And yet at the time of the arrival of our missionaries, and even now in Independent Burmah, there is no commerce on a large scale. This is shown by the high rate of interest, 25 per cent., and 60 per cent. when no security is given. The very productiveness of his country made the Burman of fifty years ago feel independent of foreign nations. He took the narrow view that exportation only tended to impoverishment. The Government rigidly prohibited all important exportation except that of the cheap and abundant teak timber. Gold and silver and precious stones must not be carried out for fear of reducing the country to poverty. If in those days an English merchant had carried a large quantity of silks and calicoes to the royal city, and had exchanged them for £5,000 in gold, he could possess and enjoy the money there, but he could not, except by bribery, succeed in carrying it home. His wealth made him practically an exile and a prisoner. The marble could not be exported, because it was consecrated to the building of idols and pagodas. The cotton and the rice could not be exported, lest there should not be enough left for the clothing and food of the population. The only commerce worth mentioning was with China. The Chinese caravans brought, overland, large quantities of raw silk, and received cotton in exchange. On account of the low state of commerce, the science of navigation was quite unknown to the Burmans. When sailors made their little trips, in the dry season, along the shore of the Bay of Bengal, they took pains never to pass out of sight of land. There were no extensive manufactures in Burmah, for these required an accumulation of large capital; and a man could never be sure that his wealth would not be wrested from him by the Government. And so the chief article of manufacture is lacquer-ware, as this requires but little capital. Woven strips of bamboo were smeared with mud, and baked, and polished, and varnished, and then manufactured into beautiful boxes and trays. Most of the Burmans, however, are engaged in agricultural pursuits. They raise rice and catch fish, which they pound up into a mass with coarse salt, and so produce their favorite relish, _ngapee_. Immense quantities of rice and _ngapee_ are carried up the Irrawaddy in boats, and sold at the capital and in the upper provinces of Burmah.