5«4 
afterwards I was required to keep the accounts of dealings between 
my people and Baba Yamchwan, so that I came to know all about 
the work. At length, in 1276 (A. H.), I was taken back to Lukut 
by my people and ceased learning English, and it was my duty to 
look after the food arrangements of the coolies at the mines, buy- 
ing the various necessaries myself and selling them to the coolies. 
In 1275 (A. H.) for the first time, a duty was imposed upon tin, 
nothing else being taxed. The duty was 20 per cent. Subse- 
quently the truck system at the mines ceased, and within the next 
two years the Chinese merchants asked that the 20 per cent, should 
be abolished, and to per cent, taken on tin, A tax was placed on 
opium, $2 a ball, and on rice, $4 a koyan. These were the three 
articles ta^ed. 
The price of white Java rice was $58 to $>60 a koyan. Siamese 
rice was $3 less, while th t from Rangoon was $45 a koyan. The 
last named was not at that time much liked by the Chinese . While 
Acheen rice was from $37 to $38, and red Acheen rice .$27 to $28 
a koyan. Malacca rice was sometimes the same price as the Ja- 
vanese, sometimes as the Siamese variety. The price of tin in 
Malacca was within $2 or $3, more or less, of $60 a bhara, which 
is three pikuls. The people of Selangor rarely then went as far as 
Singapore, trading only with Malacca and Penang merchants. 
In 1276 (A. H.) less lice began to come from Java, because the 
land formerly occupied by padi , was now planted by the Dutch 
with sugar-cane, owing to fact, so said the Javanese who came 
hither, that sugar was far more 7-ofitable than padi. A year or two 
afterwards the supply of rice from Acheen also began to diminish. 
The reason of this was that the men of Acheen planted black pep- 
per, which they sold at a high price, though the cultivation of padi 
was light work compared with that of pepper and sugar. More- 
over in Malacca, where formerly there had been numerous padi 
planters, the Chinese merchants roused themselves, opened up 
gardens, and grew potatoes and sago. Coolies were required for 
the work and good wages were offered. Thus it came to pass that 
many Malay padi planters attracted by the high wages, became 
labourers for the merchants in their gardens. This practically 
ruined the padi cultivation, and from that time Malacca, Java and 
Acheen lost their reputation for growing rice. Thereafter only a 
small quantity was produced. 
There remained but two countries, Siam and Rangoon, to bear 
the strain of supplying the large population in this country with 
rice. Supposing that one or both of these countries were prevented, 
through plague or some other cause, from exporting rice, how 
would Your Highness’ subjects live? The question of reviving padi 
planting in this land is one which demands the most earnest con- 
sideration of Your Highness and the Resident-General, since it is 
one of vital importance. 
In the year 1276 (A. H.) rinderpest broke out. One district in 
Selangor, i.e., Sungei Lukut, Mas then putting out a large quantity 
of tin, and Selangor men came and traded in Lukut, getting §3 and 
$4 for goods usually sold at §1. The natural result was that the 
