PEPPEB. 427 



Cayenne it has been successfully carried on for many years ; and 

 large shipments of pepper have been made thence to France. 



BLACK PEPPER EXPORTED FROM SINGAPORE. 



Piculs. Value in rupees. 



1841 . . Total Exports 66,810 



Growth of Singapore . . 21,231 . . 47,674 



1842 . . Exports 74,228 



Growth of Singapore . . 32,277 . . 72,473 



1843 .. Exports 67,883 



Growth of Singapore . . 35,585 . . 79,900 



1844 .. Exports 67,148 



v Growth of Singapore . . 42,995 . . 386,152 



1845 . . Exports 65,892 



Growth of Singapore . . 39,019 . . 350,443 



1846 . . Exports 56,709 



Growth of Singapore .. 35,712 



1847 . . Exports 60,994 



Growth of Singapore .. 36,565 .. 328,397 



Pliny, the naturalist, states that the price of pepper in the 

 market of Borne in his time was, in English money, 9s. 4d. a pound, 

 and thus we have the price of pepper at least 1,774 years ago. 

 The pepper alluded to must have been the produce of Mala- 

 bar, the nearest part of India to Europe that produced the 

 article, and its prime cost could not have exceeded the present 

 one, or about 2d. a pound. It would most probably have come to 

 Europe by crossing the Indian and Arabian ocean, with the 

 easterly monsoon, sailing up the Red Sea, crossing the desert, 

 dropping down the Nile, and making its way along the Mediter- 

 ranean by two-thirds of its whole length. This voyage, which 

 in our times can be performed in a month, most probably then 

 took eighteen. Transit and customs duties must have been paid 

 over and over again, and there must have been plenty of extortion. 

 All this will explain how pepper could not be sold in the Roman 

 market under fifty-six times its prime cost. Immediately previous 

 to the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, 

 we find that the price of pepper in the markets of Europe had 

 fallen to 6s a pound, or 3s. 4d. less than in the time of Pliny. 

 What probably contributed to this fall, was the superior skill in 

 navigation of the now converted Arabs, and the extension of their 

 commerce to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, which 

 abounded in pepper. After the great discovery of Vasco de 

 GUma, the price of pepper fell to about Is. 3d. a pound, a fall of 

 8s. Id. from that of the time of Pliny, and of 4s. 9d. from that 

 of the Mahommedan Arabs, Turks, and Venetians. 



In 1826, 14,000,000 Ibs. of pepper were imported into the 

 United Kingdom, of which about 5,500,000 were re-exported. In 

 1841, 15,000,000 Ibs. were imported, of which 6,500,000 were re- 

 shipped to other countries. 



The home consumption, it will be seen, now averages about 

 3,260,000 Ibs. :- 



