made free.' If his words cannot be taken in their full modern significance, we may yet accept his statement that the results practically amounted to 'enfranchisement of all the coasting industry of Hindustan.'
Lord Dalhousie's commercial reforms extended over the whole of the British dominions in the East — from the consolidation and reform of the old vexatious excise regulations at the Straits to the declaration of Aden as a free port. He not only threw the coasts of India open to the world, but he facilitated the approach to them by lighthouses, marine surveys, and improved harbour accommodation. Merchant Service Acts were passed to improve and regulate the condition of sailors. An effort was made to put down the old adulterations practised in the cotton trade. An alternative port was planned at the mouth of the Matlá River, to protect Calcutta from the then apprehended consequences of the shifting and silting up of the Húgli channel.
The unprecedented impulse which Lord Dalhousie thus gave to Indian trade may be realized by the following figures. During his eight years of rule the export of raw cotton more than doubled itself, from 1½ millions sterling to close on 3⅓ millions. The export of grain multiplied by more than three-fold from £890,000 in 1848 to £2,900,000 in 1856. Not only was the export of
