to amass rapid fortunes. 
We compiled and printed a telegraphic Code for 
a local Finn to be used between Bombay, Madras 
and Colombo (there wa«i no cable to Europe) and 
sixpence was the maxiiuum we were ordered to 
put in for Tinnes elly cotton (the price then being 
2^<i per lb.) ; but we ventured to compile up to 
the shilling — and yet in 6 months, tlie Code was 
useless, the price advancing to Is 6d 1 Fancy 
cargoes of 
TINNEVELLY COTTON 
bought by Colombo merchants through their 
Brokers at from 2d to 4d a lb. being worth Is, 
Is 3d and even Is 6d a lb. before they reached 
Liverpool or London four months after ! E. J. 
Darley and hi^ partner, S. Butler, whose 
names and Finu still continue ; Alex. 
Gibson of Alstons, Scott & Co., Charles Shand 
and J, C. Fowlie made the largest profits, 
—Wilson Ritchie & Co. and Cro'^'e & Co. fol- 
lowing later. Piece Goods too was a safe and 
profitable business in the early days, since 
a Chetty breaking his word or bond 
was, at that time, absolutely unknown ! 
But most of the Firms of the early sixties 
stuck to " cotfee " ami their Agency work 
and among them were Geo. Steuart & Co. (with 
Messrs. Geo. Steuart and Geo. Mackenzie), J. M. 
Robertson & Co. (Mr. Murray Robertson, senr., 
Mr. Geo, Christian), Mickwoods & Co, 
(Capts. Wm. and F. Mackwood and Mr. F. 
Smith), R. B. Carson (now Carson & Co.), and 
some others not now in existence of which Geo. 
Wall & Co. and J.I, Strachau & Co. werg the chi^fi 
