The Statistical Reporter December 1875

In the last of these years the great crop was attributable to the fertilization of the soil by the inundtion of 1871. [...] To the Mauritius however the exports are ballam and 'moongtiy being in the proportion of 150 tons of ballam and 75 of moongly to 16 tons of table rice and the game to the Bombay and the West Indies. [...] The weak and uncertain character of the export trade during the earlier years shbwn above is due to the fact that the exports were confined to China where internal changes from time to time affected the commerce of the country greatly. [...] Some consider that the cause of the decline is to be found in the languishing condition of the silk industry as well as in the deterioration of the silk produced ; others attribute the falling off in the trade to obstinacy on the part of native workers in silk in demanding too high prices in the face of the active competition with Bengal silk which was sent in from Europe Japan and China. [...] There has been a slight decline in the imports of machinery during the past year following on the great increase of the previous year occasioned by the establishment of jute-spinning mills cotton-mills and hydraulic-presses and to the increased use of machinery in tea and indigo factories.