27<^ 



tHE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



(OCT, I, 1886. 



^nn^spmid^no^. 



To the Editor of the " Ceylon Observer." 



A CINCHONA SYNDICATE FOR CEYLON PRO- 



POSED. IN ORDER TO REGULATE THE 



EXPORTS OF BARK. 



Bearwell, 20th Sept. 1886. 



De.\e Sib, — " The price of Cinchona depends en- 

 tirely on the shipments from Ceylon" is the remark 

 of a leading ihm of London brokers in a recent 

 Fortnightly Report. This being so, surely a com- 

 bination of those interested here for the purpose 

 of regulating the supply which shall be sent from 

 the island, is far from impracticable. Self-interest in 

 this instance, would, I think, serve to bring the 

 grower and his agent into harmonious action, and 

 thus secure probably double the present price of 

 the unit of quinine to those who so much require 

 it. Judging from the ready way in which sales for 

 the past year have gone off, notwithstanding the 

 fact, that the most sanguine estimates of exports 

 will nearly be doubled before the year is out, I take 

 it that it is not so much the enormous increase 

 which continues to depress prices, as the feeling 

 that we may not yet have reached the highest 

 point and that next year may see ' this yeai''s ex- 

 ports once more doubled. lionce if a Syndicate 

 could be formed having for its objects the storing 

 of bark, and the regulating of shipments, in such 

 a way that the unit of quinine could be kejJt at 

 sixpence instead of about threepence, surely there 

 are but few, be he mortgagee, agent, or planter, 

 who would not give it his support. 



I think I am not far out in saying that one and 

 all ox us have the idea that if we could keep up 

 our bark for a year or two, very much enhanced 

 prices would bo obtainable. 



With your permission, sir, I shall as briefly as 

 I can lay before you the outline of a scheme, which 

 I tliink would provs ai once practical and economical, 

 and to some extent, if not entirely participate m the 

 better prices that will doubtless be ruling some time 

 hence. Let everyone in the island who has an acre 

 of cinchona form a Syndicate, and rent one or more 

 of the many unoccupied coffee stores in Colombo, to 

 which, all bark would be sent from the baling press 

 (having been previously analysed; to be stored there 

 until its turn come for shipment. 



On the bales being handed over to the Syndicate 

 storekeeper, a warrant— on which the variety, weight 

 and analysis of the bark taken in would be marked — 

 would be handed to the owner or agent, which warrant 

 would be a (iocument on which dealings might take 

 place similar to those in respect of Pig-iron on the 

 Glasgow exchange, by which the grower would get 

 his money at once, or the Syndicate itself or one of 

 our local branches might arrange to advance up to 

 fully half the value of the bark, charging a low rate 

 of interest. 



Tlie Syndicate would keep itself well-advised as 

 to the trade requirements, and would have the 

 entire control and regulating of shipments ; not 

 however to the extent of depriving the Colombo 

 Agent of his commissions or charges in any way, 

 but it would fall on those managing the Syndicate 

 to say how much should be shipped during any one 

 month. 



I by no means underrate the difficulties that 

 would have to be overcome before the scheme would 

 prove a success, and I shall enumerate some of the 

 more prominent ones, and endeavour to show how 

 they could be met : — 



1. I am assuming that self-interest would serve 



to rally the planting body to a scheme which can 



e shown to be of so much immediate benefit to them, 



2. The fact that a considerable portion of the bark 

 is hypothecated to people out of the island, who 

 might be averse to even a temporary alienation 

 of their security which storing with the Syndicate 

 would imply. Even if self-interest did not induce 

 their supiiort, their agents in Colombo could hold 

 the warrants until the bark was released or in 

 other ways procure their sanction to a scheme 

 which they could not fail to see would be of im- 

 mense service to their constituents. 



3. The fact that most planters require the full 

 value of every harvesting, the moment the article 

 is ready for the market, . and that no bank or 

 syndicate could with safety give an advance of 

 much over half the actual value. For this diffi- 

 culty, I would merely point out that if the 

 operations of the ' Syndicate raised the price to Gd 

 per unit an advance of fully the present quotation 

 would be procurable, so that besides the ultimate 

 advantage of getting 6d per unit, they would 

 receive as an advance as much as the bark would 

 sell for with no regulating Syndicate. 



4. That of making a selection of bark for 

 shipment would probably give rise to more dis- 

 content than any of the other difficulties, and 

 yet I think a method at once fair and just could 

 be devised. For example, suppose the stored bark 

 consisted of that from 100 different estates, each 

 proprietor, mortgagee, or agent more anxious for 

 a realization than the other Directorate would pro- 

 ceed to select the barks that arrived up to a cert- 

 ain date of the previous month, and in the event 

 of that being insufficient for the market require- 

 ments then take the next in order and so on; 

 and on the other hand in the event of their being 

 unable to send all the bark to the date mentioned, 

 a proportion of each could be taken and the balance 

 held .U13, and so on. 



5. Then comes the possibility of Java, India, or 

 South America, stepping in to upset our scheme, I 

 would remark with reference to this that our object is a 

 perfectly legitimate one ; we seek only to get a fair value 

 for an article which another combination, composed of 

 canker and hard times, has unduly depressed, a value 

 probably which may be raised even another 100 per 

 cent the moment our extensive fields become ex- 

 hausted as they assuredly will before many years 

 pass over. We do not seek to operate to the extent of 

 raising the fever powder up to, far less over its 

 proportionate retail value, nor do I think that the 

 extent we purpose, manijjulating for, would cause 

 shipments to be resumed from South America or 

 more to be harvested from India or Java. 



But even in that case, according to Messrs. 

 Brookes & Green " the price of cinchona depends 

 entirely on the extent of shipment from Ceylon," 

 hence the Syndicate could at once render 

 abortive any outside attempt to upset their aims. 

 I trust that you will be willing to give your support to 

 this, or some such Scheme, the outline of which 

 I have sketched. There are gentlemen in Colombo 

 I could name, who, were they to take the matter 

 up, could work it out in all its details to a per- 

 fectly successful issue. I trust therefore, you will 

 find space for my proposal so that the subject may 

 at all events get ventilated. 



Unless we again take to planting cinchona a very 

 few years will exhaust the existing fields ; we 

 shall then feel similar chagrin to that most of us 

 must at the moment be experiencing, now that 

 coffee is fairly on its way to tlie three figures. 

 That, most men could not help ; but I maintain 

 that we have it within ourselves to prevent our 

 remaining cinchonas, from which so much was ex- 

 pected, from being sacrificed. — Yours faithfully, 



JAMES SINCLAIR. 



