The roads through the Carnatic are in general tolera bly good. That from Pondicherry to Madras is excel lent. In many places it is bordered by bushy trees, un der the shade of which the traveller is protected from the scorching heat of the sun. Every two or three miles there are choultries, or taverns, in which comfortable accommodation may in general be obtained. Of these, however, there are two sorts ; one for the convenience of travellers, and another for the reception of those images that may happen to be carried in procession. If not occupied by their idols, persons of all descriptions are admitted into them. These charitable foundations bear a great resemblance to institutions in the Romish church, and to the caravanseras in Turkey and Persia. The accounts given by different authors of the hospita lity of the natives of the Carnatic are very various. They run into extremes ; and perhaps a whole people have been characterised only from the comparatively few in dividuals with which they may have each happened to have had intercourse.
The manufactures of the Carnatic are chiefly those of cotton, which is wrought into an immense variety of different articles. From the earliest times, the Hin
doos have excelled in this species of manufacture, and for ages supplied the whole of Europe, a great part of Asia, and the shores of Africa upon the Mediter ranean and the Red Sea, with cotton goods, whether for the purposes of dress, or of household furniture, &c. Madras and Pondicherry have always taken the lead of all the other towns and cities on the coast in regard to commerce. The foreign trade was formerly partitioned principally among the Portuguese, the Dutch, the Danes, the French, and English. The latter, how ever, have at present a monopoly of the whole trade with India. What is called the country trade, is carried on in ships, the property of merchants who reside on the spot.
There is a very great difference in the value of the coin used in the Carnatic, as well as in other parts of Hindostan. The East India Company have, however, co-operated with the natives in bringing the weights and measures to a much greater degree of accuracy; and in the Jaghire they are permanently fixed. See Rennel, Bartolemeo, Buchanan, Sonncrat, and Hodges ; see also the articles lxinn, MADRAS, and PONDI cHEnny. (it)