This post presents page 20 of The History of the Myanmar Labour Movement by Thakin Lwin (Bagan Books, 1968).
Vocabulary:
ငှားရမ်း ။ to hire
စေလွှတ် ။ to send
ပညာတော်သင် ။ state scholars
ကတ္တရာစေး ။ tar
အရပ်ရပ် ။ everywhere, all things, altogether, general
လုံးလုံးလျားလျား ။ completely, without exception
Translation:
... hiring mechanics, and making plans to send young Myanmar people as state scholars to foreign countries, there were about 53 factories in the area around Mandalay.
For transportation arrangements, the 163-mile-long Yangon-Pye railroad was opened in 1877, the 168-mile-long Yangon-Taungoo railroad in 1884, the Pye-Alan tar motor road in 1868, and for domestic water transportation the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company was opened.
Commercial trade was conducted between Lower Myanmar under English control and Upper Myanmar under the jurisdiction of the Myanmar king at a value of 11,289,337 kyat in 1863-65, 25,451,490 kyat in 1867-68, 25,198,240 kyat in 1873-74, and 36,819,763 kyat in 1878-79.
In 1878-79, 45.5 per cent of international trade was with Europe, 36.39 per cent with India, and 18.11 per cent with other countries. The kyat values of exports and imports at that time were as follows.
| Year | Value of exports | Value of imports |
| 1858 - 1859 | 3,150,000 | 3,980,000 |
| 1865 - 1866 | 7,250,000 | 8,340,000 |
| 1877 - 1878 | 20,000,000 | 17,760,000 |
The conditions of all of the above economic and social [indicators] were at a time before British colonial life had completely arrived. In 1885, the population of lower Myanmar was 3,600,000 and most were farmers. At that time, it can be said that in the structure of Myanmar society the working class was still only at an embryonic stage. Especially in that section [of society], the gradual increase of the labour force together with the capitalist system in Myanmar was a background historical process that can be observed.
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