A6mcttTtjmut. \JmE i, 188; 



more, we may be sure that a large body of Sin- 

 halese ex-coffee-cultivators in the high, as well as 

 low country, will very soon be cultivating and pre- 

 paring large quantities of tea through small gardens 

 opened on their own account. 



We have advocated the grouping of three, four 

 or even six adjacent tea properties in Ceylon into 

 one proprietorship and management so as to ar- 

 range for one thoroughly well-equipped Central 

 Factory suiScing for all. We call attention to our 

 remarks on the subject elsewhere, and trust home 

 capitalists will take an interest in the matter, as 

 only through Limited Companies could this great 

 economic reform be effected. 



COMPETITION IN THE SALE OF CEYLON 

 TEA. 



It would be impossible to deny that competition 

 is the very soul of trade, and that healthy com- 

 petition does perhaps more than anything else to 

 produce success. But all experience teaches us 

 that, when that competition passes a certain 

 boundary line, it almost invariably produces pre- 

 cisely opposite effects to those we have referred 

 to as being beneficial, A friend writing to us 

 from England expresses the fear, lest the very 

 numerous agencies started for the sale of Ceylon 

 teas may tend towards exciting a competition, 

 v^hich, passing the limits of prudent trading, may 

 constitute an element of some danger to the high 

 reputation at present maintained by the produce 

 of our island tea-gardens. He tells us that those 

 agencies now amount to nearly twenty in number. 

 The greater part of them are supported by in- 

 fluential and moneyed men, nearly all of whom 

 have an interest in the tea estates of the 

 island, and that so strong is the rivalry between 

 these agencies, that, although for the present the 

 field is undoubtedly wide enough for them all, 

 he thinks there is reason to dread a coming 

 time when their endeavours to out-do one an- 

 other may bring about results much to be de- 

 precated. 



Certainly, if in the future. Companies formed 

 for pushing the sale of Ceylon tea increase 

 in number in anything like the ratio that the 

 past twelve or eighteen months have witnessed, it 

 will be difficult to deny our correspondent's pro- 

 position that sooner or later they will be likely to 

 perform that cutting of one another's throats which 

 has been proved to be the bane of so much of the 

 speculative tradmg which has been so rife in Eng- 

 land during the last half century. As yet, as we 

 have said, the field of operation is wide enough for 

 all; but we maybe sure that for some time yet to 

 come the adventurers with Ceylon teas must to a 

 great extent restrict their operations within a com- 

 paratively narrow circle. It requires a very large 

 expenditure of capital, and must probably entail a 

 very considerable initial loss, to extend that circle 

 60 as to compensate for the overworking of the 

 area first occupied. That area may be described 

 as at preeent almost confined to London and the 

 home comitie?. When the force of circumstances 

 renders necessary the extension of trading to the 

 more distant parts of the United Kingdom, our 

 friend fears lest the harm that he anticipates may 

 already have been accomplished by the high re- 

 putation of our teas being lowered by the course 

 forced on by the keenness of the rivalry existing 

 within what may be termed the Metropolitan 

 sphere of occupancy. 



London and the home counties, it is known 

 ^0 a very large extent direct aud guide ^he 



tastes of the more distant provinces. Appreci- 

 ation in London means appreciation throughout 

 the Kingdom. If, from any cause whatsoever, — be 

 it that to which our correspondent makes allusion 

 or any other, — the reputation of Ceylon tea is 

 made to suffer at the heart of British trade, it 

 will be found, when that outer extension which 

 we have named occurs, that the loss of the present 

 standard will have inclined the extremities to view 

 with distaste that which has lost the imprim- 

 atur of the "head centre," 



All the gentlemen who have associated themselves 

 together to form the many Ceylon Tea Agencies 

 now established in London have started with the 

 declaration, honestly enough made no doubt, 

 to sell none but the highest classes of our 

 island produce. So long as they adhere fully 

 to that stated intention, the results that are 

 deemed probable of realization, are not likely 

 to make themselves apparent. But we know 

 too well what competition, when carried to an 

 excessive degree, has done in the past not to think 

 it wise to raise a word of warning as to what it 

 may effect in the future. Companies as well as 

 individuals must live. Their directors must be 

 on the qui vive to seize every opportunity of so 

 extending trade that they may meet their share- 

 holders with a satisfactory balance-sheet. To do 

 so under the circumstances of strong compe- 

 tition they must put a certain amount of driving 

 pressure on their employees. It is in that aecessity 

 that there exists the risk of those evil effects 

 arising to which our correspondent draws at- 

 tention. Those employees will almost be forced 

 to buy in the cheapest market, and it may wefi 

 be dreaded if, under such compulsion, the guar- 

 antee can always be assured that inferior grades 

 of tea may not be distributed bearing the trade 

 mark of Companies which at the beginning sold 

 nothing but the finest and made a public reputa- 

 tion thereby. 



Directly such a result is attained, then that 

 boundary line that we have mentioned as existing 

 between healthy and unhealthy competition will 

 have been passed and the worst prognostications of our 

 correspondent will approach realization. We always 

 much regretted the failure to establish what might 

 have betn termed an official Syndicate of Ceylon 

 Tea-growers. That failure has necessarily led to 

 an extension of private enterprize which is, no 

 doubt, at present doing great things for our Tea 

 Industry ; but there is the danger we have pointed 

 out that that enterprize may extend itself beyond 

 the bounds of prudence. It is to be hoped, there- 

 fore, that for some time to come we may hear 

 of no further Companies being formed for the 

 sale of Ceylon teas as a speciality. To those 

 already established we wish every succcess, and we 

 are certain that they are sufficient in number for 

 effectual and profitable work. 



CHEAP gUININE-HOW TO SELL IT 1 



The purest, cheapest, simplest and most inraluable mediciue 

 ill the world and its growers staiving owing to defective (?) 

 Diachuiery at present employed in its distribution. — 



Merchant, 



With reference to our remarks on page 809, a 

 merchant writes: — 



"Taking quinine, say Howard's, at 2s 8d per oz., 

 surely it would pay to make up small phials — 

 sealed with Howard's seal — and stitch them in cards 

 to be sold at all Railway Book stalls and elsewhere 

 under the veteran Bookseller's (W. H. Smith's) world- 

 kuov. -1 name to prove the genuineness of the article. 

 A good lot could now be given for 6d and leave 

 W. H. Smith a vast profit in a year, and that 

 uet profit be might be disposed to give to bospitale 



