CHAPTER  XIII.
 

     THE  REVENUE AND  EXPENDITURE OP CEYLON.



Chief Sources of Bevenuc :—Grain and Customs Dues, Sales of Crown

       Land and Railway Profits—Taxation and  Revenue.



   UNTIL 1828 there was an annual excess of expenditure

     over revenue in Ceylon: but between-1829 and 1836

the balance was on  the right side, owing chiefly to a

series of successful pearl fisheries.  From  1837  to 1842,

and  again from 1846 to 1849,  expenditure  once  more

exceeded revenue ;  but from that time there was a surplus,

and  the amount of  revenue quadrupled  within twenty-

five years, owing to the rapid development of the plant¬

ing  enterprise—the  sale  of Crown forest lands largely

contributing—until in  1877 it attained a  maximum of

Rs.  17,026,190.  After that, owing to the falling off in

the  coffee  crops, the revenue went down, until in 1882 it

reached Rs. 12,161,570.   Then a  gradual recovery set in,

but  there  was  no marked  improvement  until  the. Tea

enterprise  became  fully  established  in 1887-8.   Since

then the improvement has been  most marked, so that for

 1891 the  revenue  reached the unprecedented amount of

 Rs.  17,962,710  (partly owing to a  successful pearl fishery),

 while  that for 1892 is (without any fishery)  likely to

 equal  the revenue of 1891.  The case may be different

 for 1893, and succeeding years, owing to unwise interfer¬

 ence with  Land  Revenue  noticed farther on.  At  the

 same time, owing to the depreciation of the " rupee," the

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