680 



one. In the price-current of the ' Economist ' of the 14th of January, 

 1852, there are, without any distinction of wild or otherwise, four quo- 

 tations varying from 9d. up to 3.s-. 9d. In another printed London price- 

 current in my possession there are also four quotations for January, 

 1851, and the same number for January, 1852, the lowest for 1851 

 being 2s, 3d. and the highest 3s. 6d. ; while for 1852 the prices were 

 respectively Is. 6d. and 3*. 3d. These meagre quotations do not give 

 an adequate notion of the real state of the nutmeg market, and there- 

 fore I refer to an actual account of sales of fourteen cases of Penang 

 nutmegs, sold on the 12th of December last, by Messrs. Crawford, 

 Colvins, & Co., of the City, and which is now before me. The nut- 

 megs amounted to 2,405 fts. weight, and the gross price which they 

 fetched was i£217 195. 9d., which gives an average of Is. 9^d. per lb., 

 which may be called Is. lOd., as four out of the fourteen cases were 

 sold exactly at this price. In the fourteen cases there were ten quo- 

 tations, i-anging from 7d., the lowest (a damaged lot), up to 2s. 4d., the 

 highest. On the average price of Is. lOd., the duty on these nutmegs, 

 which were the produce of Penang, and consequently all 'round,' 

 was 2s. 6d. a pound, equal to an ad valorem duty, in round numbers, 

 of 136 per cent. Had the nutmegs been long, they would have been 

 of the same value in bond, and the Custom-house, calling them ' wild,' 

 would have assessed them at 5d. a pound, so that the ad valorem duty 

 on them would have been between 22 and 23 per cent. only. The 

 flagrant injustice of continuing the present rate of duty, is, I think, 

 certain. The quantity of nutmegs taken out of bond in 1851 was 

 194,132 fts., and the revenue ^21,913. At 2s. 6d. a pound it ought 

 to have amounted to ^£24,266., so that the revenue lost (the consump- 

 tion being supposed to be the same) the sum of £2,453. If practi- 

 cable, it would be expedient to ascertain at the Custom-house the 

 quantities of nutmegs that paid roepectively the 5d. and 2s. 6d. duty, 

 as also the rate of consumption of each kind for a period, say of ten 

 years. As an ad valorem duty is obviously impracticable, I would 

 suggest that the same rate of duty should be imposed on all nutmegs, 

 since it is beyond doubt that their quality is essentially the same, 

 and that all alike are the product of cultivation, their market values 

 differing only in degree, according to season, and skill in growing and 

 curing, as it is with any other article of culture. In cloves, for ex- 

 ample, the same duty of 6d. a pound is imposed, although the prices, 

 quoting from those of the present month of February, as given in the 

 ' Economist,' range from 6d. a ])ound up to Is. 2d. Mace is a still 

 more remarkable exam{)lc. The duty is the same as that on the round 



