602 DBUGS, NJLBCOTICS, ETC. 



decreasing supply and increasing consumption, which may be very clearly per- 

 ceived by a reference, first to the official returns from New Orleans of the yearly 

 receipts of the western crops in each of the last seven years ; and secondly, to 

 the consumption of American tobacco in Great Britain and Ireland in the years 

 1847, 1848, and 1849, as compared with that of 1840, 1841, and 1842. We 

 have no moans of exhibiting with similar accuracy the relative consumption of 

 Continental Europe in the latter as compared with the former part of these last 

 ten years, but it is quite reasnnaole to assume that the increase, where there has 

 been little or no duty, must have gone on more rapidly than it has done here, 

 under the restraining force of a duty of 800 to 900 per cent. 



The deliveries from London and Liverpool, independently of those from 

 Scotland, Bristol, and Newcastle, for the use of Great Britain and Ireland, have 

 been as follows: In 1840, 15,037 hhds.; 1841, 15,019 hhds.; 1842, 15,468 

 hhds. ; 1847, 18,091 hhds.; 1848, 18,595 hhds. ; 1849, 18,738 hhds. 



The highest estimates we have seen of the whole of the crops of the United 

 Slates in 1849, do not exceed 140,000 hhds., of which it is not doubted that 

 fully 45,000 hhds. will be required for consumption there, and we estimate the 

 supply required for the consumption of Europe, South America, the West 

 Indies, and Africa, at certainly not less than 125,000 hhds. ; if these estimates 

 be realised in fact, it will follow that the stocks at the close of this year must 

 be 30,000 hhds. less than at the close of 1849. 



We estimate the present consumption of American tobacco in Great Britain 

 and Ireland as follows: 



The deliveries in London and Liverpool in 1849, were 18,738 hhds. ; do. do. 

 Bristol 1,400 hhds. ; do. do. Scotland we assume at 2,800 hhds. Total 22,939. 



Of Stripts, the deliveries in Liverpool last year were 8,544 hhds., of which 

 about 300 were for exportation ; the deliveries, therefore, were For the use of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, 8,250 hhds. In London we have no account of the 

 deliveries of stripts, as distinguished from leaf, for the whole of last year ; it is 

 doubtless less than that in Liverpool, and we assume it at 7,000 hhds. ; in. 

 Bristol it was about 900 hhds. ; in Scotland we assume it at 2,400 hhds. Total 

 18,550 hhds. 



Now, assuming 1,500 hhds. of the deliveries in Scotland and Bristol to be 

 included in the coastwise returns in London and Liverpool, then the consump- 

 tion of Great Britain and Ireland would appear to be about 21,500 hhds. of 

 American tobacco, and 17,000 for these to be stripts. The progressive increase 

 which we have shown in the returns of 1849, as compared with those of 1840, 

 must still go on. 



Without troubling you with any detail of.the stocks in each of the several 

 markets, it may be sufficient to show that the summary of the whole in all the 

 markets of Europe, other than Great Britain, consisted on the 31st December, 

 1849, of about ^22,000 hhds.; of which about 18,000 were Maryland and 2,000 

 stalks ; and it is important to notice especially the fact, that the stocks of the 

 manufacturers and dealers in Germany, Holland and Belgium are unusually 

 small. We have taken very considerable care to inform ourselves on this point, 

 and are fully satisfied that the usual stocks in second or dealers' hands do not 

 exist. The whole demand of the year must, therefore, be supplied from those 

 stocks in importers' hands, from England or from the United States. 



The following were the prices current in London in the spring of 1853 : 

 Virginia Leaf, common, per pound, 3^-d. to 3fd. ; middling, 5d. to 6d. ; good 

 and fine 6|d. to 7d. Stripts, 5d. to lOd. Kentucky Leaf: common 3d., to 

 Ssd.; middling, 3|d. to 4d. ; good and fine, 5d. to 6d. Stripts, 5d. to 7d. 

 Maryland, 3|d. to 9d. Negrohead and Cavendish : common and heated, 4d. to 

 6d. ; middling to good, 6d. to 8d. and 9d. ; fine, 10d., 12d., 16d. ; Barret's 

 none. Columbian, 7d. to Is. 8d. ; Brazil, 3d. to 6d. ; flat, 5d. to Is. Id.; Ma- 

 nilla, 7d. to 2s. 6d.; Havana, lOd. to 5s. ; Yara, lid. to 3a.; Cuba, 9d. to Is. Id. ; 

 ingars, 3s. to 16s.; cheroots, Manilla, 7s. 6d., nominal ; German and Amersfoort 

 4d. to Is. 3d.; stalks, duty paid, 2s. 6d. to 3s. 4d. ; smalls, 2s. 9d to 2s. 



The shipments to Europe were 76,5 16 hhds. against 40,652 hhds. the previous 

 year, and 43,576 hhds. in 1850. The rapidity of sales, the diminished stocks 

 even now held in first hands, were taken as an infallible index of the pro- 



