Commerce.

The value of the imports in 1880 is stated in a consular report to have been 709,9007., and exports, 870,3501. The chief imports are cloths, of various kinds, mostly cotton, with rice and cereals, guns, and kerosene oil; the exports are ivory (16,0007.), cloves (17,0007.), india-rubber (201,000l.) gum in 1879. In 1882 the imports were estimated at 800,0007., the exports at 1,000,0007; in 1883 the former at 1,220,0007., and the latter at 800,0001. The principal imports in 1883 were raw and bleached cotton, 46,338, and manufactured goods, 84,6281.; chief exports, ivory, 21,518!, caoutchouc, 15,3107, skins, 10,6411., sesame seed, 13,3327., clove. 10,6321., orchilla, 9,6447 The largest trade is with Great Britain, Germany, America, France, India, and Arabia. In 1883 111 vessels of 107,079 tons entered the port, of which 46, of 56,600 tons, were British, and 11, of 7,783 tons, German.

There is no special coinage. The British Indian rupee is the coin now universally current, though in all business transactions the Maria Theresa dollar (about 4s. 2d.), is the standard of value. The rupee has a standard value of 47 cents.

British Agent and Consul-General.-Sir John Kirk, G.C.M.G.
Consul.-Frederic Holmwood.

Books of Reference.

1. OFFICIAL.

Correspondence respecting Sir Bartle Frere's Mission to the East Coast of Africa, 1872-3. London, 1873.

Report on the trade of Zanzibar in Reports of the Consuls of the United States.' No. 45. Washington, 1884.

Report by Consul-General Kirk on the trade and commerce of Zanzibar for 1881 in Reports of H.M.'s Consuls.' Part XIII. London, 1882.

2. UNOFFICIAL.

Hamburg, 1885.

Decken (Baron C. C. Von der), Reisen in Ost-Afrika. Leipzig, 1869-70. Deutsches Handels-Archiv, March 1883. Berlin. Fischer (G. A.), Mehr Licht im dunkeln Weltteil. Johnston (Keith), Africa. London, 1878. Johnston (H. H.), Kilimanjaro. London, 1885. Krapf (J. L.), Travels during an Eighteen Years' Residence in East Africa. London, 1860.

Stanley (H. M.), Through the Dark Continent. 2 vols. London, 1878. Thomson (Joseph), To the Central African Lakes and Back. 2 vols. London,

1881.

Thomson (Joseph), Through Masai Land. London, 1885.

Wilson (Rev. C. T.), and Felkin (R. W.), Uganda and the Egyptian Londen. 2 vols. London, 1882.

Burton (Capt. R. F.), The Lake Regions of Central Africa. London, 1860. Zanzibar. 2 vols. London, 1862.

III. ASIA.

BURMA.

Government.

On January 1, 1886, the following proclamation was issued by the Viceroy and Governor-General of India :-" By command of the Queen-Empress it is hereby notified that the territories formerly governed by King Thebaw will no longer be under his rule, but have become part of Her Majesty's dominions, and will during Her Majesty's pleasure be administered by such officers as the Viceroy and Governor-General of India may from time to time appoint.' Thus Upper Burma, after successful military operations of short duration, has become an integral part of the British Empire; but although the administration is in the hands of the Governor-General of India, Burma has not yet been incorporated with the Indian Empire. Theebaw, the last king of Upper Burma, has been allotted a residence in India.

Theebaw, born 1858, succeeded to the throne in October 1878, on the death of his father Mengdung Meng, who had himself usurped the throne of his brother Pugân Meng in 1853. The founder of the last Burmese dynasty was Alompra, who died in 1760, and united the previous separate and hostile kingdoms of Ava and Pegu. Under Bodau Phra (1779-1819) Arakan, Martaban, and Tenasserim were added to the kingdom. As a result of the war with Great Britain, 1824-5, a considerable part of the Burmese territory was annexed by that power, and still more after the war of 1852, so that Upper Burma was quite shut off from the seaboard, with which, however, there is excellent communication by the Irrawaddy.

The late Government of Burma was a despotism, dependent entirely on the will of the sovereign. There were, however, a Public and a Privy Council. The former, the Hlot-dau (which, January, 1886, still exists in a modified form), consisted of four ministers, or Woongyes, with the king or crown-prince as president. This body formed a legislative assembly, executive council, and court of justice and appeal. There were, also, four under-ministers, and a host of secretaries and minor officials, who conducted the administration at the capital in the name of the king but under the orders

of the Hlot-dau. The Privy Council, or Byadeit, consisted of four Atwen-Woons, and was supposed to advise the king privately and personally, and discuss all questions before submitting them to the Hlot-dau. The members of these two bodies were officials appointed by the king, and dependent for their existence on his favour. The country was divided into provinces, townships, districts, and villages, each of which had its special governor; corruption, extortion, and oppression prevailing everywhere.

Under British rule the country will be divided into districts, under the government of administrators.

A form of Buddhism is the prevailing religion, and there are some Mahometans. Education, so far as reading and writing are concerned, is very general; it is entirely in the hands of the priests.

Revenue, Population, and Trade.

The revenue of the late sovereign was raised by a multitude of taxes, mostly obtained by extortion; while there were besides frequent extraordinary extortion3. There was a house and poll tax, said to be assessed by a Doomsday Book compiled in 1783; there were also taxes on agriculture, on fruit trees, sugar palm, tobacco land, teak forests, salt, fisheries, &c. The king's revenue was estimated at 105 lakhs of rupees (about a million sterling). The official estimates, under the new government, at present (January 1886) arrived at anticipate an annual deficit of about twenty lakhs of rupees for Upper Burma. Of the taxes at present existing it is proposed to abolish customs, fifteen lakhs; transit dues, nine lakhs; monopolies, six lakhs. On the other hand, five lakhs may be derived from stamps. This would leave a total revenue of eighty lakhs (about 800,000). The estimated expenditure is, police, revenue, and justice, forty lakhs; public works, twenty; military, thirty-nine.

Burma has a length of 540 miles, a breadth of 420, and an area of 190,500 square miles. The population probably does not exceed three millions, even if the half-independent Shans on the north and east borders be included, and some estimates reduce the total to 1,675,000, including 600,000 Shans. Burma Proper does not exceed 50,000 square miles in area with a population estimated at from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000. The Burmese proper are of the Mongolic stock, and use a language of the Tibeto-Chinese type. The free labouring population consists of the small proprietors and common labourers; there was under the late king a large class of slaves and outcasts; and all were practically the slaves of the king. The present capital is Mandalay, with a population esti

mated at about 70,000. Bhamo is an important town near the Chinese frontier.

Manufactures are on a small scale and mostly for home consumption; they are chiefly of cotton, silk, and iron. Though not so fertile as Lower Burma, the forests produce a great variety of valuable timber-trees; while rice, maize, wheat, pulse, indigo, cotton, and tobacco are grown to some extent, and a great variety of fruit trees. Iron is found in considerable quantities, and coal in small quantities; while tin, copper, plumbago, gold, silver, nitre, bismuth, jade, and other minerals exist, but these resources worked to a very slight extent. Petroleum is, however, worked considerably, though the wells are a strict monopoly.

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As Upper Burma has no coast its foreign trade is very limited. It imports rice, cotton and woollen goods, silk, salt, metals, pickled and dried fish, and foreign commodities from Lower Burma, Bengal, the Asiatic Archipelago, and Europe. Its chief exports are petroleum, nitre, lacquer-ware, hides, cutch, sesamum seed and oil, cotton, raw sugar, grain, jade, and tamarinds. Formerly there was a large trade with China, but recently this has greatly fallen off. The exports from Upper Burma to Lower Burma were valued at 1,303,3751. in 1882, 1,670,6827. in 1883, and 1,705,8487. in 1884. the exports from British Eurma to Upper Burma were valued at 1,485,8867. in 1882, 1,581,0797. in 1883, and 1,826,1147. in 1884. Burma has a currency modelled on that of British India. For small weights seeds of the Abrus precatorius are used, varying from one to two grains; 2 seeds = 1 rhine-kye, 4 rhine-kye = a great pal, 4 great pal 1 mut, 4 mut = 1 kyap, 130 kyap = 1 piktha or viss 3.6516 lbs. Avoirdupois.

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Books of Reference.

1. OFFICIAL.

Correspondence relating to Burma since the accession of King Thebaw. London, 1885.

Report on the Administration of British Burma during 1883-4. Rangoon,

1884.

Statistical Abstract of British India, 1874-75 to 1883-84. London, 1885.

2. UN-OFFICIAL.

Anderson (Dr. J.), Expedition to East Yunnan. London, 1871.

Anderson (Dr. J.), Mandalay to Momien. London, 1876.

Bastian (Adolf), Reisen in Burma in den Jahre 1861-62. Berlin, 1866.
British Burma Gazetteer. 2 vols. Rangoon, 1878.

Colquhoun (A. R.), Across Chryse. 2 vols. London, 1883.

Cor (Captain H.), Journal of a Residence in the Burmese Empire. London, 1821.

Fytche (General), Burma, Past and Present. 2 vols. London, 1878. Gordon (R.), Report on the Irrawaddy River. Rangoon, 1879–80. Hunter (Dr. W. W.), Imperial Gazetteer of India; article, 'Burma, Independent.' London, 1882.

Laurie (Colonel), Our Burmese Wars and Relations with Burma. London, 1880; Ashé Pyee, The Superior Country. London, 1882.

McMahon (A. R.), The Karens and the Golden Chersonese. London, 1876. Mason (Rev. S.), Burma; its People and Productions. enlarged by W. Theobald. 2 vols.

Phayre (Sir Arthur), History of Burma. London, 1883.

Rewritten and

Snodgrass (Major), Narrative of the Burmese War. London, 1827. Sangermano (Rev. Father), Description of the Burmese Empire. Rome,

1833.

Shway Yoe, The Burman, His Life and Notions. 2 vols. London, 1882. Yule (Colonel H.), Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava. London, 1858.