On navigating the Indus to the Punjab.
The navigation of the Indus and its tributary rivers, when laid open to the merchant, must advance the interests of commerce. In the revival of an ancient channel to exchange the goods of distant nations, we behold with equal pleasure the advantages of British supremacy in India, and an increased outlet for the commodities of our commercial country. An enquiry into the condition and manufactures of every region which adjoins this great river, as well as those situated between it and the Caspian Sea, seems, therefore, opportunely to suggest itself. I have also the greatest inducement to enter on the subject, since I have seen the bazars and associated with the mercantile community of these countries.
Favourable position of the Punjab for trade.
There is, perhaps, no inland country of the globe which possesses greater facilities for commerce than the Punjab, and there are few more rich in the productions of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Intersected by five navigable streams, it is bounded on the west by one of the largest rivers of the Old World. To the north it has the fertile and fruitful vale of Cashmere to limit its sceptre; so placed, that it can export without trouble its costly fabrics to the neighbouring kingdoms of Persia and Tartary, China and India. Situated between Hindostan and the celebrated entrepôts of Central Asia, it shares the advantages of their traffic, while it is itself blessed with an exuberance of every production of the soil that is useful and nutritious to man.
Extent and variety of its productions.
The productions of the Punjab relieve it from any great dependence on external resource. Its courtiers and chiefs may robe themselves in the shawls of Cashmere, and the strong and beautiful silken fabrics of Mooltan. Its citizens and husbandmen may wear the cheap textures of the native cotton. Every animal may be bounteously fed on the grains indigenous to the country, and a range of mountains, entirely composed of salt, furnishes that necessary ingredient of food; while the upland parts yield condiments and fruits to season the daily bread. To such a mart we can export but with dubious success the productions of our own or other countries; yet there are some articles in which the industry of Britain may still cause a rivalry. Towards forming a conclusion on this subject, we shall treat of the different productions of the country, and afterwards point out the probable effects of opening a new door to commerce on its imports and exports.
Shawls of Cashmere.
The staple commodity of the Punjab is found in the shawl manufactures of Cashmere, which have been so often described by others, that they merely require a passing notice. They are a fabric which no exertion on the part of foreigners can imitate; and, though the European manufacturer may impart much of the beauty, and copy with success the pattern, his web possesses none of the delicacy of the original, and is equally destitute of that warmth and comfort which the inhabitants of Europe, in their more frigid zone, are so well able to appreciate. Nor are the weavers of the adjoining countries more successful in this branch of art than our own countrymen: the shawls of Lahore and Delhi, though woven by natives of the valley, and with the same materials, are wanting in the fineness of those prepared in Cashmere, and have the degenerated appearance of a coarse woollen, but little superior to our own manufactures. If implicit reliance is to be placed on the people, the shawl derives its beauty from the water in which the wool is dyed, and which is peculiar to Cashmere.
Extent of the shawl manufactures.
The yearly revenue from the shawl manufactures, exclusive of every expense, is rated at eighteen lacs of rupees; but, as it is entirely realised in kind, every fraud which the ingenuity of a deceiving people can devise is practised in remitting it to Lahore. Shawls which cannot be valued at a higher price than a couple of hundred rupees, are rated at a thousand; and it is not a subject of surprise that the amount which I have now stated far exceeds the actual realisation by the treasury of Runjeet Sing. With a more judicious system, this Prince might double this source of his revenue. An idea may be formed of the value to which these fabrics may be manufactured, by some shawls having been lately prepared to order, for the Russian and Persian courts, at the enormous price of 30,000 roubles per pair; which is, I believe, about 12,000 rupees. It is a source of complaint among merchants, that the shawls have lately declined in quality, and good articles are now only to be procured by commissioning them from the valley. The article, indeed, has become a drug, and the Punjab government have at present in Umritsir a store of shawls that cannot be valued at less than half a million sterling (fifty lacs of rupees).