140 
CULTURE OF COCHINEAL IN INDIA. 
to produce the same color as that produced by the Grana Fina 
Cochineal of Mexico. In March, 1796, the Madras Govern- 
ment having determined to hold out the most solid encourage- 
ment to the cultivators of Cochineal, offered one pagoda per 
pound for the Cochineal, to such of the natives as might be 
disposed to employ their industry in its culture, this being 
considered by Dr. Berry an allowance liberal enough to en- 
courage the cultivation. 
Specimens of the insects collected and dried, both on the 
coast and in Bengal, were sent to the Court of Directors.* 
These specimens were submitted to examination by the best 
judges of the commodity in England, who all agreed that it 
was the Sylvestre, or wild species; and that there was little 
prospect of its being cultivated to any advantage for the sup- 
ply of the Europe market, unless it could be offered at about 
one-third of the price of the Grana Fina, or at from 5s. to 6s. 
per pound, freight and all charges included. 
The Madras Government had collected, in September, 
1797, 21,744 lbs., and fresh supplies were then coming in, at 
the average price of nearly one pagoda per pound. By a state- 
ment, showing the issue of the sales of the Madras Cochineal 
in England in the years 1797, 1798, and 1799, it appears that 
55,196 lbs. were sold at an average of 8s. Sid. per pound, 
which was little more than its prime cost in India. In 1807, 
the management of the purchase of Cochineal at Madras was 
transferred to the Board of Trade, who reported that since 
the date of the Court's letter of September, 1800, with the 
above statement, 73,366g lbs. of Cochineal, amounting to pa- 
godas 40,S83:14:29, had been sent to England; and that from 
the London Price Current, it did not appear to be an article 
of profit to the Company; and they, therefore, suggested the 
propriety of discontinuing the purchase, or reducing the price 
to two, and one rupee per pound. The Government, in reply 
to this date, directed purchases to continue; and in this deter- 
* Memoir on the Bengal Cochineal, by Dr. N. Fontana. — Asiatic An- 
nual Register, vol. i., 1801. 
