( 118 ) 
L They have with few exceptions, no longer 
any branch of commerce, that trade of arrack, 
which was formerly in the hands of the inhabitants 
of Colombo and of Galle, has so much changed its 
nature that it is ruinous to them now and only 
advantageous for those proprietors of coconut trees, 
who are precisely the men who pay no taxes, and 
for other natives of the same caste who carry on 
this trade. 
II. The greater part of the inhabitants, who in 
all conditions and professions were employed and 
paid monthly by the Dutch Company, had, after the 
surrender of Colombo, no longer that source of 
subsistence, there being only the military who 
were employed, so that excepting a small number 
who found occupation the others having spent 
all they had, fell into indigence. 
Mr. Jervis, who died as Collectorof Jaflnapatam, 
reckoned at the end of 1796 32,000 individuals 
from the coast, who had gone to Ceylon since 
the surrender of Colombo, to seek their fortune, 
and that multitude got possession of all the trade, 
amongst them were many of the suite of the 
Collector General who had come to govern the 
country. 
III. Every object of consumption or dress 
brought into the Island, was, after taking of it, 
paid in specie either gold or silver or in produce, 
which in the most favourable years is barely 
sufficient to pay for the rice required. 
Under the Dutch Government, the provisioning 
of the Colony took no ready money from Ceylon, 
four or five vessels from 800 to 1,000 tons each 
brought annually from Batavia or from Europe, 
all that was necessary as well for the Company's 
account as for that of the otticers, or of private 
individuals who imported merchandise on vessels 
freighted by themselves, and for those five cargoes 
not a rupee was exported from the Island in 
specie, everything paid in Bills, which the Govern- 
ment furnished on the payment of an advance 
of lOfj per cent of currency being made to the 
chest or a like value In manufactures of Tutucoryn 
or of the coast. Those vessels brought specie 
and gold for the coining of |)agodas, all which 
has been wanting since 1795 (one thousand seven 
hundred and ninety-five). 
IV. This comparative account of the state of 
the country before and after the surrender of 
Ceylon shews that the always increasing scarcity 
of gold and silver specie in proportion to the 
copper and paper currency, must necessarily have 
created a like scarcity of foreign importation.", 
and by reaction of the produce of the Island itself. 
The interest of money which was in 1795 from 
§ to ^ per cent per month, is now from | to 
1 per cent. The star pagoda which in 1795 was 
according to circumstances, worth about 129 sous, 
was at the beginning of 1808 worth 264 sous, and 
the rupee of Surat had risen from 36 to 72 sous. 
It is easy to comprehend from this that those 
who had not a sufficient capital, or who were not 
in Government employment must have fallen into 
penury. Those even who receive from the Govern- 
ment 100 rupees monthly are worse off than they 
were With 30 florins and the allowances under the 
Dutch regine, because their lijvary has iccrfa'ed, 
and there is notliing which has not at least become 
four times has high in price as it was. 
V. Lastly the augmentation of old farming 
contracts in a degree difficult of comprehension, 
the creation of new objects for forming out, the 
collecting of very considerable new taxes in a 
great measure sustained by the inhabitants of the 
chief places of the Island, all these things have 
united to hasten their ruin so that it is not probable 
that those revenues can be supported. 
The three last years have however been distin- 
guished by constant efforts to restore agriculture, 
and they have been attended with success in 
many districts, notwithstanding the obstacles 
occasioned by the system of farming the tithes. 
It must be an object of surprize that no capitalists 
or merchants have come to settle in Ceylon, on 
this account the circulation of specie has been 
suspended and the trade of the natives has almost 
wholly ceased. 
Formerly the employes of the Dutch Company 
who were able to do" it, lent their capital for f 
or J per cent per month, and any inhabitant who 
had a_ reputation for probity and competency on 
going into the Fort, might have immediately against 
his mere signature the sum of money requisite 
to pay the cargo of any vessel, which on his 
way he might have seen entering the roadstead. 
This ceased after the surrender of Colombo, all 
the Government employe? invest their money at 
Madras, at the risk of losing it there by failure ; 
or since the ingenious invention of debentures 
which make the Governments pay about 10 per 
cent interest on the pay which their employes 
have received, the latter prefer investing their 
money in that manner, and it is shut up in the 
chest and does not re-enter into circulation among 
those who supplied it. It may be added that a 
great part of the Dutch have sent their money 
in neutral vessels either to Europe or to Batavia. 
It is no longer a problem for solution whether 
the Island has gained or lost by the change 
of the ancient order of things. It might perhaps 
be a matter of policy to act as they have 
acted with regard to the chief places from 
which much has been withdrawn by indirect 
taxation without anything having been again nent 
in circulation, but the interior of the country which 
they appeared willing to favour has equally suffered 
without the Government having had the know- 
ledge how to draw from it that revenue which 
it is competent to give. The cultivation of rice 
although it has gained ground during the last 
three years no longer produces more than two-third 
of what it did during the last years of the Dutch 
Government. That of coffee, pepper, arrack, and 
others which Mr. Vande Grafif had protected with 
so much care and activity obliging the inhabitants 
to follow it up iu all their lands, which were 
susceptible of it, has almost entirely ceased, and 
the plantations of grain have been destroyed. 
Freed from the obligation of the old personal 
services, the inhabitants have not made a good 
use of the ideal liberty which they have acquired 
— instead of being more laborious, they are more 
lazy now than they were — those who had a degree 
of honest industry, have taken to commerce, or 
hired farms which little suited their habits ; others 
have given themselves up to all kinds of disorders — 
uniting in gangs to rob, in a word more crimes 
have been committed in one year than were for- 
merly in twenty; this has given rise to the good, but 
insufficient institution of Vidahn Police. Deprived 
of their schools and of their ecclesiastical superin- 
tendence, they have suffered by the loss of this 
union of opinion, which gave them at least the 
name and exterior of Christians — and above all, 
deprived of the vigilance of the Dessave, who 
formerly united in his person all the powers of 
the State, and finally, of the institution of the 
landraads of which the Dessaye was the president, 
