JaNi I, 1887.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



467 



TEA -BUYING BBOKEKAGE IN CALCUTTA. 



The fol owing letter was addressed to the Calcutta 

 Englishman in September last, and attention is drawn 

 to it by a Calcutta correspondent, who thinks it 

 necessary to point out to Indian Tea importers anxious 

 to reduce the cost of their Teas, that the payment 

 of the Calcutta buying brokerage is quite optional 

 with themselves. It is to be supposed that in these 

 days of abolishing middlemen's charges, this payment 

 will be swept away if, as implied, no service is rend- 

 ered for it : — 



To the Editor of the '' Eiuilishman." 



Sib, — A committee is sitting with the laudable 

 jjurpjse of placing Tea brokerage on a satisfactory 

 looting. The committee has assumed a very respon- 

 sible task, and will doubtless be glad to be helped to 

 a wise conclusion. Under the present system the 

 seller entrusts his Tea confidentially to a broker for 

 sale at the highest obtainable price, and the buyer 

 enttusts hia order confidentially to the same broker 

 to be implemented at the lowest possible price. Clearly, 

 if the committee be men of commousense and if 

 they really mean to do honest work, this feature will 

 at once be disposed of. In support of the above in- 

 dicated system certain curious arguments have been 

 tvolved. To justify the payment of br<^kerage by the 

 buyer (who in nine cases out of ten does not want 

 a buying broker at ail, and is seriously hampered in 

 his purchases by having to employ him), the follow- 

 ing considerations are put forward : — 



It is said that the buying broker guarantees the 

 seller against loss by failure of the buyer, so that the 

 seller takes the risk of the selhng broker, the selling 

 brokers guarantees the buying broker, and the buying 

 broker takes the risk of the buyer ; an ingenious chain 

 constructed to afford some kind of raison d'etre for 

 the buying broker. 



It is said that the buying broker is to guarantee 

 the buyer against false packing, — another ii, stance of 

 the anxious search for some ground on which to justify 

 the buying broker's existence. Can any one divine 

 on what principle these two responsibilities are to be 

 taken from the selling broker, on whom (if not on 

 the seller himself) they naturally rest ? 



Another benefit to be derived from the buying 

 broker is accommodation for a day of two for thu 

 packing, which is done in the selling brokers' godowns. 

 A nute of admiration is the only comment that is 

 here required. 



It is alleged that the buying broker refuses orders 

 fi'om London for the benefit of the Calcutta buyers. 

 If this means restricted competition, it calls for in- 

 stant remedy. The trade wants the freest competi- 

 tion without fear or favour. If it is not a broker's 

 business to act as agent of a London house, to decline 

 so to act is no favour to the Calcutta buyers. 



The fact is plain that the only duties which can 

 reasonably performed by a buying broker are to place 

 his valuations and his knowledge, his services in t'.ie sale- 

 room and possibly during delivery, at the disposal of 

 the buyer who pays him. The aggregate imagination 

 of the trade cannot add to these duties without dress- 

 ing the buying broker in plumes kindly lent by the 

 selling broker for the purpose of giving him an impos- 

 ing presence. 



When the Port Commissioners' Tea warehouses are 

 completed, all the Tea that passes through Calcutta 

 will be accommodated there. The trade.will then want 

 a selling broker (or, brokers), whose duty will be to 

 taste garden musters, to value for sale, to give ad- 

 vice, to act as auctioneers, and to collect proceeds. 

 There need be no del credere, because an impecuni- 

 ous buyer would have no difficulty in getting for a 

 mere Bank commission the assistance of a good firm 

 to lather his purchases between the signing of a 

 delivery order and the bill of lading, If there be a 

 buyer so untrustworthy that even this cannot be done 

 the sojner the trade is rid of him the better. 



IjRt buying brokers be paid by those who ask their 

 services, ^^'e want open auctions, with full publicity 

 and the widest competition, and we wish the present 

 brokers to bo relieved of the painful and embarrass- 

 ing double functions under which they now groan. 



When the trade is put upon ai?. intelligible and self- 

 working basis, I expect to see the gardens avail more 

 freely than hitherto of the nearest market for their 

 reduce. A Prophietoe. 



— Produce Review. 



CEYLON UPCOUNTRY PLANTING REPORT. 



CACAO CROP AND PERPAEATION— NKW VAEIETIKS — TEA 

 AND TRADE MARKS— HOW TO GAIN REPUTATION FOR 

 WISDOM WITH COOLIES. 



6th December 1886. 

 The Cacao crop which is at present being gathered 

 still keeps up its fair promise of being a full one. 



The new system of drying the beans unwashed is, 

 judging from Mr. Shand's letter and the reports of 

 some of the London brokers, not finding that favour 

 at home which some of us would like. 



Still the sale of 50cwt. unwashed and unassorted, 

 which is reported to have got 78a would lead one to 

 conclude that the condemnation of the system may 

 have been somewhat hasty, and that the expression 

 of opinion against the new mode, might have been 

 modified with a fuller knowledge. Even if the price 

 were not so good for unwashed as for washed, it has 

 to be remembered that the former has a considerable 

 advantage in weight— as much as 20 per cent some 

 say, although that does seem an outside figuie— -and 

 then the ri-ik of damage to the bean is lessened, as 

 also that of moulding. For while the outside sl<in of 

 the nib remains uninjured, the chance of its getting 

 mouldy inside is reduced to almost nothing. The ex- 

 terior may mould, but a rub on a mat or sack will 

 remedy that, whereas if the mould gets into the 

 inside of the bean, it is hard then to know what to do. 



While on this subject I may say that I saw a pod 

 taken from one of the new variety of cacai trees 

 growing in the Peradeniya Gardens which contained 

 as many as 40 nibs, and these too, large and plump. 

 To have a decent acreage planted with trees of that 

 variety and doing well, would give a handsome re- 

 turn and as far as I could learn it was quite as hardy a 

 variety as any of the others. So many of the strongei- 

 type of cacao certainly do not turn out the kind of 

 nib which fetches the big price in the London market, 

 the beans being flat instead of round, that v^hen there 

 is one to be found which comes up to required con- 

 ditions it is well to know of it. The cacao being 

 harvested just now seems to nie, from what I have 

 seen, to be fuller, rounder, and bigger than what 

 usually obtains, the result doubtless of the fine 

 season we have been having. 



In these days when an effort is being made to 

 reach the consumers of Tea direct, the subject of Trade 

 Marks is not an unimportant one. A neat packet 

 which takes the eye has much to do with success, and 

 an attractive trade mark is not without its effect. 



A friend suggested to me the other day " The Bish- 

 op's Brand"— a bishop in full canonicals,— holding that 

 Ceylon and her bishop were well-known at home, 

 and this more especially in rehgious circles where tea 

 drinking represented at times devotional feeHng. 1 

 think the suggestion is a valuable one, and might 

 make the fortune of a pushing Company, skill.- 1 in 

 the arranging of tea fights. As a motto for '• The 

 Bishop's Brand " what could be better than the off- 

 quoted hymn of Heber's, those two lines, at loast, 

 but slightly modified, which too often represent the 

 knowledge of the civilized world in regard to the island 

 and ourselves :— 



" Where every product pleases 

 And only m;ui is vile." 



To have a bishop in fnll war paint, in a trade mark 

 of pure Ceylon Teas, conAng before the British public 

 as a type of Heber's " man '" would certainly remove 

 all doubt as to our belief in the doctrine of general 

 depravity ; and our stron,', fine-flavoured teas as the 

 latest specimen of our newest " product," would in 

 time gain such favour as to call for a revision ot the 

 hymn books, and all new editions would eliminate 



" Where every prospect pleases. 

 for the new reading of " The Bishop's Brand 



