"At _Palembang_: the Dutch have a small fort here, and oblige the king to send all his pepper to Batavia; it may be about seven hundred tons per annum. "At _Lampung_, on the south point of Sumatra: the Dutch have a small fort here, and they send all their pepper to Batavia; it may be about five hundred tons. "At _Bantam_ may be had five hundred tons: this belongs to the Dutch. "At _Bánjer-másin_, on the south-west of Borneo: the Dutch have a fort here, and the rajah sends all his pepper to Batavia: it may be about twelve to fifteen hundred tons per annum. "At _Chintabun_, near Siam, belonging to the King of Siam, may be had one thousand tons per annum: this goes to China in the king's junks." [64] "Ceylon, it may be observed, will consume two thousand kóyans annually (four thousand tons). There is also a ready market at the Cape of Good Hope, for one thousand kóyans a year. A scarcity of this grain frequently happens on the coast of Coromandel, when the import of it from Java will yield great profit, if the traders are permitted to export it. The general freedom of commerce and navigation, and the encouragement such freedom holds out to the merchant, will establish and extend a ready communication and friendly relation between Batavia and the trading places of India. In the article of rice, Java possesses advantages superior to Bengal; for although this grain is generally very cheap there, yet the navigation from and to Bengal is always more difficult than that from and to Java, from whence, at all seasons of the year, the passage may be made to most parts of India: and in Bengal it often happens, that the rice is very scarce and dear, and even that a famine rages there. On the island of Java, on the contrary, although the crops may sometimes partially fail in a few places, a general and total failure never happens: at least there is no instance of it on record. It may also be considered, whether the exportation of rice from Java to Europe might not become an object of speculation. The cargo of a ship of five hundred lasts, or kóyans, would only cost fifteen thousand rix-dollars, which cannot be reckoned at more than thirty thousand guilders; and the kóyan being calculated at three thousand five hundred pounds, the only question would be, what would be the value of one million seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds of rice in Europe, and if the undertaking would afford a reasonable gain? Even China is sometimes much in want of rice, and the export of it to that country would often, if not always, turn out very advantageous."--_Hogendorp._ Rice was exported both to England and China, during the provisional administration of the British government on Java. [65] The rupees are throughout calculated at thirty stivers each.