424 



SPICES AND FBAGEANT WOODS. 



while the wholesale price for that ofPinang, Malabar, and Sumatra 

 is about 4d. per Ib. White pepper ranges from 9d. to Is. 6d. per Ib. 

 The prime cost in Singapore is not more than ld. per Ib. 



About 70, 000 or 80,000 piculs of pepper are annually exported 

 from Singapore, of which between 30,000 and 40,000 piculs have, 

 until within the last two years, gone on to Great Britain. More 

 than one-half of the pepper exported from Singapore is grown in 

 the island by Chinese settlers. 



The low selling price of the article in the English market, the 

 high duty levied upon it, and the large freight paid for its carriage 

 to Great Britain, now leave so small a price to the cultivator in 

 Singapore, that the cultivation ceases to be remunerative, and is 

 carried on at a loss ; and has consequently within the last year 

 or two begun to decrease rapidly, involving the Chinese growers, 

 who are generally of the poorest class, and without capital, in great 

 distress. A reduction in the duty on pepper has always been 

 followed by a very large increase in the consumption of the article, 

 as will appear from the following table, showing the importation 

 and consumption in Great Britain during some of the first and 

 last years of the different rates of duty : 



In a memorial from the mercantile community of Singapore, 

 sent home in 1848, it is asserted that a reduction in the duty of 

 pepper being always attended by a large increase in the con- 

 sumption, would not lead to any serious loss in the revenue, while 

 it would confer a great boon on the poorer classes, to whom it 

 has now become a necessary article of life. The reduction would 

 also be of great advantage to British manufacturers, as well as to 

 our Indian possessions, by giving rise to an increased demand 

 demand for British goods and productions, and of the highest 

 benefit to the agricultural settlers in the island of Singapore, by 

 enabling them to procure for their labor ail honest means of live- 

 lihood. 



The pepper vines, which are allowed to climb poles or small trees, 

 are tolerably productive at Singapore ; and pepper planting is 

 esteemed by the Chinese to be a profitable speculation, particularly 

 if they are enabled to evade the payment of quit-rent. An acre of 

 pepper vines will yield 1,161 Ibs. of clean pepper. In Sumatra a 

 full grown plant has been known to produce seven pounds ; in 

 Piuang the yield is much more. The average produce of one 

 thousand vines is said, however, to be only about 400 Ibs. 



