Note 25 — Memoir

The native trade is confined to articles of little importance, which, however, yield them a considerable profit, as many of the articles found here are not found elsewhere. Thus, for instance, the palmyra tree is not only very useful to them, as its fruit serves them as food instead of rice, but they also obtain from it sugar, poenat,25 pannangay,26 calengen,27 mats, carsingos,28 and caddigans29 or olas, and besides, the palmyra timber comes very handy whenever they fell the trees. For all these sundries the inhabitants of Jaffnapatam obtain good prices in Coromandel and Tondy, where also they sell coconuts, kayer,30 oil obtained from coconuts, and margosy, and many other things which are not found in the places mentioned above, or in Trincomalee and Batticaloa. These articles are rising in price from year to year, so that they fetch two and three per cent. more than formerly, and on this account the number of vessels along the seacoast between Point Pedro and Kayts has increased to threefold their number. With a view to prevent the monopoly of grain as much as possible Your Honours are recommended to follow the same method I did, viz., to order all vessels which come into Point Pedro, Tellemanaar, or Wallewitte to go on to Kayts, as the owners often try to land in these places under some pretext or other. They must be made to sell their nely at the bangsaal or the public market, which is under the supervision of this Castle; because if they unload their nely elsewhere they do not bring it to the market, and the people not finding any there have to obtain it from them at any price, which I consider to be making a monopoly of it. Another product which yields a profit to the inhabitants is tobacco. This grows here very abundantly, and the greater part of it is sold by the owners without the least risk to the merchants of Mallabaar, while the rest is sold here among their own people or to the Company’s servants. A part also is sent to Negapatam, because the passage to Mallabaar is too dangerous for them on account of the Bargareese pirates, who infest the neighbourhood. They also make a good profit out of the provisions which the Company’s servants have to buy from them, such as fowls, butter, milk, sheep, piesang,31 soursop, betel, oil, &c., on which articles these officers have to spend a good deal of their salaries, and even the native officers have to devote a great deal of their pay to the purchase of these. The inhabitants are also able to obtain a good deal as wages for labour if they are not too lazy to work, so that, taking all in all, Your Honours will find that the inhabitants of Jaffnapatam are more prosperous now than they have been for some time, although it has been urged in some quarters that they are oppressed and fleeced and are therefore in a miserable condition. These people do not know or pretend not to know that those reports have been circulated by some of the wealthiest Bellales, because endeavours were made to maintain and uphold the poorer castes against them. Their circumstances being so much better, the people of Jaffnapatam ought not to hope for a decrease of the tithes, as spoken of before. Nor did they ask for this during my time, nor even referred to it, because at the general paresse32 of August 2, 1685, they made a unanimous declaration that they had no request to make and no reason for complaint, and that they were perfectly satisfied with the rule of the Company. This may be seen in the Compendium of the last of November of the same year. In my questions of January 22 of the same year several requests of theirs had already been submitted, which had been all disposed of to their satisfaction, as, for instance, that with regard to the free trade in Batticaloa and Trincomalee already mentioned above, while the other matters will be treated of later on. It is true that the late Mr. Blom would seem to recommend the decrease of the tithes in his report of August 20, 1692, but he did not know at the time that so many privileges would be granted to them. Although the granting of these is of little importance to the Company, it is a fact on the other hand that the prosperity of the inhabitants will also be an advantage to the Company, because it enables them to pay their imposts and taxes regularly, as witness the last few years. (19)