14 
APPENDIX. 
the precious metals. The Government will perceive the 
ineffectual attempts which I made to overcome it. The 
Burmese Government entertains a strong prejudice against 
the exportation of gold and silver, conceiving that it tends 
to the inevitable impoverishment of the country. The 
evidence which exists on the proceedings, however, will 
show that it was not of such a nature, but that it might 
have been overcome. This however, as will be seen by the 
records of the negotiation, must have been effected at such 
sacrifices as would not have been worth the cost. The 
Burman Government, in fact, did not fail to observe, in 
the course of the discussions, that this was the only conces¬ 
sion of moment which it had in its power to make, in re¬ 
turn for demands of vital consequence which it had re¬ 
solved to make through its own ambassadors in Bengal; 
and it determined, therefore, to withhold it, presuming that 
it might be held out to us as an equivalent in a future ne¬ 
gotiation. 
Another grievance which was severely felt by British 
merchants, native, and European, residing in the Burman 
dominions, was the prohibition to take along with them 
their families upon quitting the country. I endeavoured, 
in vain, to procure the abrogation of this custom, which 
was refused on the same principle as that concerning the 
exportation of the precious metals, viz. a desire to produce 
it as a set-off against the large demands which it was in 
contemplation to make in Bengal. 
From the sketch thus exhibited, the Government will 
perceive that much has not been effected in respect to our 
commercial relations with the Burmans. The path has, 
however, been cleared for entering into more liberal and 
extended arrangements, should it hereafter be found expe¬ 
dient to renew the negotiation. The temper of the Court 
of Ava, on this particular point, has been fully ascertained. 
