— 42 — 



So far there has been no talk of any business in new bergamot oil 

 for delivery in January 1912; on the one hand sellers are wanting because 

 the garden-owners ask enormous prices for the fruit, and on the other 

 buyers are likewise absent, nobody being willing to transact business at 

 the high rates. If the oil-content of the fruit should be high, it is not 

 impossible that next year's prices will fall below the average of those of 

 the present season; but if the fruit should be poor in oil, the output of 

 bergamot oil will be very small indeed, and it will hardly be possible for 

 the price of the article to recede, inasmuch as some of the users of 

 bergamot oil are unable to employ substitutes and even the limited con- 

 sumption from this source would suffice, given such a small crop, to 

 keep prices here at a high level. 



Lemon Oil. When we wrote in the middle of March last, we left 

 lemon oil at the price of 9 o4l per kilo cif. Trieste; at the present moment 

 we find it quoted at from 14.50 cM to 15 c4i , an advance equal to about 

 65°/ on the value. 



Special stress should be laid upon the fact that on the present occasion 

 the buyers abroad have only had to bear the smallest part of this advance. 

 The burden of the difference in price has fallen chiefly upon the shoulders 

 of the exporters here, who at the commencement, of the season, without 

 being covered themselves, had foolishly entered upon contracts for delivery 

 with foreign buyers at low prices, and who have had to pay the penalty 

 of their imprudence as the season progressed. Buyers abroad, amply 

 covered for five or six months ahead by their cheap purchases, were for 

 a long time indifferent spectators of the rising market, while gradually 

 consuming their own low-priced supplies. But now that these stocks 

 have come to an end, the foreign consumers are compelled, as their needs 

 dictate, to concede the high rates now ruling. The pronounced specu- 

 lative tendency of our market throughout the entire season has imparted 

 greater firmness to the article, and made it possible for the market to 

 maintain itself in spite of the counter-operations which have been set on 

 foot by a few export-firms who had entered into engagements for the 

 shipment abroad of very large quantities at low prices. Our local specu- 

 lators and most of the large manufacturers, who have made large profits 

 in the article during the last few years, are ably and effectively supporting 

 the market by buying up and storing for speculative purposes during the 

 manufacturing season all the excess of supplies which is being offered 

 for sale. The result of these operations is to obviate accumulation upon 

 the daily market of an excess of supplies which might depress the prices 

 of the oil. Just at present the holders of oil have the game in their hands. 

 The remaining available stocks of old oil are very small, and can 

 hardly be estimated at more than 30000 kilos, all of which will doubtless 

 find its way abroad within the next 3V> months. 



