Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/442

426 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF ber, it is reckoned that these forests, without any injury to them, may annually afford 50,000 beams for ship-building and exportation, and supply the demand for small timber, for house-building, and native shipping craft besides. The price paid for teak timber by the Dutch government in former times was at the low rate of about 4s. 7id. per load. This was, however, a forced price, the timber be- ing delivered as an assessment. Any additional quantity was paid at 50 per cent, advance upon this. The government sold the timber thus cheap- ly obtained at a monopoly price, taking advantage of the necessities only of the public, and necessa- rily excluding all fair and regular traffic. The trade was, during the British time, opened to pri- vate speculation, and large quantities of it were sent to the market of Bengal, where it competed successfully with that of Pegu. The established prices, as fixed by the government, whose property the forests are, were then as follow : Straight squared timber was sold at an average of L. 5 per load. A mast piece, 6l feet long, by 17 inches diameter, was sold for L. 7j i4<s. 4jd. per load ; and one of 100 feet, by 32 inches diameter, for L. i'i, i^s. 5d. Planks, or rather what is called in the language of our In- dian ship-builders s/imbin, being planks hewn out of the solid beam by the adze, were sold at the rate of L.5, 14s. per load, and pipe-staves at L. 2, 2s. 9d. per hundred. The existing administration of the