merchants
of every countrey which are readie with their money in their handes, so
that in a fewe dayes all is brought up at the prises set according to
the goodnesse and caracts of the pearles.1
A
remarkable instance of the immutability of custom in the Orient is
found in the fact that, except in a few minor particulars, Frederick's
account, written more than three centuries ago, could serve as a
description of the methods of the fisheries in recent years. The
industry was then very extensive, as appears from an account shortly
afterward (about 1608) by Pedro Teixeira, who reported2 that from 400 to 500 boats were employed, and from 50,000 to 60,000 persons resorted to the fishery.
In
1658, possession of Ceylon and India passed from the Portuguese to the
Dutch, who for a time continued the pearl fisheries after the manner
practised by their, predecessors ; but owing to contentions as to the
details of management, they soon resorted to leasing them each year to
the highest bidder, or to several bidders, for a definite money
payment. The successful bidders prosecuted the industry in the same
manner as the government had previously done, employing the same native
fishermen and compensating them with one fourth of the oysters secured.
Under the Dutch rule the fisheries were very unprofitable, and
particularly so during the last seventy years of their authority. There
was practically no fishing from 1732 to 1746, and there was also a
suspension—but not entirely from lack of oysters or of pearls—from 1768
until the territory passed into the control of the British in 1796.
The
colonial government of the British Empire continued the Dutch policy of
leasing, only restricting the limits of territory and season for
fishing. Many objections were found to this method. It was difficult to
regulate the business properly, and there were no reliable means of
determining its proceeds and conditions. At length in 1835, the
government began to operate the fishery on its own account, as the
Portuguese had done two hundred years before, allowing the fishermen
one fourth of the oysters taken by them and selling the remaining three
fourths for the benefit of the treasury. In this way the full value of
the resources was realized without mystery, deception, or concealment,
and the plan worked satisfactorily for all concerned.
Owing,
presumably, to the long period in which they had lain undisturbed, the
Ceylon oyster reefs were in excellent condition at the beginning of
British rule. In 1796 the government derived a revenue
1"Hakluyt's Voyages," Vol. V, Glasgow, intervals,which,rising to the surface, smoothed
1904, pp. 39S-397. Benjamin Franklin states the waters. This might be a suggestion to
that the Mediterranean divers, finding the modern marine and fresh-water pearl fishers,
light below obscured by the surface waves, 2"The Travels of Pedro Teixeira," Hakluyt
used to let a little oil out of their mouths at Society, 1002, pp. 174-181.
