47 



charge.* If, after trial, the fibre is found to answer, 

 it may perhaps be requisite to make a still further 

 sacrifice, and supply the market at cost price ; but 

 such a measure would be exceptional and of brief 

 duration, for the law of supply and demand would 

 soon fix the value of the commodity, and the trade 

 would then become established. The principle in- 

 volved in this proposal is one of such universal ap- 

 plication in Commerce that it is, I presume, unneces- 

 sary to offer any arguments in its defence. 



15. Royle, in his work already referred to, when 

 Royieonthedif- dwelling on the difficulty of introducing: a 



ficulty of intro- J o 



*S$S**' ne ^ article into the market, says : " The 

 only mode of ascertaining the value of a fibre or any 

 other product is to see what it will bring in the open 

 market. This is, no doubt, true of such articles as 

 are known ; but if a new product is sent into the 

 market few of the regular purchasers will buy it, as 

 they want that to which their machinery and manu- 

 facturers are suited. I am told that it is only by 

 sending an article for some years into market that it 

 attracts attention. When worked up and found 

 useful, inquiries are subsequently made for it, and by 

 degrees its properties are determined and its real 

 value ascertained, as we may see on examining the 



* This quantity will be found to be none too much for practical purposes, 

 for although microscopic investigation will no doubt decide the merits of 

 fibres hereafter, at present manufacturers require that they be put to the 

 experimenfum crucis before they will become purchasers. Mr. Thos. Rout- 

 ledge, referring to a sample of fibre that was sent to him, writes : " The 

 small quantity of Musa I received (a few Ibs. only) is wholly insufficient 

 for practical experiment With two tons I might do something, although 

 not much, as the yield 'of the dried crushed stems would not be more 

 than 35 per cent. , and we boil one ton at a time. You will see, there- 

 fore, that two tons leaves no margin for experimenting." 



