CHAPTKR XI 



THE LYCIIEE AND LUNGAN IN COMMERCE 



In a country where transportation facilities have developed so 

 slowly it is nut' surprising that threat sacrifices of growers' profits, and 

 even human life itself, have been necessary in order to get a perish- 

 able fruit to a critical public and to a tribute-exacting royalty. 



The usual method in the handling of the lychee crop is for 

 the grower to sell to the jobber; the jobber, who is at the mercy of 

 contractors in human labor necessary to transport the product by 

 land or by stream, sells to the city wholesaler; the wholesaler to the 

 retailer; and the retailer to the consumer. Estimates on the value of 

 the fruit are usually made while it is still on the tree; in fact, con- 

 tracts for the year's crop are often made while the trees are in flower, 

 as this allows a little more leeway for a gamble. 



After the fruit is picked it is carefully and neatly packed by 

 these jobbers, the baskets are carefully covered with some of the 

 leaves of the tree and are often made thief-proof by sewing over the 

 top a kind of bamboo matting. They are thus transported to the 

 cities (fig. .45). The wholesale lychee markets in a city the size of 

 Canton are a most interesting study and the questions regarding 

 weights and measures, grades and prices are difficult to comprehend. 

 ISut interesting information can be secured here with regard to dis- 

 tricts and varieties. 



Trilnili Lyvlm 



Chinese history points clearly to the evils which have accom- 

 panied the custom of sending the best produce of the land to the 

 Kmperor and his Court. It is fortunate for China that this custom 

 ceased with the birth of the Republic. The demand made by the 

 royal families upon the great lychee producing districts of the south 

 has always been "a thorn in the flesh." It has proved a deterring 

 factor in the development of the lychee industry, as is indicated in 

 many records of the extreme hardship and even sacrifice of life th;it 



71 



