The Batavian arrack is well known in the European market, and was at one time imported in considerable quantities into the continent of Europe. It is distilled in a great measure from molasses, in which respect, as well as in the process employed, it differs so materially from the arrack of continental India, that it cannot with propriety be considered as the same spirit: it is in fact vastly superior to it, and capable of competing in the European market with the rum of the West Indies. Its price at Batavia, where any quantity can at all times be procured, is for the first sort about sixty Spanish dollars, for the second sort fifty, and for the third thirty Spanish dollars the leaguer; the first sort, which is above proof, thus selling by the leaguer of one hundred and sixty gallons, at the rate of about twenty-pence the gallon. In consequence of the prohibitory duties against the importation of this article into Great Britain or British India, this branch of commerce has latterly declined, and many of the distilleries have been discontinued. The Dutch possessions of Ceylon, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Moluccas, dependent on the government of Batavia, always received their principal supplies of rice from Java, and considerable quantities have of late been occasionally exported to those places, as well as the Coromandel coast, with great advantage. During a scarcity of grain in England, the Java rice has also found its way to that market[64]. From Europe the most important imports, and those in constant demand for the native population, are iron, steel, copper, printed cottons of a peculiar pattern, and woollens. Of iron, not less than from one thousand to fifteen hundred tons are annually imported, which is worked up into the implements of husbandry, and into the various instruments, engines, and utensils, required in the towns and agricultural districts. The price has varied, during the last four years, from six to twelve Spanish dollars: the average has been about eight dollars per hundred weight for the English, and about nine per hundred weight for the Swedish iron. The small bar iron is always in demand in the market, in consequence of its convenience for working up into the different implements required. Steel is also in demand, to the extent of two or three hundred tons annually.