Book: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 4

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The most important ruby-bearing area is the Mogok stone tract, in the hills
about 60 m. east of the Irrawaddy and 90 m. north-north-west of Mandalay.
The right to mine for rubies by European methods and to levy royalties from
persons working by native methods was leased to the Burma Ruby Mines
Company, Limited, in 1889, and the lease was renewed in 1896 for 14 years
at a rent of Rs.3,15,000 a year plus a share of the profits. The rent was
[v.04 p.0842] reduced permanently in 1898 to Rs.2,00,000 a year, but the
share of the profits taken by government was increased from 20 to 30%.
There are other ruby mines at Nanyaseik in the Myitkyina district and at
Sagyin in the Mandalay district, where the mining is by native methods
under licence-fees of Rs.5 and Rs.10 a month. They are, however, only
moderately successful. Gold is found in most of the rivers in Upper Burma,
but the gold-washing industry is for the most part spasmodic in the
intervals of agriculture. There is a gold mine at Kyaukpazat in the
Mawnaing circle of the Kathra district, where the quartz is crushed by
machinery and treated by chemical processes. Work was begun in 1895, and
the yield of gold in that year was 274 oz., which increased to 893 oz. in
1896-1897. This, however, proved to be merely a pocket, and the mine is now
shut down. Dredging for gold, however, seems likely to prove very
profitable and gold dust is found in practically every river in the hills.

The principal seats of the petroleum industry are Yenangyaung in the Magwe,
and Yenangyat in the Pakokku districts. The wells have been worked for a
little over a century by the natives of the country. The Burma Oil Company
since 1889 has worked by drilled wells on the American or cable system, and
the amount produced is yearly becoming more and more important.

Amber is extracted by Kachins in the Hukawng valley beyond the
administrative border, but the quality of the fossil resin is not very
good. The amount exported varies considerably. Tourmaline or rubellite is
found on the borders of the Ruby Mines district and in the Shan State of
Moeng Loeng. Steatite is extracted from the Arakan hill quarries. Salt is
manufactured at various places in Upper Burma, notably in the lower
Chindwin, Sagaing, Shwebo, Myingyan and Yamethin districts, as well as at
Mawhkio in the Shan State of Thibaw. Iron is found in many parts of the
hills, and is worked by inhabitants of the country. A good deal is
extracted and manufactured into native implements at Pang Long in the Legya
(Laihka) Shan State. Lead is extracted by a Chinese lessee from the mines
at Bawzaing (Maw-son) in the Myelat, southern Shan States. The ore is rich
in silver as well as in lead.

_Agriculture._--The cultivation of the land is by far the most important
industry in Burma. Only 9.4% of the people were classed as urban in the
census of 1901, and a considerable proportion of this number were natives
of India and not Burmese. Nearly two-thirds of the total population are
directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture and kindred occupations.
Throughout most of the villages in the rural tracts men, women and children
all take part in the agricultural operations, although in riverine villages
whole families often support themselves from the sale of petty commodities
and eatables. The food of the people consists as a rule of boiled rice with
salted fresh or dried fish, salt, sessamum-oil, chillies, onions, turmeric,
boiled vegetables, and occasionally meat of some sort from elephant flesh
down to smaller animals, fowls and almost everything except snakes, by way
of condiment.

The staple crop of the province in both Upper and Lower Burma is rice. In
Lower Burma it is overwhelmingly the largest crop; in Upper Burma it is
grown wherever practicable. Throughout the whole of the moister parts of
the province the agricultural season is the wet period of the south-west
monsoon, lasting from the middle of May until November. In some parts of
Lower Burma and in the dry districts of Upper Burma a hot season crop is
also grown with the assistance of irrigation during the spring months. Oxen
are used for ploughing the higher lands with light soil, and the heavier
and stronger buffaloes for ploughing wet tracts and marshy lands. As rice
has to be transplanted as well as sown and irrigated, it needs a
considerable amount of labour expended on it; and the Burman has the
reputation of being a somewhat indolent cultivator. The Karens and Shans
who settle in the plains expend much more care in ploughing and weeding
their crops. Other crops which are grown in the province, especially in
Upper Burma, comprise maize, tilseed, sugar-cane, cotton, tobacco, wheat,
millet, other food grains including pulse, condiments and spices, tea,
barley, sago, linseed and other oil-seeds, various fibres, indigo and other
dye crops, besides orchards and garden produce. At the time of the British
annexation of Burma there were some old irrigation systems in the Kyaukse
and Minbu districts, which had been allowed to fall into disrepair, and
these have now been renewed and extended. In addition to this the Mandalay
Canal, 40 m. in length, with fourteen distributaries was opened in 1902;
the Shwebo canal, 27 m. long, was opened in 1906, and a beginning had been
made of two branches 29 and 20 m. in length, and of the Mon canal, begun in
1904, 53 m. in length. In all upwards of 300,000 acres are subject to
irrigation under these schemes. On the whole the people of Burma are
prosperous and contented. Taxes and land revenue are light; markets for the
disposal of produce are constant and prices good; while fresh land is still
available in most districts. Compared with the congested districts in the
other provinces of India, with the exception of Assam, the lot of the
Burman is decidedly enviable.

_Forests._---The forests of Burma are the finest in British India and one
of the chief assets of the wealth of the country; it is from Burma that the
world draws its main supply of teak for shipbuilding, and indeed it was the
demand for teak that largely led to the annexation of Burma. At the close
of the First Burmese War in 1826 Tenasserim was annexed because it was
supposed to contain large supplies of this valuable timber; and it was
trouble with a British forest company that directly led to the Third
Burmese War of 1885. Since the introduction of iron ships teak has
supplanted oak, because it contains an essential oil which preserves iron
and steel, instead of corroding them like the tannic acid contained in oak.
The forests of Burma, therefore, are now strictly preserved by the
government, and there is a regular forest department for the conservation
and cutting of timber, the planting of young trees for future generations,
the prevention of forest fires, and for generally supervising their
treatment by the natives. In the reserves the trees of commercial value can
only be cut under a licence returning a revenue to the state, while
unreserved trees can be cut by the natives for home consumption. There are
naturally very many trees in these forests besides the teak. In Lower Burma
alone the enumeration of the trees made by Sulpiz Kurz in his _Forest Flora
of British Burma_ (1877) includes some 1500 species, and the unknown
species of Upper Burma and the Shan States would probably increase this
total very considerably. In addition to teak, which provides the bulk of
the revenue, the most valuable woods are _sha_ or cutch, india rubber,
_pyingado_, or ironwood for railway sleepers, and _padauk_. Outside these
reserves enormous tracts of forest and jungle still remain for clearance
and cultivation, reservation being mostly confined to forest land
unsuitable for crops. In 1870-1871 the state reserved forests covered only
133 sq.m., in all the Rangoon division. The total receipts from the forests
then amounted to Rs.7,72,400. In 1889-1890 the total area of reserved
forests in Lower Burma was 5574 sq.m., and the gross revenue was
Rs.31,34,720, and the expenditure was Rs.13,31,930. The work of the forest
department did not begin in Upper Burma till 1891. At the end of 1892 the
reserved forests in Upper Burma amounted to 1059 sq.m. On 30th June 1896
the reserved area amounted to 5438 sq.m. At the close of 1899 the area of
the reserved forests in the whole province amounted to 15,669 sq.m., and in
1903-1904 to 20,038 sq.m. with a revenue of Rs.85,19,404 and expenditure
amounting to Rs.35,00,311. In 1905-1906 there were 20,545 sq.m. of reserved
forest, and it is probable that when the work of reservation is complete
there will be 25,000 sq.m. of preserves or 12% of the total area.

_Fisheries._--Fisheries and fish-curing exist both along the sea-coast of
Burma and in inland tracts, and afforded employment to 126,651 persons in
1907. The chief seat of the industry is in the Thongwa and Bassein
districts, where the income from the leased fisheries on individual streams
sometimes amounts to between L6000 and L7000 a year. Net fisheries, worked
by licence-holders in the principal rivers and along the sea-shore, are not
nearly so profitable as the closed fisheries--called _In_--which are from
time to time sold by auction for fixed periods of years. Salted fish forms,
along with boiled rice, one of the chief articles of food among the
Burmese; and as the price of salted fish is gradually rising along with the
prosperity and purchasing power of the population, this industry is on a
very sound basis. There are in addition some pearling grounds in the Mergui
Archipelago, which have a very recent history; they were practically
unknown before 1890; in the early 'nineties they were worked by Australian
adventurers, most of whom have since departed; and now they are leased in
blocks to a syndicate of Chinamen, who grant sub-leases to individual
adventurers at the rate of L25 a pump for the pearling year. The chief
harvest is of mother of pearl, which suffices to pay the working expenses;
and there is over and above the chance of finding a pearl of price. Some
pearls worth L1000 and upwards have recently been discovered.

_Manufactures and Art._--The staple industry of Burma is agriculture, but
many cultivators are also artisans in the by-season. In addition to
rice-growing and the felling and extraction of timber, and the fisheries,
the chief occupations are rice-husking, silk-weaving and dyeing. The
introduction of cheap cottons and silk fabrics has dealt a blow to
hand-weaving, while aniline dyes are driving out the native vegetable
product; but both industries still linger in the rural tracts. The best
silk-weavers are to be found at Amarapura. There large numbers of people
follow this occupation as their sole means of livelihood, whereas silk and
cotton weaving throughout the province generally is carried on by girls and
women while unoccupied by other domestic duties. The Burmese are fond of
bright colours, and pink and yellow harmonize well with their dark olive
complexion, but even here the influence of western civilization is being
felt, and in the towns the tendency now is towards maroon, brown, olive and
dark green for the women's skirts. The total number of persons engaged in
the production of textile fabrics in Burma according to the census of 1901
was 419,007. The chief dye-product of Burma is cutch, a brown dye obtained
from the wood [v.04 p.0843] of the _sha_ tree. Cutch-boiling forms the
chief means of livelihood of a large number of the poorer classes in the
Prome and Thayetmyo districts of Lower Burma, and a subsidiary means of
subsistence elsewhere. Cheroot making and smoking is universal among both
sexes. The chief arts of Burma are wood-carving and silver work. The floral
wood-carving is remarkable for its freedom and spontaneity. The carving is
done in teak wood when it is meant for fixtures, but teak has a coarse
grain, and otherwise _yamane_ clogwood, said to be a species of gmelina, is
preferred. The tools employed are chisel, gouge and mallet. The design is
traced on the wood with charcoal, gouged out in the rough, and finished
with sharp fine tools, using the mallet for every stroke. The great bulk of
the silver work is in the form of bowls of different sizes, in shape
something like the lower half of a barrel, only more convex, of betel
boxes, cups and small boxes for lime. Both in the wood-carving and silver
work the Burmese character displays itself, giving boldness, breadth and
freedom of design, but a general want of careful finish. Unfortunately the
national art is losing its distinctive type through contact with western
civilization.

_Commerce._--The chief articles of export from Burma are rice and timber.
In 1805 the quantity of rice exported in the foreign and coastal trade
amounted to 1,419,173 tons valued at Rs.9,77,66,132, and in 1905 the
figures were 2,187,764 tons, value Rs.15,67,28,288. England takes by far
the greatest share of Burma's rice, though large quantities are also
consumed in Germany, while France, Italy, Belgium and Holland also consume
a considerable amount. The regular course of trade is apt to be deflected
by famines in India or Japan. In 1900 over one million tons of rice were
shipped to India during the famine there. The rice-mills, almost all
situated at the various seaports, secure the harvest from the cultivator
through middlemen. The value of teak exported in 1895 was Rs.1,34,64,303,
and in 1905, Rs.1,31,03,401. Subordinate products for exports include cutch
dye, caoutchouc or india-rubber, cotton, petroleum and jade. By far the
largest of the imports are cotton, silk and woollen piece-goods, while
subordinate imports include hardware, gunny bags, sugar, tobacco and
liquors.

The following table shows the progressive value of the trade of Burma since
1871-1872:--

+-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
| Year. | Imports. | Exports. | Total. |
+-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+
| | Rs. | Rs. | Rs. |
| 1871-1872 | 3,15,79,860 | 3,78,02,170 | 6,93,82,030 |
| 1881-1882 | 6,38,49,840 | 8,05,71 410 | 14,44,21,250 |
| 1801-1892 | 10,50,06,247 | 12,67,21,878 | 23,17,28,125 |
| 1961-1902 | 12,78,46,636 | 18,74,47,200 | 31,52,93,836 |
| 1904-1905 | 17,06,20,796 | 23.94.69.114 | 41,00,89,910 |
+-----------+--------------+--------------+--------------+

_Internal Communications._--In 1871-1872 there were 814 m. of road in Lower
Burma, but the chief means of internal communication was by water. Steamers
plied on the Irrawaddy as far as Thayetmyo. The vessels of the Irrawaddy
Flotilla Company now ply to Bassein and to all points on the Irrawaddy as
far north as Bhamo, and in the dry weather to Myitkyina, and also on the
Chindwin as far north as Kindat, and to Homalin during the rains. The
Arakan Flotilla Company has also helped to open up the Arakan division. The
length of roads has not greatly increased in Lower Burma, but there has
been a great deal of road construction in Upper Burma. At the end of the
year 1904-1905 there were in the whole province 7486 m. of road, 1516 m. of
which were metalled and 3170 unmetalled, with 2799 m. of other tracks. But
the chief advance in communications has been in railway construction. The
first railway from Rangoon to Prome, 161 m., was opened in 1877, and that
from Rangoon to Toungoo, 166 m., was opened in 1884. Since the annexation
of Upper Burma this has been extended to Mandalay, and the Mu Valley
railway has been constructed from Sagaing to Myitkyina, a distance of 752
m. from Rangoon. The Mandalay-Lashio railway has been completed, and trains
run from Mandalay to Lashio, a distance of 178 m. The Sagaing-Monywa-Alon
branch and the Meiktila-Myingyan branch were opened to traffic during 1900.
In 1902 a railway from Henzada to Bassein was formed and a connecting link
with the Prome line from Henzada to Letpadan was opened in 1903. Railways
were also constructed from Pegu to Martaban, 121 m. in length, and from
Henzada to Kyang-in, 66 m. in length; and construction was contemplated of
a railway from Thazi towards Taung-gyi, the headquarters of the southern
Shan States. The total length of lines open in 1904-1905 was 1340 m., but
railway communication in Burma is still very incomplete. Five of the eight
commissionerships and Lashio, the capital of the northern Shan States, have
communication with each other by railway, but Taung-gyi and the southern
Shan States can still only be reached by a hill-road through difficult
country for cart traffic, and the headquarters of three commissionerships,
Moulmein, Akyab and Minbu, have no railway communication with Rangoon.
Arakan is in the worst position of all, for it is connected with Burma by
neither railway nor river, nor even by a metalled road, and the only way to
reach Akyab from Rangoon is once a week by sea.

_Law._--The British government has administered the law in Burma on
principles identical with those which have been adopted elsewhere in the
British dominions in India. That portion of the law which is usually
described as Anglo-Indian law (see INDIAN LAW) is generally applicable to
Burma, though there are certain districts inhabited by tribes in a backward
state of civilization which are excepted from its operation. Acts of the
British parliament relating to India generally would be applicable to
Burma, whether passed before or after its annexation, these acts being
considered applicable to all the dominions of the crown in India. As
regards the acts of the governor-general in council passed for India
generally--they, too, were from the first applicable to Lower Burma; and
they have all been declared applicable to Upper Burma also by the Burma
Laws Act of 1898. That portion of the English law which has been introduced
into India without legislation, and all the rules of law resting upon the
authority of the courts, are made applicable to Burma by the same act. But
consistently with the practice which has always prevailed in India, there
is a large field of law in Burma which the British government has not
attempted to disturb. It is expressly directed by the act of 1898 above
referred to, that in regard to succession, inheritance, marriage, caste or
any religious usage or institution, the law to be administered in Burma is
(_a_) the Buddhist law in cases where the parties are Buddhists, (_b_) the
Mahommedan law in cases where the parties are Mahommedans, (_c_) the Hindu
law in cases where the parties are Hindus, except so far as the same may
have been modified by the legislature. The reservation thus made in favour
of the native laws is precisely analogous to the similar reservation made
in India (see INDIAN LAW, where the Hindu law and the Mahommedan Law are
described). The Buddhist law is contained in certain sacred books called
_Dhammathats_. The laws themselves are derived from one of the collections
which Hindus attribute to Manu, but in some respects they now widely differ
from the ancient Hindu law so far as it is known to us. There is no
certainty as to the date or method of their introduction. The whole of the
law administered now in Burma rests ultimately upon statutory authority;
and all the Indian acts relating to Burma, whether of the governor-general
or the lieutenant-governor of Burma in council, will be found in the Burma
Code (Calcutta, 1899), and in the supplements to that volume which are
published from time to time at Rangoon. There is no complete translation of
the _Dhammathats_, but a good many of them have been translated. An account
of these translations will be found in _The Principles of Buddhist Law_ by
Chan Toon (Rangoon, 1894), which is the first attempt to present those
principles in something approaching to a systematic form.

_History._--It is probable that Burma is the _Chryse Regio_ of Ptolemy, a
name parallel in meaning to _Sonaparanta_, the classic Pali title assigned
to the country round the capital in Burmese documents. The royal history
traces the lineage of the kings to the ancient Buddhist monarchs of India.
This no doubt is fabulous, but it is hard to say how early communication
with Gangetic India began. From the 11th to the 13th century the old Burman
empire was at the height of its power, and to this period belong the
splendid remains of architecture at Pagan. The city and the dynasty were
destroyed by a Chinese (or rather Mongol) invasion (1284 A.D.) in the reign
of Kublai Khan. After that the empire fell to a low ebb, and Central Burma
was often subject to Shan dynasties. In the early part of the 16th century
the Burmese princes of Toungoo, in the north-east of Pegu, began to rise to
power, and established a dynasty which at one time held possession of Pegu,
Ava and Arakan. They made their capital at Pegu, and to this dynasty belong
the gorgeous [v.04 p.0844] descriptions of some of the travellers of the
16th century. Their wars exhausted the country, and before the end of the
century it was in the greatest decay. A new dynasty arose in Ava, which
subdued Pegu, and maintained their supremacy throughout the 17th and during
the first forty years of the 18th century. The Peguans or Talaings then
revolted, and having taken the capital Ava, and made the king prisoner,
reduced the whole country to submission. Alompra, left by the conqueror in
charge of the village of Motshobo, planned the deliverance of his country.
He attacked the Peguans at first with small detachments; but when his
forces increased, he suddenly advanced, and took possession of the capital
in the autumn of 1753.

In 1754 the Peguans sent an armament of war-boats against Ava, but they
were totally defeated by Alompra; while in the districts of Prome, Donubyu,
&c., the Burmans revolted, and expelled all the Pegu garrisons in their
towns. In 1754 Prome was besieged by the king of Pegu, who was again
defeated by Alompra, and the war was transferred from the upper provinces
to the mouths of the navigable rivers, and the numerous creeks and canals
which intersect the lower country. In 1755 the yuva raja, the king of
Pegu's brother, was equally unsuccessful, after which the Peguans were
driven from Bassein and the adjacent country, and were forced to withdraw
to the fortress of Syriam, distant 12 m. from Rangoon. Here they enjoyed a
brief repose, Alompra being called away to quell an insurrection of his own
subjects, and to repel an invasion of the Siamese; but returning
victorious, he laid siege to the fortress of Syriam and took it by
surprise. In these wars the French sided with the Peguans, the English with
the Burmans. Dupleix, the governor of Pondicherry, had sent two ships to
the aid of the former; but the master of the first was decoyed up the river
by Alompra, where he was massacred along with his whole crew. The other
escaped to Pondicherry. Alompra was now master of all the navigable rivers;
and the Peguans, shut out from foreign aid, were finally subdued. In 1757
the conqueror laid siege to the city of Pegu, which capitulated, on
condition that their own king should govern the country, but that he should
do homage for his kingdom, and should also surrender his daughter to the
victorious monarch. Alompra never contemplated the fulfilment of the
condition; and having obtained possession of the town, abandoned it to the
fury of his soldiers. In the following year the Peguans vainly endeavoured
to throw off the yoke. Alompra afterwards reduced the town and district of
Tavoy, and finally undertook the conquest of the Siamese. His army advanced
to Mergui and Tenasserim, both of which towns were taken; and he was
besieging the capital of Siam when he was taken ill. He immediately ordered
his army to retreat, in hopes of reaching his capital alive; but he expired
on the way, in 1760, in the fiftieth year of his age, after he had reigned
eight years. In the previous year he had massacred the English of the
establishment of Negrais, whom he suspected of assisting the Peguans. He
was succeeded by his eldest son Noungdaugyi, whose reign was disturbed by
the rebellion of his brother Sin-byu-shin, and afterwards by one of his
father's generals. He died in little more than three years, leaving one son
in his infancy; and on his decease the throne was seized by his brother
Sin-byu-shin. The new king was intent, like his predecessors, on the
conquest of the adjacent states, and accordingly made war in 1765 on the
Manipur kingdom, and also on the Siamese, with partial success. In the
following year he defeated the Siamese, and, after a long blockade,
obtained possession of their capital. But while the Burmans were extending
their conquests in this quarter, they were invaded by a Chinese army of
50,000 men from the province of Yunnan. This army was hemmed in by the
skill of the Burmans; and, being reduced by the want of provisions, it was
afterwards attacked and totally destroyed, with the exception of 2500 men,
who were sent in fetters to work in the Burmese capital at their several
trades. In the meantime the Siamese revolted, and while the Burman army was
marching against them, the Peguan soldiers who had been incorporated in it
rose against their companions, and commencing an indiscriminate massacre,
pursued the Burman army to the gates of Rangoon, which they besieged, but
were unable to capture. In 1774 Sin-byu-shin was engaged in reducing the
marauding tribes. He took the district and fort of Martaban from the
revolted Peguans; and in the following year he sailed down the Irrawaddy
with an army of 50,000 men, and, arriving at Rangoon, put to death the aged
monarch of Pegu, along with many of his nobles, who had shared with him in
the offence of rebellion. He died in 1776, after a reign of twelve years,
during which he had extended the Burmese dominions on every side. He was
succeeded by his son, a youth of eighteen, called Singumin (Chenguza of
Symes), who proved himself a bloodthirsty despot, and was put to death by
his uncle, Bodawpaya or Mentaragyi, in 1781, who ascended the vacant
throne. In 1783 the new king effected the conquest of Arakan. In the same
year he removed his residence from Ava, which, with brief interruptions,
had been the capital for four centuries, to the new city of Amarapura, "the
City of the Immortals."

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