CONCLUDING REMARKS. 67 



From what has been already said it will have been 

 gathered that the speculation, or enterprise as it should 

 more fitly be termed, of coffee planting, is a very legi- 

 timate subject for the formation of joint- stock com- 

 panies. There are, it will have been seen, considerable 

 advantages to be gained by prosecuting the project on 

 an extended scale. The European management both 

 in England and abroad forming no inconsiderable part 

 of the expense, it will always be found advantageous 

 to afford full employment to this description of labour ; 

 and an able, active manager can superintend 1500 or 

 2000 acres with very little more trouble than half that 

 extent would entail. Again, the expenses in England 

 of a well- constituted company need be little more than 

 the amount saved by their acting as their own agents 

 in the sale of their produce. A vast proportion of the 

 failures amongst the planting community have resulted 

 from insufficient capital, and the enormous interest 

 which the borrower has been obliged to pay for funds 

 sufficient to bring his concern to a successful issue ; 

 but, with a joint- stock company neither of these exi- 

 gencies are likely to occur, and in the present state of 

 the market the only cause which should affect the pro- 

 spects of the undertaking is the very material question 

 of management ; but where this is really efficient with 

 a due regard to economy, few enterprises present a 

 more certain prospect of liberal returns than coffee 

 planting. 



