Burmah (1858)

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In his letters of February 11, 18 and 24, 1858 Engels informed Marx of his work on "Burmah" and his difficulties in obtaining material on the history of that country and particularly the Anglo-Burmese war of 1852. On March 4 he wrote telling Marx that he had almost finished the article but was compelled to make "sundry necessary additions from another source". An entry in Marx's notebook shows that "Burmah" was sent to New York on March 9 (see Note 323) though Marx did not inform Engels that he had received it until March 15. p. 280

Burmah, or the Kingdom of Ava, an extensive state in the S. E. of Asia, beyond the Ganges, formerly much larger than at present. Its former limits were between lat. 9° and 27° N., ranging upward of 1,000 miles in length, and over 600 in breadth. At present the Burmese territory reaches from lat. 19° 25’ to 28° 15’ N., and from long. 93° 2’ to 100° 40’ E.; comprising a space measuring 540 miles in length from N. to S., and 420 miles in breadth, and having an area of about 200,000 sq. m. It is bounded on the W. by the province of Aracan, surrendered to the British by the Burmese treaty of 1826, and by the petty states of Tiperah, Munnipoor, and Assam, from which countries it is separated by high mountain ridges; on the S. lies the newly acquired British province of Pegu, on the N. upper Assam and Thibet, and on the E. China. The population, according to Capt. Henry Yule, does not exceed 3,000,000.

Since the cession of Pegu to the British, Burmah has neither alluvial plains nor a seaboard, its southern frontier being at least 200 miles from the mouths of the Irrawaddy, and the country rising gradually from this frontier to the north. For about 300 miles it is elevated, and beyond that it is rugged and mountainous. This territory is watered by three great streams, the Irrawaddy, its tributary the Khyen-dwem, and the Salwin. These rivers have their sources in the northern chain of mountains, and run in a southerly course to the Indian ocean.

Though Burmah has been robbed of its most fertile territory, that which remains is far from unproductive. The forests abound in valuable timber, among which teak, used for ship building, holds a prominent place. Almost every description of timber known in India is found also in Burmah. Stick lac of excellent quality, and varnish used in the manufacture of lacquered ware, are produced. Ava, the capital, is supplied with superior teak from a forest at 15 days’ distance. Agriculture and horticulture are everywhere in a remarkably backward state; and were it not for the wealth of the soil and the congeniality of the climate, the state would be very poor. Fruits are not cultivated at all, and the crops are managed with little skill. Of garden vegetables, the onion and the capsicum are the most generally cultivated. Yams and sweet potatoes are also found, together with inconsiderable quantities of melons, cucumbers, and egg-plants. The young shoots of bamboo, wild asparagus, and the succulent roots of various aquatic plants, supply to the inhabitants the place of cultivated garden fruits. Mangoes, pineapples, oranges, custard-apples, the jack (a species of breadfruit), the papaw, fig, and the plantain (that greatest enemy of civilization), are the chief fruits, and all these grow with little or no care. The chief crops are rice (which is in some parts used as a circulating medium), maize, millet, wheat, various pulses, palms, sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton of short staple, and indigo. Sugar-cane is not generally cultivated, and the art of making sugar is scarcely known, although the plant has been long known to the people. A cheap, coarse sugar is obtained from the juice of the Palmyra palm, of which numerous groves are found, especially south of the capital. Indigo is so badly managed as to be entirely unfit for exportation. Rice in the south, and maize and millet in the north, are the standard crops. Sesamum is universally raised for cattle. On the northern hills the genuine tea-plant of China is cultivated to considerable extent; but, singularly, the natives, instead of steeping it, as they do the Chinese tea, eat the leaf prepared with oil and garlic. Cotton is raised chiefly in the dry lands of the upper provinces.

The dense forests of Burmah abound in wild animals, among which the chief are the elephant, the one-horned rhinoceros, the tiger and leopard, the wild hog, and several species of deer. Of birds, the wild cock is common; and there are also varieties of pheasants, partridges, and quails. The domestic animals are the ox, the horse, and the buffalo. The elephant also is used as a draught animal. The camel is not known. A few goats and sheep are found, but the breed is little cared for. Asses are also little used. Dogs are neglected in the Burmese economy, but cats are numerous. Horses are used exclusively for riding, and are rarely more than thirteen hands high. The ox is the beast of draught and burden in the north; the buffalo in the south.

Of minerals, gold, carried down in the sands of the mountains, is found in the beds of the various streams. Silver mines are wrought at Bor-twang, on the Chinese frontier. The amount of gold and silver obtained annually has been estimated to approach $1,000,000. Iron is abundant in the eastern portion of Laos, but is so rudely wrought that from 30 to 40 per cent, of the metal is lost in the process of forging. The petroleum pits on the banks of the Irrawaddy produce 8,000,000 pounds per annum. Copper, tin, lead, and antimony are known to exist in the Laos country, but it is doubtful if any of these metals are obtained in considerable quantities, owing to the ignorance of the people of the methods of working ores. The mountains near the city of Ava furnish a superior quality of limestone; fine statuary marble is found 40 miles from the capital, on the banks of the Irrawaddy; amber exists so plentifully that it sells in Ava at the low price of $1 per pound; and nitre, natron, salt, and coal are extensively diffused over the entire country, though the latter is little used. The petroleum, which is produced in such abundance, is used by all classes in Burmah for burning in lamps, and as a protection against insects. It is dipped up in buckets from narrow wells sunk to a depth of from 210 to 300 feet; it bubbles up at the bottom like a living spring of water. Turpentine is found in various portions of the country, and is extensively exported to China. The oriental sapphire, ruby, topaz, and amethyst, beside varieties of the chrysoberyl and spinelle, are found in 2 districts in the beds of rivulets. All, over $50 in value, are claimed by the crown, and sent to the treasury; and no strangers are allowed to search for the stones.

From what has been said, it is evident that the Burmese have made but little advance in the practice of the useful arts. Women carry on the whole process of the cotton manufacture, using a rude loom, and displaying comparatively little ingenuity or skill. Porcelain is imported from China; British cottons are imported, and even in the interior undersell the native products; though the Burmese melt iron, steel is brought from Bengal; silks are manufactured at several places, but from raw Chinese silk; and while a very great variety of goods is imported, the exports are comparatively insignificant, those to China, with which the Burmese carry on their most extensive commerce, consisting of raw cotton, ornamental feathers, chiefly of the blue jay, edible swallows’ nests, ivory, rhinoceros and deer’s horns, and some minor species of precious stones. In return for this, the Burmese import wrought copper, orpiment, quicksilver, vermilion, iron pans, brass wire, tin, lead, alum, silver, gold and gold leaf, earthenware, paints, carpets, rhubarb, tea, honey, raw silk, velvets, Chinese spirits, musk, verdigris, dried fruits, paper, fans, umbrellas, shoes, and wearing apparel. Gold and silver ornaments of a very rude description are made in various parts of the country; weapons, scissors, and carpenters’ tools are manufactured at Ava; idols are sculptured in considerable quantities about 40 miles from Ava, where is found a hill of pure white marble. The currency is in a wretched condition. Lead, silver, and gold, all uncoined, form the circulating medium. A large portion of the commerce is carried on by way of barter, in consequence of the difficulties attending the making of small payments. The precious metals must be weighed and assayed at every change of hands, for which bankers charge about 3 V2 Pe r cent. Interest ranges from 25 to 60 per cent, per annum. Petroleum is the most universal article of consumption. For it are exchanged saltpetre, lime, paper, lacquer ware, cotton and silk fabrics, iron and brass ware, sugar, tamarinds, &c. The yonnet-ni (the standard silver of the country) has generally an alloy of copper of 10 or 15 per cent. Below 85/\oo the mixture does not pass current, that degree of fineness being required in the money paid for taxes.

The revenues of the empire proceed from a house tax, which is levied on the village, the village authorities afterward assessing householders according to their respective ability to pay. This tax varies greatly, as from 6 tikals per householder in Prome to 27 tikals in Tongho. Those subject to military duty, the farmers of the royal domain, and artificers employed on the public works, are exempt. The soil is taxed according to crops. The tobacco tax is paid in money; other crops pay 5 per cent, in kind. The farmers of the royal lands pay over one-half their crops. Fishing ports on lake and river are let either for a stated term or for a proportion of dried fish from the catch. These various revenues are collected by and for the use of the officers of the crown, each of whom receives, according to his importance, a district greater or less, from the proceeds of which he lives. The royal revenue is raised from the sale of monopolies of the crown, among which cotton is the chief. In the management of this monopoly, the inhabitants are forced to deliver certain articles at certain low prices to the crown officers, who sell them at an enormous advance. Thus, lead is delivered by the producers at the rate of 5 tikals per bis, or 3.6 lbs., and his majesty sells it at the rate of 20 tikals. The royal revenues amount, so it is stated, to about 1,820,000 tikals, or £227,500 per annum, to which must be added a further sum of £44,250, the produce of certain tolls levied in particular districts. These moneys keep the royal household. This system of taxation, though despotic, is singularly simple in its details; and a further exemplification of simplicity in government, is the manner in which the army is made to maintain itself, or, at least, to be supported by the people. The modes of enlistment are various; in some districts the volunteer system being adhered to, while in others, every 16 families are forced to furnish 2 men armed and equipped. They are further obliged to furnish to these recruits, monthly, 56 lbs. of rice and 5 rupees. In the province of Padoung every soldier is quartered upon 2 families, who receive 5 acres of tax-free land, and have to furnish the man of war with half the crops, and 25 rupees per annum, beside wood and other minor necessities. The captain of 50 men receives 10 tikals (the tikal is worth $1 1/4, or 2 1/2 rupees) each from 6 families, and half the crop of a 7th. The bo, or centurion, is maintained by the labor of 52 families, and the bo-gyi, or colonel, raises his salary from his own officers and men. The Burman soldier fights well under favoring circumstances, but the chief excellence of a Burman army corps lies in the absence of the impedimenta; the soldier carries his bed (a hammock) at one end of his musket, his kettle at the other, and his provisions (rice) in a cloth about his waist.

In physical conformation, the Burmese appear to be of the same race which inhabits the countries between Hindostan and China, having more of the Mongolian than of the Hindoo type. They are short, stout, well proportioned, fleshy, but active; with large cheek-bones, eyes obliquely placed, brown but never very dark complexion, coarse, lank, black hair, abundant, and more beard than their neighbors, the Siamese. Major Allen, in a memoir to the East India government, gives them credit for frankness, a strong sense of the ridiculous, considerable readiness of resource, little patriotism, but much love of home and family; comparatively little prejudice against strangers, and a readiness to acquire the knowledge of new arts, if not attended with too much mental exertion. They are sharp traders, and have a good deal of a certain kind of enterprise; are temperate, but have small powers of endurance; have more cunning than courage; though not blood-thirsty by nature, have borne phlegmatically the cruelties of their various kings; and without being naturally liars and cheats, are yet great braggarts and treacherous.

The Burmese are Buddhists by faith, and have kept the ceremonies of their religion freer from intermixture with other religions than elsewhere in India and China. The Burmese Buddhists avoid, to some extent, the picture worship practised in China, and their monks are more than usually faithful to their vows of poverty and celibacy. Toward the close of the last century, the Burman state religion was divided by 2 sects, or offshoots from the ancient faith. The first of these entertained a belief similar in some respects to pantheism, believing that the godhead is diffused over and through all the world and its creatures, but that it appears in its highest stages of development in the Buddhists themselves. The other rejects entirely the doctrine of the metempsychosis, and the picture worship and cloister system of the Buddhists; considers death as the portal to an everlasting happiness or misery, according to the conduct of the deceased, and worships one supreme and all-creating spirit (Nat). The present king, who is a zealous devotee to his faith, has already publicly burned 14 of these heretics, both parties of whom are alike outlawed. They are, nevertheless, according to Capt. Yule, very numerous, but worship in secret.

The early history of Burmah is but little known. The empire attained its acme of power in the 11th century, when the capital was in Pegu. About the beginning of the 16th century the state was split into several minor and independent governments, which made war upon each other; and in 1554, when the king Tshen-byoo Myayen took Ava, he had subdued to himself all the valley of the Irrawaddy, and had even subjected Siam. After various changes, Alompra, the founder of the present dynasty (who died in 1760), once more raised the empire to something like its former extent and power. Since then the British have taken from it its most fertile and valuable provinces.

The government of Burmah is a pure despotism, the king, one of whose titles is lord of life and death, dispensing imprisonment, fines, torture, or death, at his supreme will. The details of the government are carried out by the hlwot-dau, or council of state, whose presiding officer is the pre-nominated heir-apparent to the throne, or if there is no heir named, then a prince of the blood royal. In ordinary times the council is composed of 4 ministers, who have, however, no distinct departments, but act wherever chance directs. They form also a high court of appeal, before whom suits are brought for final adjudication; and in their individual capacity, they have power to give judgment on cases which are not brought up to the collective council. As they retain 10 per cent, of the property in suit for the costs of the judgment, they derive very handsome incomes from this source. From this and other peculiarities of the Burmese government, it is easily seen that justice is rarely dealt out to the people. Every office-holder is at the same time a plunderer; the judges are venal, the police powerless, robbers and thieves abound, life and property are insecure, and every inducement to progress is wanting. Near the capital the power of the king is fearful and oppressive. It decreases with distance, so that in the more distant provinces the people pay but little heed to the behests of the lord of the white elephant, elect their own governors, who are ratified by the king, and pay but slight tribute to the government. Indeed, the provinces bordering on China display the curious spectacle of a people living contentedly under two governments, the Chinese and Burmese taking a like part in the ratification of the rulers of these localities, but, wisely, generally settling on the same men. Notwithstanding various British embassies have visited Burmah, and although missionary operations have been carried on there more successfully than elsewhere in Asia, the interior of Burmah is yet a complete terra incognita, on which modern geographers and map-makers have ventured some wild guesses, but concerning which they know very little in detail.

(See “Narrative of the Mission sent by the Governor-General of India, to the Court of Ava, 1855,” by Capt. Henry Yule. London, 1858.)