1 4 Lord, Med. Me-
2 moirs, 66 ;
3 Masson, |. 300 ;
4 Burnes, iff. 303.
5 § Elph. 21;
6 Vigne, Ghuznee,
7 24; BMoorer. i.
8 196; H. 152.
9 6 Burnes, ifi. 1115
10 Masson, i. 204.
11 7 Leech, Rep. on
12 Commerce of
13 Mooltan, 87.
14 132 PUNJAB.
15 The more important crops in the low, level, and fertile tracts,
16 are indigo,4 cotton, sugar, tobacco, opium, wheat, which is abund-
17 ant and in quality excellent; buck-wheat, rice, barley, millet, ju-
18 toaree (holcus sorghum), bajre (holcus spicatus), moong (phaseolus
19 mungo), maize, various sorts of vetches, oil-seeds, such as sesa-
20 mum and mustard; peas and beans, carrots, turnips, onions,
21 melons, cucumbers, and sundry kinds of cucurbitaceous plants.
22 So plentiful is wheat, that it sells at Mooltan at from half a
23 rupee to a rupee per maund. Bang, or hemp, is produced
24 for the purpose of inducing intoxication; saffron, safflower for
25 dyes, and a great number of less important products. Milk, but-
26 ter, and wool are very important objects of rural economy, the
27 former being almost the only * produce of the numerous herds of
28 kine, as the slaughtering of these animals for food is not allowed
29 by the Sikhs.
30 The manufacturing industry of the Punjab is considerable.
31 It is exercised principally in the silk and cotton productions of
32 Amritsir, Lahore, Mooltan,® Shoojahbad, Leia, and some other
33 places in the south; the fabrication of arms in Lahore; the
34 shawl-weaving and manufacture of leather and of arms in
35 Kashmir. Much of the commerce of the Punjab consists in
36 the transit of the goods of Hindostan to the countries west
37 of the Indus. The chief marts are Amritsir, Leia, and Mool-
38 tan, Lahore being in this respect of inferior importance. The
39 imports from British India? are principally sugay, spices, and
40 other groceries, dye-stuffs, cotton, woollen, and silk cloths; metals,
41 and utensils of various kinds of metal; ivory, precious stones,
42 glass, porcelain, and cutlery. From the west, the imports are
43 gold, turquoises, silver, silk, madder, cochineal, assafcetida, saf-
44 flower, fruits (fresh and dried), wool, horses, and a few of the
45 more portable manufactures of Russia. The exports, whether in
46 the way of transit or the produce of the country, are grain, ghee,
47 or clarified butter, hides, wool, silk and cotton fabrics, carpets,
48 shawls, silk, cotton, indigo, tobacco, gold, horses, and hawks,
49 which last are so considerable an article of commerce as to bring
50 Rs. 10,000 annually.
51 The population consists of various races. The regions
52 * Leech (Report of the Commerce of Mooltan, p. 88) mentions hides as
53 an article of commerce in the Punjab; they must be taken off kine which
54 have died of disease or age.