Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c24.5

c24.5

3. English iron is not used inland in Southern India, in consequence of the great expense of land carriage, and from the same cause, it is probable, that in Northern India also, the only iron used is that made upon the spot; and as the manufacture must be very limited in quantity (‘quality’ in original; appears to be a misprint.—Editor.), it becomes of much importance, both to individuals and to the Government, to be acquainted with the mode of supplying any extraordinary demand. Indeed, we are informed by Captain Drummond, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, that the carriage of a suspension bridge erected in Kernnon, alone cost about 80 rupees per ton, or as much as the iron might have been made for upon the spot.