Wealth
Sir Ernest was, in his time, Sri Lanka's richest man and one of the wealthiest Sri Lankans of the twentieth century. He inherited and purchased thousands of acres of tea, rubber and coconut estates as well as land in the prominent areas of Colombo. One such estate was the famed 1200 acre (5 km²) Salawa estate which was used as a rubber plantation. He owned 46 acres (7360 perches) of land mostly in the Cinnamon Gardens (Colombo 7) which, being one of the most expensive areas in Sri Lanka, would be worth approximately $500 million in the economy of the 2000s. His company dealt in every description of Ceylonese produce, principally plumbago (graphite), desiccated coconut, fibre, cacao, rubber, cinnamon and tea. The main export business was done with the United Kingdom and the continent, through the firm's agents in London, Hamburg and other European ports. His residence, the "Sirimathipaya Mansion", equipped then with horse stables and tennis courts, now serves as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister's office.
Read more about this topic: Ernest De Silva
Famous quotes containing the word wealth:
“Wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires. All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth; and the reason why we have to acquire wealth is the body, because we are slaves in its service.”
—Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
“It is uncomfortable to ask condemned people about their sentences just as it is awkward to ask wealthy people why they need so much money, why they use their wealth so poorly, and why they don’t just get rid of it when they recognize that it is the cause of their unhappiness.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“When I did first impart my love to you,
I freely told you all the wealth I had
Ran in my veins: I was a gentleman;
And then I told you true.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)