CHAPTER V.

Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce of the Hindoos.

EXCEPT in the rudest states of society, when population is thinly scattered, the earth does not spontaneously yield a sufficient supply of food, and its produce must therefore be increased by artificial means. Under the spur of this necessity, the fundamental processes of ploughing, sowing, and reaping are soon learned, and have accordingly been practised in almost all countries from time immemorial. But though agriculture is thus one of the earliest of human arts, it is certainly not the first in which any great degree of proficiency is attained. So long as land can be procured without difficulty, and in consequence pays little or no rent, there is scarcely any inducement to bestow much care on the cultivation of it, and the imperfect routine once adopted is handed down unaltered from age to age. It is only when population has increased so as to press on the means of subsistence, that the importance of performing all the operations of husbandry in the most efficient manner is fully understood. Then necessity once more becomes the mother of invention, and various important improvements are introduced. By means of new implements and a more skilful application of the mechanical power employed in working them, the labours of the field are performed at once more perfectly, more expeditiously, and more cheaply; crops are made to succeed each other in the order best fitted to give the largest amount of profitable produce without exhausting the soil; and the various materials available as manures are not only carefully collected at home or imported from abroad, but applied in accordance with the laws of the vegetable economy, so as to furnish each plant which is raised with its most appropriate food. Agriculture, as thus understood, requires for its full development a very advanced state of civilization; and hence some of its highest departments cannot be said to have made any approach to perfection till our own times. It is almost unnecessary to observe, that when Hindoo agriculture is mentioned something very different is meant. Indeed, any attempt to test its merits by comparing it with British agriculture, tends only to mislead. Owing to the wide difference in climate, and in the course of the seasons, the deep ploughing and thorough draining to which we justly attach so much importance, would in India be wholly out of place. There nature co-operates much more powerfully than with us, and by abundant supplies of heat and moisture, the two great agents of vegetation, makes the task of the Hindoo husbandman comparatively easy. After the inundation which flooded the lowlands in the rainy season has retired, the deposit of mud which it leaves behind often forms of itself a sufficient seed-bed, and grain, thrown broadcast into it without previous preparation, yields in due season a luxuriant harvest. In like manner, when, in grounds not regularly flooded, a plough of the simplest and rudest form has, by one or more scratchings, sufficiently pulverized a soil which is, for the most part, of light and porous texture, the seed, deposited usually in drills, quickly germinates, and when threatened with destruction by excessive drought, is easily carried with success through all its stages by artificial irrigation. This irrigation, without which a large part of the country would be doomed to absolute sterility, has been provided for in a manner which goes far to prove that Hindoos, when urged by the stimulus of necessity, are not deficient in skill and enterprise. No people in the world have done more to overcome the difficulties of their position in respect of the moisture necessary to secure fertility; and when we see how much they have done for irrigation by means of embankments, raising the level or changing the course of streams, and by means of vast reservoirs, in which the superfluous water of the rainy season is carefully husbanded for future use, it seems only fair to infer that if they had encountered similar difficulties in other departments of agriculture, they would have been equally energetic and successful in surmounting them.

When due effect is given to such considerations as the above, it will be found that Hindoo agriculture, if it does not deserve much praise, is not justly liable to all the censure which has been passed, or to the ridicule which has sometimes been thrown upon it. Several passages in the Rig Veda leave no room to doubt that in India more than three thousand years ago, the land was laid out in fields for regular cultivation; that ploughs and other implements, worked by animals which had been trained to the yoke, were in constant use; and that the principal crops consisted then, as now, partly of the plants whose seeds furnish the staple articles of human food, and partly of those whose fibres are best fitted for being woven into clothing. It is doubtful, however, if from that time to the present any very marked advance has been made. The plough, apparently, retains its primitive form, consisting mainly of a wooden beam bent at its lower extremity into a kind of share, usually, though not always, shod with iron, and totally unprovided either with coulter to cut a furrow, or with mould-board to turn it over. This plough is so light that the ploughman takes it to the field and brings it back on his shoulders; and yet, when a full day’s work is done, it taxes the strength of three pairs of cattle, each pair working it in succession for only three hours. This enormous waste of animal power is owing partly to the unskilful manner in which it is applied, and still more to the wretched condition of the cattle, which, instead of being fully and properly fed, are left for the most part to extract a miserable subsistence from the merest husks. When the kind of crop intended to be raised requires a greater depth of soil than is attainable by the scratching of a single plough, there is no alternative but to make plough follow plough in the same furrow, each scratching a little deeper than that which preceded it.

When the soil has thus been stirred, it becomes necessary, at least when it is of tenacious texture, to pulverize it. For this purpose the harrow and roller would be the most efficient instruments, but nothing deserving the name being known to the Hindoo husbandman, he supplies their place by two very clumsy substitutes. One of these is what is called the moyi, an implement which is made of two pieces of bamboo about six feet in length, and joined together by some cross bars like a ladder. When in operation, this ladder, to which a pair of oxen are yoked, is drawn transversely across the field, while the driver stands upon it to give it weight. The other, a still ruder contrivance, is merely a thick narrow plank. It is in universal use both in Northern and Southern India, and though not always contrived so rudely and worked so clumsily as appears in the following description by Dr. Francis Buchanan, certainly deserves the character he gives it, when he calls it “the most awkward machine that I have ever beheld.” Speaking of it in his report on the district of Purneah, he says: “There is no handle to it, as there is to the planks used for a similar purpose in the south of India; nor have the natives had the ingenuity to fasten a beam to it, by which it might be drawn. They tie ropes to the necks of the cattle, usually two pair to each plank, while two men stand on this to give it weight, and to save themselves the trouble of walking; and they secure themselves from falling by holding an ox’s tail in each hand; and by twisting this they can guide and accelerate the motions of the cattle. So totally devoid of ingenuity have they been, that they have not fallen upon any contrivance to fasten the rope to the upper side of the beam, so as to prevent it from rubbing on the earth; but fairly tie it round the plank, so that, owing to the friction, an ordinary rope would not last a moment. They therefore have been under the necessity of employing the tanners to make ropes of hide which resist the friction, but come high. The tanner is usually paid in grain, and the making these ropes is the chief employment that they have. This plank is called a chauki. The extreme stupidity thus manifested by the Hindoos of Purneah is doubtless an exceptional case; but under no circumstances can the general use of such an implement as the chauki, as the main agent for pulverizing and smoothing the soil, indicate anything but a wretched system of culture.

The soil having been prepared for the seed, some ingenuity is displayed in the mode of depositing it. Sometimes it is sown broadcast, and afterwards formed into a kind of drills by means of a large rake, which, drawn by oxen, tears out the superfluous plants, and leaves the others standing apart in tolerably regular intervals; but more frequently it is drilled at once by a machine, which the Hindoos claim, and apparently deserve the honour of having invented. It consists principally of a transverse beam, pierced by a number of holes, in each of which a hollow bamboo is inserted. These bamboos are placed obliquely, so as to meet with their upper extremities in a cup containing the seed, which, descending through them, is deposited in the drills formed by their lower extremities, when the whole machine is in motion. The mechanical part displays little ingenuity, and the whole labours under serious defects; but the idea of a drilling-machine is certainly conveyed, and the purposes which it is designed to serve to some extent accomplished. In Europe, these purposes mainly are to secure economy of seed, and unoccupied intervals, which allow the weeding and cleaning processes to be effectively performed while the plants are growing. In India the intervals, though sometimes employed in the same way, are too often turned to a different account. From the nature of the climate, vegetation is never entirely suspended, as in higher latitudes, and hence, by making the necessary selection of crops, cultivation is carried on as successfully in the cold as in the hot season. There is thus a twofold produce, and the Hindoo cultivator, in order to secure it, has recourse to the very injudicious practice of raising two or more crops simultaneously from the same ground. The intervals which ought to have been reserved for cleaning the principal crop of rice, or some other kind of grain, are sown, probably with pulse; and in this way, while the opportunity of effectually keeping down weeds is almost entirely lost, the plants, forced to contend with each other, are hampered in their growth, and yield only a scanty produce. If the different crops attain maturity about the same time, they must be reaped together, and can only form incongruous mixtures; if they are harvested separately, the evil is still worse, as the straw of the one which is first reaped must be sacrificed in order to prevent the irreparable injury which would be done by its removal to the other which is still growing. The greed of the husbandman is thus its own punishment; and the loss of one good crop is very inadequately compensated by two sickly and scanty crops, which, besides being of inferior quality, have robbed the soil, and impaired its future productiveness. Where the weeding process receives due attention, it is sometimes performed by means of a weeding-plough, bearing some resemblance to our more perfect horsehoe; but the more common implement is the ordinary hoe, which resembles our own in shape, but has a handle so absurdly short that the hoers in using it must take a sitting posture.

In all other farming operations similar slovenliness is exhibited. Grain when reaped is thrashed by the primitive mode of causing cattle to tread upon it, is winnowed by exposing it to the wind, and is freed from its husk, and prepared for use, by means of the pestle and mortar. The necessity of manure to maintain the fertility of the soil is well known, but owing to many concurrent circumstances, the supply is limited in the extreme. The straw which ought to have been used for litter is often lost through the preposterous mode of cultivation already referred to. Even where wood can easily be obtained in abundance, cow-dung, instead of being reserved for the fields, is employed chiefly as fuel; and owing to the disuse of animal food, stall-feeding, from which alone an adequate supply of manure could be obtained, is either unknown or abominated. Besides these obstacles, with which agriculture has to contend, through the habits and prejudices of the people, there are others for which government is more immediately responsible. Not only has the disturbed state of the country frequently left the husbandman without any reasonable hope that if he sowed the land he would be permitted to reap the crop, but the burdens to which he has been subjected have been rendered intolerable, both by their amount and their uncertainty. Under these circumstances his poverty has generally been so extreme as to leave him utterly destitute of the capital which might have at once prompted and enabled him to attempt improvement; and even when enjoying some degree of prosperity, he has too often found it necessary to assume an appearance of wretchedness as his best security against extortion.

Though India has many tracts which, if not absolutely sterile, would not repay the labour and expense of cultivation, there is no country of equal extent from which a greater variety and a larger amount of vegetable produce are obtained. Almost all plants possessed of economic value may be successfully raised within it—those of the tropics during its hot, and those of the temperate zones during its cold season. Where the capabilities of cultivation are so great, the plants actually cultivated are, as might be expected, too numerous to allow any detailed account to be here given of them. It seems necessary, however, briefly to notice a few of the more important. Among culmiferous crops the first place belongs to rice, which, wherever the land admits of its successful cultivation, from being either inundated during the rains or easily irrigated, is the prevailing crop, and forms the principal food of the inhabitants. This is peculiarly the case in Bengal, in which the failure of the crop of rice has repeatedly proved far worse than that of the potato in Ireland, and cut off the population by millions and tens of millions. Such failures seem to imply that the cultivation, however well its details may be understood, is not conducted on the system best calculated to insure success; and that the husbandman, instead of calculating contingencies, and employing skill and industry in endeavouring to provide against them, is too much disposed to follow an indolent routine, which places him at the mercy of the seasons, and leaves him without resource when these prove unfavourable. Under the common name of rice, numerous varieties of the plant are cultivated, and require corresponding differences of treatment. Some of the varieties ripen in the hot and others in the cold season, and advantage is often taken of the circumstance to obtain two crops in a single year. The ground having been prepared as for a summer crop, both kinds are sown in the same field, and coming to maturity at different times are reaped successively. The best apology offered for this proceeding is, that it gives an additional security against famine, inasmuch as the weather which proves injurious to the one may be favourable to the other. The sacrifice, however, is necessarily great, since double seed is thus wasted to provide against a mere contingency; and the usual result is, as observed above, to substitute for one full crop two of scanty amount and indifferent quality. Another mode of cultivating often adopted, in the same parsimonious spirit, under the idea of economizing the ground, is by transplantation. The seed is at first sown thickly in beds, and when they have germinated and attained sufficient growth to admit of removal, are planted out at proper distances in the field for a regular crop. Could the removal be effected without injuring the health of the plants, it would not only not be objectionable, but an important object might be gained by it. The field while left unoccupied might recruit its impaired powers, or receive, by means of repeated harrowings and ploughings, a more thorough preparation. Unfortunately, a different use is generally made of it. The land, instead of being allowed to rest, is kept in the interval under some other crop, and consequently when planted out for rice, is both foul and exhausted. When these objectionable modes of cultivation are avoided the crop raised is generally abundant, and besides supplying the wants of a dense population, leaves a considerable surplus for export. Accordingly, East India rice, particularly that of Patna, is well known in commerce.

Wheat and barley are chiefly grown in the north-western provinces, and upon the cultivable slopes of the Himalayas, and are not entitled to rank high among the culmiferous crops of Hindoo agriculture. A far more important place is due to a grain of very inferior quality, cultivated almost universally throughout India, and to such an extent, more especially in the more southern districts, as to furnish the staple article of food. This culmiferous plant, Eleusine coracana of Lindley, known in Bengal by the name of maruya, and in the south by that of ragee, appears to attract far more attention than its intrinsic importance deserves, and hence furnishes perhaps the most favourable specimen of the skill and industry of which the Hindoo husbandman is capable, when raising a crop which promises to repay him, and placed in circumstances which promise him a fair share in the fruits of his labours. Having already given from Dr. Buchanan’s report an account of the slovenly husbandry practised in Purneah, it is only fair to produce as a contrast to it the following account of the culture of ragee, extracted from the work of Colonel Wilks:—“The whole world does not, perhaps, exhibit a cleaner system of husbandry than that of the cultivation of ragee (Cynosurus coracanus of Linnaeus) in the home-fields of Mysore. On the first shower of rain after harvest, the home-fields are again turned up with the plough, and this operation, as showers occur, is repeated six successive times during the dry season, at once destroying the weeds, and opening the ground to the influence of the sun, the decomposition of water and air, and the formation of new compounds. The manure of the village, which is carefully and skilfully prepared, is then spread out on the land, and incorporated with it by a seventh ploughing, and a harrowing with an instrument nearly resembling a large rake, drawn by oxen, and guided by a boy.” When the field is completely pulverized, the drill-plough, of which some account has already been given, is put in requisition. Colonel Wilks, after describing it, and the mode in which it “performs the operation of sowing twelve rows at once,” continues thus:—“If the crop threatens to be too early or too luxuriant, it is fed down with sheep. Two operations of a weeding-plough, of very simple construction, at proper intervals of time, loosen the earth about the roots, and destroy the weeds; and afterwards, during the growth of the crop, at least three hand-weedings are applied. This laborious process rewards the husbandman in good seasons with a crop of eighty-fold from the best land. The period between seedtime and harvest is five months.” The only other culmiferous crops which it is necessary to mention are various species of millet, and maize, which, though not indigenous to India, has been successfully introduced, and promises, notwithstanding the obstinacy of native prejudice, to provide a valuable substitute for some inferior kinds of food.

The leguminous plants under regular culture are still more numerous than the culmiferous, and scarcely less important, though they are generally raised, in the way already mentioned, rather as supplementary than as principal crops. Those most in favour are gram (Cicer arietinum), various species of pease and beans, vetches, and lentils. Many plants also are cultivated for the oil extracted from their seeds, and are sometimes made subservient to the improvement of agriculture, by leaving a refuse, or oil-cake, which is partly used as food for cattle and partly for manure. It is needless, however, to dwell on these, or on the different plants which are more or less extensively cultivated for their bulbs or tubers; and we therefore hasten to notice several vegetable products which, besides holding an important place in Hindoo agriculture, derive an adventitious interest from the extent to which they actually supply, or are deemed capable of supplying some of the most pressing demands of our home market. At the head of the list stands cotton, which, furnishing the main articles of Hindoo clothing, has been extensively cultivated throughout India from the remotest antiquity. It is repeatedly alluded to in the Veda, and is mentioned by Herodotus, who, speaking of it, according to the imperfect information which had reached him, as one of the remarkable products of India, says that “the wild trees there produce as fruit a wool, which is superior both in beauty and excellence to that of sheep, and the Indians use clothing obtained from these trees.”¹ Long after the establishment of the East India Company, cotton was known in England only in its manufactured state; and little interest was felt in the raw material until the wondrous inventions of Arkwright and Cartwright had enabled the British manufacturer to supplant the Hindoo, not only here, but in his own native market. The revolution thus produced having deprived the Company of a most important part of their investment, they were naturally desirous to adapt themselves to the altered circumstances; and, knowing the unlimited capabilities of India for the production of cotton, endeavoured to establish a new branch of trade, by importing it in a raw state. There were many obstacles in the way. Even in the depressed state to which the native manufacture was reduced by British competition, it was still carried on to such an extent that all the cotton raised within the Company’s possessions barely sufficed to furnish it with the necessary supply. When at length a surplus for export was obtained, the quality, owing to the imperfect manner in which it had been prepared for market, proved indifferent. Under these discouraging circumstances the export of cotton from India was commenced, and to some extent, notwithstanding the efforts which have been made, it still continues to labour under them. The first object of the Hindoo husbandman naturally is to raise the necessaries of life for his family. Very probably the small patch of land which forms his whole farm scarcely enables him to do more; and hence, when he attempts the cultivation of cotton at all, it is on so limited a scale as to make it scarcely worth his while to be very careful in the mode of conducting it. It is at best but a secondary object, and receives a very subordinate share of his attention. In some districts, however, where the soil is peculiarly adapted for its culture, cotton has always been regarded as a principal crop, and its culture might doubtless be almost indefinitely extended, if a remunerating price could be obtained. It is here that the great difficulty lies. After a long and expensive land carriage to the shipping port, Indian cotton, when it arrives at Liverpool, sells at not much more than half the price of cotton of the same description from the United States. Thus, in 1850, while New Orleans cotton was selling at 5½d. to 9d. per lb., that of Surat realized only 3½d. to 5½d. Were this immense difference owing to an intrinsic inferiority in quality, the idea of successful competition might be abandoned as hopeless, but as it has been clearly established that the present inferiority is accidental, rather than permanent, arising much more from imperfection of culture and of subsequent manipulation, more than from any other cause, the remedy is in a great measure in our own hands. By taking the necessary means to instruct the natives of India in the most approved modes of raising the crop, and preparing it for market—by convincing them how much their own interest may be promoted by adopting these modes—and by improving the navigation of rivers and constructing railroads, so as to afford a cheap and easy transit from all parts of the interior of the country—our possessions in India may soon compete more successfully in the cotton market, and deprive American slave-states of the monopoly which they have too long enjoyed. The progress already made, though less than was sanguinely anticipated, is not to be despised. In 1783, when the importation of cotton from the East Indies appears to have commenced, the amount was only 114,133 lbs.; in 1793 it was 729,634 lbs.; in 1803, 3,182,960 lbs.; in 1813, from some accidental failure, only 497,350 lbs.; but two years after (1815), 8,505,000 lbs.; in 1823, 13,487,250 lbs.; and in 1833, 33,139,050 lbs. Since then the progress has been equally rapid, the imports of the three years ending 1850 having been respectively 84,101,961 lbs., 70,838,515 lbs., and 118,872,742 lbs.

Another article which India cultivates on a very extensive scale, and in which she contributes to supply one of the most important demands of our home market, is sugar. In the cultivation of this article, indeed, she seems to have taken precedence of all other countries, and hence not only the English name, but also those which designate it in other languages, are corruptions of the Sanskrit word ‘sarkara’. As there is nothing deserving of special notice in the Hindoo mode of culture, it is necessary only to give some idea of the extent to which the culture is carried on, and the progress which it continues to make, by mentioning a few of the statistics of its export. In 1832, when the quantity of sugar entered for consumption in the United Kingdom amounted to 3,655,534 cwts., India furnished only 79,600, or little more than a forty-fifth part of the whole. In 1842, when, owing to injudicious taxation, the aggregate quantity imported was still short of 4,000,000 cwts., the supply furnished by India had risen to 935,948 cwts., or nearly one-fourth of the whole import. A great increase has since taken place, but the rate of one-fourth is still maintained, and hence in 1852, when the aggregate import was 6,898,867 cwts., the share furnished by India amounted to 1,532,012 cwts. It is impossible to doubt that, when new facilities of transport are given, Hindoo agriculture will contribute still more largely to the supply of the British sugar market.

Silk, which, though not strictly speaking a vegetable product, can only be obtained intermediately by the aid of agriculture, is another of the articles for which the home market is largely indebted to the Hindoo husbandman. The mulberry, on which the silkworm is fed, occupies an important place in his system of culture, and in several districts forms the crop on which he mainly depends for the payment of his rent. In a question of precedence as to the origin of the culture, the Hindoo would probably be obliged to yield to the Chinese, who, having early established a decided superiority in the production of raw silk, still maintains it, and furnishes the United Kingdom with nearly a half of its annual import. Thus in 1852, when the aggregate of raw silk imported was 5,832,551 lbs., China furnished 2,418,343 lbs. India, however, holds the next place, having furnished in the same year 1,335,486 lbs. This position was not attained without considerable exertions on the part of the East India Company; and as many of the improvements introduced into the mode of winding the silk from the cocoons originated with agents which they employed for that purpose, the share of merit still due to the Hindoos in its production cannot easily be apportioned. The progress which has been made is, however, another striking proof of the success with which, by well-directed efforts, the productive resources of India may be developed. The first silk imported by the Company was what is now technically called “country wound,” from being wound from the cocoons and reeled into skeins after the rude manner immemorially practised by the natives of India. Its quality was so indifferent that it could be used only for a few inferior purposes, and it gradually fell into such disrepute as to oblige the Directors to intimate to the Bengal government that unless its defects were remedied, the exportation of it must be abandoned. For a time improvement seems to have been considered hopeless, for only desultory and not very judicious efforts were made; but at length, about 1775, the Italian method of winding silk was in full operation in Bengal. At the same time strong inducements were held out to the extended cultivation of the mulberry plant. In this way the production of silk in India took a sudden start, and received a stimulus of which the effects are still felt. During the ten years ending with 1802, the quantity of raw silk annually imported into London from Bengal averaged about 400,000 lbs. From that time the quantity, though subject to considerable fluctuations, continued to increase, and amounted in 1830 to 1,186,163 lbs. As already observed, China is now the only country which, in the article of raw silk, still competes successfully with India in the British market.

In indigo, the next article claiming notice, India has so far outstripped other countries as almost to establish a monopoly. The native name of the dye extracted from the plant is nili, meaning blue; but the native seat of it is clearly indicated by the name indigo, which is believed to be a corruption of indicum, the term under which it was designated by Pliny, because in his day it was well understood to be a product of India. Many centuries before the Cape of Good Hope was doubled, it was imported into Europe by way of Alexandria; but it was only after that event that it began to attract much notice. At first this notice was not of a favourable kind. Woad was then extensively cultivated as a dye, particularly in Germany, and the growers of it perceiving how formidable a rival indigo might prove, stigmatized it under the name of “devil’s dye,” and in 1654 procured an imperial edict prohibiting its importation, on the ground that through the use of it “the trade in woad is lessened, dyed articles injured, and money carried out of the country.” These and similar prohibitions issued by other governments, proved unavailing to prevent the use of a commodity whose value was soon recognized. It is rather remarkable, however, that though the knowledge of it was first received from India, Europe long drew its chief supply, not from India, but from the islands and mainland of America. It had attracted the attention of the colonists in that continent, and was both cultivated and manufactured with much success by the British planters there. The East India Company, in consequence, withdrew from a competition which was perhaps thought to be invidious, and ceased to be importers of indigo. At a later period, when the West India planters had discovered a more profitable culture, and the American colonists had achieved their independence, the interest of the East India Company in indigo revived. Great efforts were accordingly made to encourage its cultivation. With this view the Company continued, from 1779 to 1788, to contract for the purchase of it, on terms so favourable to the producers as to be virtually equivalent to a bounty. The culture was greatly extended, and the quality of the dye much improved under this system; but the losses which it entailed on the Company were so heavy that they felt compelled to abandon it, and throw the trade open to their servants and persons under their protection, on payment of freight, duties, and charges. At the same time, to foster this rising trade, the Company continued for many years to make large advances on the security of indigo. The soundness of the practice may well be questioned; but whether by means of it, or in spite of it, the indigo of India has in a great measure superseded that of other countries. The principal seats of the culture are Bengal proper, the districts of Tirhoot and Benares, and the kingdom of Oude. The total quantity shipped from Calcutta in 1851-52 was 9,633,371 lbs., and had an estimated value of £1,821,653. Of this large sum, however, only a very small portion can be said to be realized by Hindoo agriculture. The raising of the plant is all that properly belongs to its province; the subsequent manufacture requires a considerable amount of capital, and though conducted in the same methods as have been known and practised in India from time immemorial, the works in which it is carried on belong, for the most part, to Europeans. Any quantity which the natives manufacture on their own account is usually reserved for internal consumption.

Since the establishment of the plantations in Assam, tea ought certainly to be included among the agricultural products of India; but as it is confined at present to a single remote province, and must still be regarded as an experimental rather than an established crop, we shall pass it without further notice. Pepper, too, though one of the most important articles in which the Company traded at their first establishment, and still cultivated to a large extent on the Malabar coast, will, in like manner, be omitted; and our list of articles of Hindoo agriculture will be concluded with opium, which, from adventitious circumstances, has acquired an importance to which it has certainly no natural claim. The white poppy, which furnishes it, is probably a native of Asia, but is found in other parts of the world, and thrives well under considerable diversities of climate. In Europe, Turkey opium bears the highest name, and containing nearly three times as much morphia, is greatly superior to that of India, for which the great demand at present existing is factitious, and may therefore prove only temporary. The large consumption of the noxious drug in China, while both the cultivation and use of it in that country are strictly prohibited, was early taken advantage of by the East India Company, who, by stimulating the cultivation within their own territories and then monopolizing the sale of the produce, succeeded in deriving from it a large amount of revenue. The monopoly has since been abandoned, but only after providing an efficient substitute for it in the form of a fixed tax; and thus the British government in India exhibited itself in the disreputable position of fostering a species of cultivation the produce of which could only be disposed of by violating the laws of another country, and tempting its inhabitants to an indulgence known to be alike injurious to their health and to their morals. The recent treaty with China, in removing the illegality of the opium traffic, will probably have the ultimate effect of suppressing it altogether, since the Chinese, if once permitted, will soon be able to supply their own consumption. Meanwhile the Indian cultivation continues in full vigour, and over large tracts of the presidency of Bengal, particularly the districts of Patna and Benares, and throughout Malwah, or Central India, it forms one of the most important branches of husbandry. It seems more than questionable whether, independent of its other demerits, it ought not to be discouraged for the sake of the cultivators themselves. From the delicacy of the poppy plant, and the injuries which it may sustain from insects, storms of wind or hail, and deficiency as well as superfluity of moisture, the crop is one of the most precarious which can be raised, and hence is constantly either exceeding or mocking the hopes of the husbandman. His poverty induces him, often against his better judgment, to engage in the cultivation, not so much on its own account, as for the money which those who are ultimately to profit by the crop are ready to advance on the prospect of it, and he is thus too often led to exchange the habits of an industrious peasant for those of a gambling speculator. During the first ten years of the present century, the export of opium from India averaged only about 2500 chests. The present export exceeds 50,000 chests, and yields government a free revenue of above three millions sterling. It is impossible to think of this enormous consumption without being horrified at the misery and crime which must follow in its train.

In the above account of Hindoo agriculture, no mention has been made of one department which we are accustomed to regard as essential to every good system of husbandry. This department is the breeding and grazing of cattle, both for the shambles and the dairy. The former object, of course, is not to be thought of, since the Hindoos regard it as an abomination; and the latter, notwithstanding the great use they make of milk, and the ghee or clarified butter prepared from it, is so little understood and attended to that it is impossible to say one word in praise of it. By this repudiation of stall-feeding and neglect of the dairy the Hindoos are rendered incapable of availing themselves of the alternate system of husbandry, by which grain and grass are grown in succession, and a regular rotation of the crops least exhausting to the soil is established. Some writers, indeed, assert that the Hindoos are aware of the benefit of a rotation, and to some extent practise it; but we suspect that they have allowed themselves to be misled by the name, and when they speak of a rotation, mean only that bastard form of it which consists in raising several crops simultaneously or successively from the same field in the course of a single year. A rotation, properly so called, extends over a series of years, and arranges the crops in the order which both experience and theory suggest as the best calculated to obtain the largest amount of produce at the least expense. It is very questionable if the solution of any such problem has been attempted in India. On this subject the authority of Mr. Colebrooke should be conclusive. In his Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal, he observes (p. 39):—“The rotation of crops, which engages so much the attention of enlightened cultivators in Europe, and on which principally rests the success of a well-conducted husbandry, is not understood in India. A course extending beyond the year has never been dreamed of by a Bengal farmer.” He goes still farther, and we rather think too far, when he adds that even “in the succession of crops within the year he is guided by no choice of an article adapted to restore the fertility of the land impoverished by a former crop.” On the whole, there cannot be much error in holding that, though from time immemorial the Hindoos have had an agriculture, and display a considerable degree of expertness in managing its details, and adapting them to the peculiar circumstances of soil and climate, they have never reduced it to a regular system, or learned to conduct it on scientific principles. In some important departments it is consequently still in its infancy, and requires many improvements which, as the natives themselves are not likely to introduce them, deserve—and even in a pecuniary point of view, by leading to an increase of revenue, would well repay—the interference of government. Without any direct exercise of authority, which might excite distrust or offend native prejudice, it surely might be possible to show how, by means of better-contrived implements, and an improved breed of cattle to work them, the labours of the field may be much more effectually performed; and how, by increasing the size and lengthening the leases of farms, a race of tenants might be created, who, instead of being doomed, as the mere serfs of money-lenders, to maintain a constant struggle with poverty and wretchedness, would acquire an interest in the prosperity of their country, and thus become the best security for the stability of its government.

On the subject of the manufactures and commerce of the Hindoos it will not be necessary to dwell long, as the latter, in consequence of a superstitious dislike to distant voyages, has never acquired much importance, and the former, after attaining, at least in one department, an excellence which has not been surpassed, has been all but extinguished by a competition not conducted on equitable terms. Before the manufactures of Great Britain had made the rapid strides which have astonished the world, the East India Company were large importers of the cottons and silks of India, and continued, even after a heavy duty was imposed upon them, to find in this branch of trade very lucrative returns. Year after year, however, home manufactures, which were not only untaxed but fostered by bounties, gained upon those which, besides being heavily taxed, were burdened with the expenses of a difficult inland transit and a sea voyage of nearly ten thousand miles. The issue of this struggle could not be doubtful; and ultimately, with the exception of some articles of luxury which British skill had not succeeded in equalling, the import of textile fabrics from the East entirely ceased. Nor was this all; not satisfied with excluding Indian cottons from his own market, first by loading them with oppressive duties, and afterwards by underselling them, the British manufacturer assumed the offensive, and appeared as seller in the markets of India. After a struggle his ascendency was completely established, and the natives themselves have voluntarily become his best customers. In 1852 the imports into the British territories in the East Indies were—of plain and dyed cotton cloths 352,637,240 yards, and of cotton-twist and yarn 24,802,091 lbs., valued respectively at £4,242,272 and £1,070,068, or together at £5,312,340. The total declared value of cottons exported from the United Kingdom to all countries in the same year was £29,878,087, and consequently nearly a sixth of the whole export is taken by India. The change from exporters of cottons to that of importers to an enormous amount, cannot have been effected without something equivalent to a vast social revolution among the Hindoos, and accordingly it is notorious that many of their most celebrated seats of the cotton manufacture have undergone a great and rapid decay. Still, from the great difference between the quantity of cotton raised in India, and the comparatively small quantity exported from it, and still more from the quantity of cotton yarn which is either hand spun by the natives, or, as the above figures show, imported, it is plain that no inconsiderable part of the population must still be wholly or partially employed in weaving. The early introduction of the art into India, and the extent to which it was practised as a domestic employment, are attested by numerous passages of the Vedas. Thus we find it familiarly referred to in the way of proverb or illustration, as when an individual exclaims, “Cares consume me as a rat gnaws a weaver’s thread,” or when it is said that “Day and night, like two famous female weavers, interweave the thread.” The antiquity of the art, however, is not so remarkable as the perfection to which it was carried by means apparently inadequate. The spinning-wheel, from which, from the rudeness of its structure, only the coarsest threads might be anticipated, produces them as fine as those of the gossamer; and the loom which seems even less fitted for the performance of any delicate operation, weaves the threads thus spun into a fabric of such aerial texture, that the Hindoos themselves have designated it, without much extravagance of hyperbole, “as woven air.” In the weaving of silk, similar excellence is displayed. This perfection of workmanship, by the use of a few simple instruments, is in fact the greatest achievement of the Hindoos, and is strikingly exemplified in various other articles of manufacture, as trinkets, cabinet work, and cutlery. The excellence of the last is perhaps more owing to the superiority of the steel known by the name of wootz, than to the skill of the workman; but, in other instances, it is impossible not to admire the wondrous dexterity which is displayed when the carpenter, for instance, seated awkwardly on the floor, and provided only with five tools—a hatchet, hammer, saw, gimblet, and knife—produces not only elegant furniture, but “the prettiest boxes of sandal-wood inlaid with steel and ivory, in the most delicate and elegant patterns.”¹ Many other trades furnish equally remarkable instances of dexterity; but, for the purpose of illustrating mechanic skill, enough has been said. Partly from the peculiar frame of their society, and partly from their want of enterprise, the Hindoos are not likely ever to form any of those great factories and manufacturing establishments which, combined with the remarkable cheapness of labour, might enable them to regain the position they have lost, and once more compete successfully with their European rivals. The cultivation of the soil, and the production of the articles for which their soil and climate are so admirably adapted, must henceforth be their chief resource; and in the development of these, seeing that British capital and enterprise have ruined their staple manufacture, they are certainly entitled to expect from the British government better encouragement than has yet been given them.

The internal resources of India being sufficient to supply its inhabitants with almost every article of necessity, comfort, and luxury, there was little to induce them to engage in foreign commerce. It would seem, however, that as early as the time of the Rig Veda they had heard of voyages made in waters where no land could be seen, and were acquainted with merchants whose ships were said, doubtless by a figure of speech, “to crowd the ocean.” It is probable, however, that these were not native but foreign merchants; though it is scarcely to be presumed that the Hindoos did not to some extent share in the traffic carried on in the commodities of their own country. Indeed, sufficient evidence of their having early engaged in foreign trade is furnished by the settlements which they are known to have established on the island of Java. We also learn from the Portuguese accounts of their early voyages to the East, that, after doubling the Cape of Good Hope, they fell in with Indian vessels trading to Africa from the coasts of Malabar and Gujarat. At the same time, where it was practicable, land transport was preferred, and an extensive trade with foreign countries was carried on by means of caravans. What the principal articles of traffic were can only be conjectured, but as the Greek word for ivory and elephant, as well as the Hebrew names employed to designate the apes and peacocks, and other items of the cargoes which King Hiram procured for Solomon, are of Sanskrit origin, it has been plausibly maintained that the country from which they were brought was India. A passage in the Institutes of Menu, which refers to “men well acquainted with sea voyages or journeys by land,” seems to intimate that the ocean had at the date of their compilation become to the Hindoos a well-known thoroughfare; but it has been maintained, on the other hand, that the sea voyages referred to were only to the different ports of India itself, and at the utmost amounted not to a foreign but only to a coasting trade. This opinion is strengthened by the fact that the Hindoos, so far from being a seafaring people, have still an instinctive and superstitious dread of the ocean, and that though not a few of their wealthy merchants are shipowners, the vessels belonging to them are usually commanded by European officers.