THE ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE PHILIPPINES 39 



April the ton was sold in London at £19. During the blockade 

 of Manila the price was pushed up to nearly £40. At the end 

 of the war it fell again to £28 10. 



In 1818, 261 piculs, worth $4.00 per picul, were exported. 

 After that there is no record of the exportation of hemp until 

 1840. In that year the amount exported is stated to have been 

 136,034 piculs (8,502 tons). Thirty years later, in 1870, the 

 amount had risen to 488,560 piculs (30,535 tons). The export 

 then increased still more considerably. The following figures 

 show how it has stood during the past six years : 



Piculs. Tons English. 



1892 1,581,100 98,818 



1893 1,282,942 80,184 



1894 1,591,962 99,497 



1895 1,664,590 104,038 



1896 1,531,810 95,738 



1897 1,689,754* 105,610 



The chief consumers are England and the United States. The 

 relative consumption by the different countries in 1896 is seen 

 from the following table : 



Piculs. Tons English. 



England 815,044 50,940 



United States 615,554 38,473 



China and Japan 49,494 3,093 



Australia 33,892 2,118 



Singapore and India 12,166 760 



European continent 5,660 354 



1,531,810 95,738 



The difference between the large export to England and the 

 small amount which goes to the continent, the very last on the 

 list, is striking. England, however, acts here only as middle- 

 man, selling extensively again to the continent, which accord- 

 ingly buys at second, or rather third, hand. 



Various species of the cocoanut palm are found dispersed 

 throughout the whole archipelago, though the exportation has 

 been considerable only during the last few years. Under a 

 more satisfactory state of affairs in the interior of the country, 

 the export trade in copra promises to increase still further in 

 spite of the large consumption of the nuts by the natives them- 

 selves. The meat of the cocoanut forms a staple article of food, 

 both raw and prepared; 



* From Manila only. 



