THE  CINNAMON  GARDENS  OF  CEYLON. 
435 
participate  in  the  trade  of  this  important  article  of  commerce 
by  paying  an  export  duty  of  three  shillings  per  pound.  This 
tax,  however,  appeared  much  too  high,  since  the  selling  price 
of  the  cinnamon  in  Europe  was  but  six  to  seven  shillings,  and 
this  advance  in  price  stimulated  foreign  merchants  to  supply 
their  wants  with  other  kinds  of  cinnamon — from  the  Laurus 
and  Cassia — obtained  in  Cochin  China  and  Java. 
When  finally  the  government  recovered  from  its  delusion, 
and  reduced  the  export  duty  to  one  shilling,  and  finally  entirely 
relinquished  it,  the  different  substitutes  for  that  cinnamon 
which  appeared  originally  to  belong  to  the  Island  of  Ceylon* 
alone,  as  a  natural  monopoly,  had  already  on  account  of  their 
much  greater  cheapness,  found  an  entrance  and  sale  in 
Europe,  and  the  culture  of  the  finer  sorts  became  yearly  less 
profitable.  The  price  fell,  and  the  consumption  diminished. 
Only  the  inferior  kinds  paid  for  exportation.  And,  strange  to 
say,  these  inferior  and  cheaper  sorts  now  began  to  supplant  the 
Cassia  in  the  English  market,  as  during  the  high  prices  of  the 
monopoly  the  cheap  Cassia  had  supplanted  the  much  esteemed 
true  cinnamon.  At  the  present  time  only  14,000  to  15,000 
acres  of  land  are  under  cultivation,  most  of  which  are  in  pri- 
vate hands;  they  yield  annually  from  800,000  to  900,000 
pounds  of  cinnamon,  worth  from  £40,000  to  £50,000. 
The  Chalias  are  now  no  longer — as  formerly  under  the 
Portuguese  and  Dutch — serfs  or  slaves  attached  to  the  soil,  and 
liable  to  be  sold  with  it ;  but  free  laborers,  entitled  to  receive 
an  adequate  reward  for  their  services. 
The  cinnamon  gardens  in  the  neighborhood  of  Colombo,  al- 
though for  the  most  part  in  a  decline,  still  give  to  the  whole  district 
an  extraordinarily  gay  and  lovely  appearance.  The  shrubs  four  to 
six  feet  high,  with  their  delicate,  beautifully  green  laurel-like 
*Sir  Emerson  Tennent,  however,  in  his  work  on  Ceylon,  disputes  its  being 
a  native  of  this  island.  In  no  European  or  Asiatic  author  is  mention 
made  of  cinnamon  as  a  production,  or  as  an  article  of  trade  of  Ceylon, 
until  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Although  in  the  earliest  times 
it  was  introduced  into  Europe  from  Africa  by  way  of  Arabia,  yet  the 
merchants  trading  with  the  island  first  had  knowledge  of  the  appearance 
there  of  this  valuable  epice  about  the  twelfth  or  thirteenth  century.  The 
learned  author  considers  Africa  as  its  native  country. 
