The The Brahma putra. Minor streams River trade. The Nadiyá rivers. whether water carriage is able to compete, as regards the more valuable staples, with communication by rail. But for cheap and bulky staples, or for slow subsidiary traffic, it is difficult to overrate the economic importance of the Indian rivers. After the East Indian Railway was fairly opened, through steamers ceased to ply upon the Ganges; and the steam flotilla on the Indus shrank to insignificance when through communication by rail became possible between Múltán and Karachi. On the Brahmaputra and its tributary the Bárak, and on the Irawadi, steamers still run secure from railway competition. But it is in the Gangetic delta that river navigation attains its highest development. There the population may be regarded as half amphibious. Every village can be reached by water in the rainy season, and every family keeps its boat. The main channels of the Ganges and Brahmaputra, and their larger tributaries, are navigable throughout the year. During the rainy months, road carriage is altogether superseded. All the minor streams are swollen by the rainfall on the hills and the local downpour; while fleets of boats sail down with the produce that has accumulated in warehouses on the river banks. The statistics of this subject belong rather to the department of internal trade, but it may be mentioned here that the number of laden boats registered in Bengal in the year 1877-78 was 401,729. These formed but a fraction of the real total. Boat-racing forms a favourite native sport in the deltaic and eastern Districts. It is conducted with great spirit and rivalry by the villagers. In some places, the day concludes with an illuminated boat procession by torchlight. The great majority of the Bengal rivers require no attention from Government, but the network known as the three Nadiya rivers is kept open for traffic only by close supervision. These three rivers, the Bhágiráthí, Jalangi, and Mátábhángá, are all offshoots of the Ganges, which unite to make up the headwaters of the Húglí. In former times, the main volume of the Ganges was carried to the sea by one or other of these channels. But they now receive so little water as to be navigable only in the rainy season, and then with difficulty. Since the beginning of the present century, Government has undertaken the task of preventing these Húglí head-waters from 1 Dealt with in next chapter. 2 See article HUGLI RIVER, The Imperial Gazetteer, for an account of the engineering history of these rivers. It is also given in greater detail in Hunter's Statistical Account of Bengal, vol. ii. pp. 19-32. further deterioration. A staff of engineers is constantly employed to watch the shifting bed, to assist the scouring action of the current, and to advertise the trading community of the depth of water from time to time. In the year 1882-83, a total sum of £11,667 was expended on this account, while an income of £18,296 was derived from tolls. waters. The artificial water channels of India may be divided into Navigable two classes. (1) Those confined to navigation; (2) those canals. constructed primarily for purposes of irrigation. Of the former class, the most important examples are to be found in the south of the peninsula. On both the Malabar and the Coromandel coasts, the strip of low land lying between the mountains and the sea affords natural facilities for the construction of an inland canal running parallel to the shore. In Malabar, the salt-water lagoons or lakes, which form so Malabar prominent a feature in the local geography, merely required to backbe supplemented by a few cuttings to supply continuous water communication from the port of Calicut to Cape Comorin. On the east coast, the Buckingham Canal, running north from BuckingMadras city as far as the delta of the Kistna, has recently hamCanal. been completed without any great engineering difficulties. In Bengal there are a few artificial canals, of old date, but of no great magnitude, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. The principal of these form the system known as the Calcutta and Calcutta Eastern Canals, which consist for the most part of natural canals. channels artificially deepened, in order to afford a safe boat route through the Sundarbans. Up to the close of the year 1877-78, a capital of £360,332 had been expended by Government on the Calcutta Canals; the gross income in 1877-78 was £44,120; after deducting cost of repairs, etc., charged to revenue account, and interest at the rate of 4 per cent., a net profit was left amounting to £8748. In 1882-83, the tolls on the Calcutta Canals realized £53,372. The Hijili Tidal Canal in Midnapur District, which cuts off a difficult corner of the Húglí river, yielded a net revenue of £3171 in the same year. In 1882-83, this canal only yielded Hijili a net profit of £446, owing to the cost of dredging operations, Canal. and the consequent closing of the canal for a portion of the year. Most of the great irrigation works, both in Northern and Southern India, have been so constructed as to be available Naviga also for navigation. The general features of these works have tion on been already described. So far as regards Bengal, navigation canals; Bengal on the Orissa Canals in 1877-78 yielded £3384, and in 1882-83, £10,847; on the Midnapur Canal, £10,692 in 1877-78, and £10,642 in 1882-83; and on the Son Canals, £5965 in 1877-78, and £3906 in 1882-83; the aggregate being considerably larger than was derived from irrigation. In on Madras Madras, boat tolls in the Godávari delta brought in £4496 in 1877-78, and £6295 in 1882-83. In the Kistna delta, tolls realized £1718 in 1877-78, and £3956 in 1882-83. The works of the Madras Irrigation Company on the Tungabhadra were not made available for navigation until 1879, and they were taken over by Government in 1882. Their navigation receipts in that year amounted to £1068. canals. CHAPTER XIX. COMMERCE AND TRADE. FROM the earliest days, India has been a trading country. Trade of The industrial genius of her inhabitants, even more than her India. natural wealth and her extensive seaboard, distinguished her from other Asiatic lands. In contrast with the Arabian peninsula on the west, with the Malayan peninsula on Ancient. the east, or with the equally fertile empire of China, India has always maintained an active intercourse with Europe. Philology proves that the precious cargoes of Solomon's merchant ships came from the ancient coast of Malabar. The brilliant mediaval republics of Italy drew no small share of their wealth from their Indian trade. It was the hope of participating in this trade that stimulated Columbus to the discovery of America, and Da Gama to the circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope. Spices, drugs, dyes, and rare Medieval. woods; fabrics of silk and cotton; jewels, and gold and silver, -these were the temptations which allured the first adventurers from Europe. The East and the West were then separated by a twelvemonth's voyage, full of hardships and perils. A successful venture made the fortune of all concerned, but trade was a lottery, and not far removed from piracy. Gradually, as the native kingdoms fell, and the proud cities of medieval India sank into ruin, the legendary wealth of India was found to rest upon an unstable basis. It has been reserved for our own day to discover, by the touchstone of open trade, the real Modern. source of her natural riches, and to substitute bales of raw produce for boxes of curiosities. The cotton, grain, oil-seeds, and jute of India now support a large population in England. Before entering on the statistics of Indian trade, it is well to The apprehend the function which commerce has now to perform function of in India. The people have in some Provinces outgrown the trade in food-producing powers of the soil; in many others, they are pressing heavily upon these powers. Agriculture, almost their sole industry, no longer suffices for their support. New imodern India. New industries necessary. Large trade Their capitals, merely royal industries have become a necessity for their well-being. Commerce and manufactures have therefore obtained an economical importance which they never had before in India; for they represent the means of finding employment and food for the rapidly increasing population. A popular sketch of the social aspects of Indian trade will therefore be first given, before arranging in more logical sequence the facts and figures connected with its recent history and development. A large external trade was an impossibility under the Mughal sea-borne Emperors. Their capitals of Northern India, Agra and Delhi, impossible lay more than a thousand miles from the river's mouth. But under the even the capitals of the seaboard Provinces were chosen for Mughals. military purposes, and with small regard to the commercial capabilities of their situation. Thus, in Lower Bengal, the Muhammadans under different dynasties fixed in succession on six towns as their capital. Each of these successive capitals was on a river bank; but not one of them possessed any foreign trade, nor indeed could have been approached by an old East Indiaman. They were simply the court and camp of the king or the viceroy for the time being. Colonies of skilful artisans settled round the palaces of the nobles to supply the luxurious fabrics of oriental life. After the prince and court had in some new caprice abandoned the city, the artisans remained, and a little settlement of weavers was often the sole surviving proof that the decaying town had once been a capital city. The exquisite muslins of Dacca and the soft silks of Murshidábád still bear witness to the days when these two places were successively the capital of Bengal. The artisans worked in their own houses. The manufactures of India were essentially domestic industries, conducted by special castes, each member of which wove at his own hereditary loom, and in his own village or homestead. camps. Growth of trading cities under British rule. One of the earliest results of British rule in India was the growth of great mercantile towns. Our rule derived its origin from our commerce; and from the first, the East India Company's efforts were directed to creating centres for maritime trade. Other European nations, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, and the French, competed with us as merchants and conquerors in India, and each of them in turn attempted to found great seaports. The long Indian coast, both on the east and the west, is dotted with decaying villages which were once the busy scenes of those nations' early European trade. Of all their famous capitals in India, not one has now the |