British civilian and military officials resident in…

British civilian and military officials resident in Kandy provide initial capital for coffee cultivation, provoking contemporary observations in the 1840s that they behave more like coffee planters than government employees.

This private capitalization leads to serious abuses, however, culminating in an 1840 ordinance that make it virtually impossible for a Kandyan peasant to prove that his land is not truly crown land and thus subject to expropriation and resale to coffee interests.

In this period, more than eighty thousand hectares of Kandyan land are appropriated and sold as crown lands.