Wonderful
contrasts these, even if we reduce the Customs valuation by one-half,
to an export of only 423 cwt. in 1839, valued at only R490, or a little
over Rl per cwt., and yielding to the revenue of the Colony only
R12-25, a sum scarcely worthy of collection! The totals for the whole
period of half-a-century of the export trade in Ceylon plumbago are
striking viz :—
Quantity exported ... ... ... ... cwt. 3,526,000
Value of this quantity ... ... ... ... R25,742,00O
Contributions to revenue ... ... ... R841.000
Crediting
plumbago revenue with items brought to account under stamps and other
headings, the amount might be raised to R900,000, and, had Government
always got its own in the shape of royalty, the round million of rupees
would be considerably exceeded.
Taking
averages of qualities and periods, it is probable that R200 per ton is
too high a valuation for this mineral, and that twenty millions of
rupees would more nearly than twenty-five millions represent the total
value of the plumbago exported in fifty-one years, for which figures
are given. At any average price of less than R100 per ton it would
probably not pay to dig plumbago, and as a matter of fact what was
evidently over-production between 1880 and 1883 led to a reaction in
1884, when not only did exports fall off, but operations in the
preparing yards in Colombo were stayed for a time by general consent,
some not opening again even when the probability of a war with Russia
gave a fresh fillip to the trade.
It
is a melancholy fact that plumbago is one of the class of articles like
"villainous saltpetre" and some others, the trade in which prospers
when war has broken out or when warfare is threatened. The reason in
the case of our staple mineral is, that the chief use by far to which
Ceylon plumbago is put is the manufacture of crucibles, nozzles,
&c, employed in the preparation of Bessemer and other steel, now in
such large requisition for shipbuilding, plates for ironclads,
torpedoes, shot, shell, &c.; this, in addition to the melting of
the precious metals, for which crucibles of refractory plumbago are
eminently suited from, their superior strength and perfect smoothness.
There are many minor uses to which plumbago is put, as will hereafter
be shown, but I believe I am right in stating that its extended
consumption (if that word can be correctly applied to an article which
is almost unconsumable) in recent years is due to the great and rapid
advance of the steel industry on both sides of the Atlantic, not merely
to provide materials for ships, durable and light, but for the dread
weapons and appliances of modern warfare, such as Krupp and Armstrong
guns, steel shot, &c. But the abundance of the ore in Ceylon, and
the enterprise and activity with which trie mining, preparing and
shipping of the mineral have been pursued, have in this case, as in so
many others, recently led to production considerably in excess of
demand, so that the profits of the pursuit, never very great and always
precarious, have recently been low or nil.
When
at its highest market value 1 do not suppose that Ceylon plumbago ever
sold for more than £50 per ton : indeed the higest price of which I
have evidence is £48 realized by Mr. W. A. Fernando, of Brownrigg
Street, Colombo. What is this to the celebrated Borrowdale peijfil "
black-lead." mines, which, after having been worked since the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, recently gave out, so that now pencils picked up at
Keswick as curiosities cost sixpence each ! In the report of the Matara
district for 1870 the Assistant
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