Apmi i, mf.] *HE TROPICAL AG^fCULttftlST. 



7091 



l! - ?""1" 



■■ U-i-J-lLiLU 



mination to set up gold as regulator of the cur- 

 rency in the Netherlands East Indies. Mr. Van 

 den Berg does not try to solve the question 

 brought up in consequence of this conflict of 

 opinion. He simply sets forth his own views. He 

 has all along regarded this topic from the standpoint 

 that a monetary standard should be based on 

 fixity of value to be kept up to the mark by 

 Government using every reasonable means. He 

 comes, hence, to the conclusion that the Nether- 

 lands Home Government took action honestly and 

 wisely in doing every thing in its power to safe- 

 guard the currency of the colony from depreciation 

 by making gold its monetary standard for the 

 future. This measure called for as it has been 

 under the circumstances has worked detrimentally 

 upon one section of the community. In British 

 India, the fall in silver, however, disastrous to the 

 Government finances, has proved a boon of im- 

 mense value to the country by stimulating exports. 

 In Ceylon, a new era of prosperity has set in 

 since tea growing has forged ahead. The Straits 

 Settlements have a bright future before them.there be- 

 ing every sign of an enormous expansion of the 

 trade of the colony. China too shows no sign of 

 its commercial, industrial, and productive capa- 

 bilities having in any way taken a turn for the 

 worse by the depreciation of the silver monetary 

 unit of the country. The contrast between the 

 universal depression prevailing in Java, and the 

 prosperous times falling to the lot of the neigh- 

 bouring British Colonies and China, has aroused, 

 among the * producing classes in that island, 

 strenuous opposition to the currency system en- 

 forced there. By keeping exchange quotations 

 high, it places Java at a disadvantage with 

 respect to other producing countries, where 

 the low exchanges ruling have marvellously 

 stimulated the turning out of export articles. 

 In Java, exchange rates have kept at almost 

 stationary figures during the last twelve years, so 

 that producers and exporters there have not 

 benefited one whit by the steady fall of gold prices 

 in the consuming markets. A consignment of 

 Java produce realising in London say £10,000, 

 does not yield the Java planters or shippers a 

 larger quantity of guilders than it used to do 

 before the fall in silver set in, namely 117,500 or 

 120,000 guilders Netherlands India currency. But 

 at the same time, a similar amount of £10, 000 re- 

 mitted to India at the rate of Is 5d per rupee 

 brings E141,1715 against 100,000 rupees only in 

 bygone years, when that coin stood ai 2 shillings. 

 The fall in exchange benefits British India producers 

 by about -10 %. The adoption of gold as standard 

 of value has deprived Netherlands India planters 

 of a similar benefit. They have to put up with 

 every fall in the gold price of their goods, with- 

 out finding any adequate compensation in a low 

 rate of exchange, by which exporters and producers 

 in India and Ceylon have profited so largely. 

 However harmful the existing currency system may 

 be to the planting and exporting interest in 

 Netherlands India, the author of the pamphlet is 

 dead against a return to an exclusive silver standard 

 of value on the ground of its detrimental effect 

 on the native consumers of imported articles. With 

 an exchange rate of 30 to 35 per cent to the dis- 

 advantage of importers, the i^rices of imports must 

 be raised proportionately, if the trade is to be 

 continued at all, and, the bulk of imports 

 being intended for consumption by natives 

 the latter would, for the greater part, have 

 to bear the burden of the general rise in prices, 

 consequent upon the readoption of silver as a stand- 

 ard of currency. Supposing for instance the native 

 community bo takeu as paying one hundred ml- 



lions of guilders a year for imported articles, about 

 thirty five millions more would have to be laid out 

 on the same quantity of commodities, in case tho 

 rate of exchange be regulated by the actual price of 

 silver. These figures speak too eloquently to admit 

 of enlarging any further on the baleful effect on 

 the condition of the people of Java sure ta follow a 

 change in the direction indicated. This change re- 

 sulting as it certainly would in capital invested in 

 industrial enterprise becoming depreciated 30 per 

 cent in value would despoil the owners of the same 

 by an equivalent percentage. The same hardship 

 would be felt by all persons living on fixed salaries. As 

 will have been seen Mr. Van den Berg goes upon the 

 sound principle that the good of the bulk of the 

 community, sure to be the losers by low exchanges, 

 should countervail the benefit a few derive from .a 

 depreciation of the standard of value. 



COFFEE ; A STUDY. 



Le Cafe- 



-EtCDE H18TOEIQUE ET COMMEKOIALE — 

 TOUBNAI l«8fi. 



(Translated for the " Ceylon Observer " frovi the 

 ''Indische 3Iercuur," I'Jth Feb. 1887.) 



This little book written by a wholesale dealer in 

 coiiee, and addressed to liis juatomers is, in its 

 way, very interesting, as it treats rather fully of 

 the origin of the use of coffee in the various countries 

 in which it is produced, and of the different pecu- 

 liarities of each kind. 



The writer mentions all the sources whence he 

 has derived his information, and happily eschews 

 statistics, so that the little work affords pleasant 

 reading to the trader as well as to the consumer. 



The writer is, however, not always correct, thus 

 for instance in page 18 he refers to Java aud Batavia 

 as if they were two separate islands. He considers 

 that 40 years is much too long to adopt as the 

 duration of the coffee tree, and in page 23 he tells 

 us that the coffee of Ceylon and Java is yellow 

 or white, while the Brazil kinds are green. This 

 may be partly true as concerns Java ; but Ceylon 

 almost always comes under the head of blue. In 

 his account of the methods of preparing coffee he 

 omits all mention of the West-Indian system, and 

 of its being exported to Europe in parchment, (horn 

 shell) of which he seems to be unaware. In page 

 5'2 he speaks of Liborian coffee as having an ex- 

 cellent flavour — d' un gout excellent— an opinion in 

 which we of the aeaports do not join, any more 

 than in the expectation that this kind will be ex- 

 clusively the cott'ee of the future. 



In page 72 he says : — " The Dutch wore so much 

 struck with the perfection of the Brazilian produce, 

 that they sent Mon. van Delden Laeine, a notable 

 specialist, to study the preparation on the spot. 

 (" Lcs Hollandais onl^te tellement pappes de la per- 

 fectun,de la production Bresilienne qu ils out enveyc 

 M. V. Delden Laorne, specialists notable pour 1' ctu- 

 dier sur place.") 



This was not the object of the mission, which 

 was rather to ascertain how far the cultivation in 

 Brazil was capable of extension, and for the general 

 information of our Government. 



That Brazil coffee is as good as private Java 

 coffee and far better than Java Government coft'ee 

 1 cannot admit— although I am obliged to acknow- 

 ledge with much regret the truth of the statement 

 to the effect that Government Java coffee has beea 

 losing in quality whilst that of Brazil has by means 

 of a better system of preparation been improving 

 from year to year. 



The writer goes on to inform the lover of 

 coffee that he should always have a good 

 supply of tho raw material in store, as 

 ihk Aiikla impsfoveu with &ge« and ag iu fhv 



