COFFEE MANIA

The coffee “mania” as it was called, took place in the late thirties and early forties of 1840 era . Recalling those heady days sir Emerson-Tennet, the colonial secretary, wrote that “so dazzling was the prospect that expenditure was unlimited; and its profusion was only equalled by the ignorance and inexperience of those to whom it was entrusted”.

Barnes gave free grants of lands to would-be coffee planters but in 1836 a charge of five shillings per acre was introduced. Officials from the governor downwards, top ranking military officers, and religious dignitaries were among the earliest beneficiaries of this nominal levy.

The crown lands encroachment ordinance no.12 of 1840 vested ownership of all uncultivated and unoccupied lands, to which there were no claimants who could prove ownership by means of deeds or tax receipts, in the government. It was these lands that were made available to prospective coffee planters at five shillings per acre and later at one pound per acre. A British parliamentary paper of 1850 revealed that on one single day in 1840, 13, 275 acres were given to top ranking officials as follows:


Hon.w.o. Carr (judge)and Capt. Skinner, commissioner of roads…826 acres
Rt. Hon. The governor,Stewart Mackenzie……1,120 acres
F.b. Norris, surveyor- general……………………………762 cares
Hon. Turnour, (govt.agent Kandy and acting colonial secretary)…….2,217acres
H. Wright (district judge, Kandy ) and G.bird………1,751 acres
Sir.R.Arubuthnot(commander of the forces) and capt. Winslow,A.D.C..855 acres
T.Oswin(district judge)………545 acres
C.R.Buller (government agent)……………764 acres
Capt.Layard and associates……………2,264 acres
P.E.Wodehouse (government agent and asst . colonial secretary)…….2,135 acres

According to the parliamentary paper much of the land which was allocated in a day’s work was in an area for which a road had been surveyed and many of those who received land at five shillings per acre sold these lands at sterling pawn 2 per acre.

There is a popular belief, endorsed by chauvinist historians and politicians that the Crown Lands Encroachment Ordinance led to large scale appropriation of land and displacement of kandyan peasants but insufficient research has still been done into the precise implication of the grant of crown lands, or lands claimed by the crown, to coffee prospectors. “For an issue of (such) great complexity, this evidence is inadequate. A long, hard road of probing in depth is called for, and greatly overdue,” wrote Michael Roberts in 1975. On this, and many other aspects of the period of British Ceylon….has only been scratching the surface of a vast area calling for investigation”.