SIKHIM AND BHUTAN
part of the people, however, is naturally productive of many irregularities, and the coldness of the climate inclines them to an excessive use of spirituous liquor. The more I see of the Bhutanese the more I am pleased with them. The common people are good-humoured, downright, and, I think, thoroughly trusty. The statesmen have some of the art which belongs to their profession. They are the best built race of men I ever saw, many of them very handsome, with complexions as fair as the French.”
In its relations with Tibet Bogle seems to have found Bhutan a dependent Power; but the Tibetan authority over the country could not have been very strong if the Deb Raja was able to exclude Tibetan traders from his country, as appears to have been the case.
The trade of the country was almost entirely in the hands of the Deb Raja, his ministers and governors, who held the monopoly of it both with Bengal and Tibet. The exports to Bengal were chiefly ponies, musk, cow-tails, coarse red blankets, and striped woollen cloths half a yard wide. The imports were chiefly broadcloth, spices, dyes, Malda cloth, coarse linen, hogs, and salt fish. The great trade with Bengal was carried on by means of the annual caravans to Rangpur, from which the Government of Bengal received about Rs. 2000 by way of duty, and there was also trade with Dinajpur. The great obstacle which Bogle found in inducing the Deb Raja to allow open trade through Bhutan into Tibet was the monopoly of it which the Raja enjoyed along with his ministers, and the profits of which, he was afraid, the admission of foreign merchants would lessen. This disinclination to admit foreign traders was not confined to traders from Bengal only; even the merchants of Tibet were not allowed to purchase goods in Bhutan beyond exchanging salt and wool for rice.
The following were the articles of trade drawn up by Bogle with the Deb Raja:
“Whereas the trade between Bengal and Tibet was formerly considerable, and all Hindu and Mussalman
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