Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c22.14

c22.14

There is no doubt, but that, this place will be found eminently deserving of notice, in the event of adopting any large works of this kind, in the Company's possessions. The ore can be procured in any quantity that is required, and probably at a less expense than anywhere else. The nearest hills afford wood for coals in plenty; and what is of still more consequence, there are many people who would be glad to be employed in a business, which, under their own contracted management, (The contracted management seems to have resulted from the disruption caused by the famine. The ‘constant dread’, the iron-makers lived under, mentioned by Dr Heyne in another account, ‘lest they should be pressed for the purpose of carrying burdens for strangers [i.e., the British army and civil personnel] from one village to another, a thing which often happens in the very season when it is in their power to employ their time to most advantage to themselves’, also seems to have added to such contracted management.—Editor.) has hitherto afforded but a scanty subsistence.