— 20 — 



and the quantities shipped were sufficient to meet the demand. The 

 shipments via Macassar in which our own imports are not included, 

 amounted during the first five months, i. e. the period for which up 

 to the present information has come to hand, to: — 

 1752 baskets in the year 1907, 

 against 1061 ,, „ „ „ 1906, 

 and 1408 „ „ „ „ 1905. 



America still stands at the top as a consuming country; as already 

 mentioned, the consumption of this article in Europe has suffered con- 

 siderably from the good and cheap eucalyptus oils. 



Camphor Oil. The prices of crude Japanese oil reached 

 their highest level about the middle of April, when on the average 

 85/- per cwt. was asked, whilst white Japanese oil could be had 

 at 72/-. Since then the market has shown very weak features, in agree- 

 ment with the tendency of the camphor prices, and the prices of 

 crude oil have gradually declined to about 43/- per cwt. Naturally 

 opinions as to the cause of this enormous drop in the prices differ, 

 but the various reports received by us agree on the whole in this, 

 that the competition of the Chinese camphor products has in recent 

 times made considerable headway, and has been the principal factor 

 in bringing about the change. On p. 24 of the present Report we 

 give more detailed information as to the Chinese production. 



From a report on the present position of the chemical industry 

 of Japan, from the pen of the German Consul at Kobe, we abstract 

 the following information 1 ) on the articles camphor and camphor oil 

 which interest us specially. 



The Japanese Bureau of Monopoly carefully avoids the publication 

 of details of its management, so that the available statistical material 

 does not afford a clear view of the production. 



The production of camphor during the last three years amounted 

 in Greater Japan to 



40235 piculs camphor and 34346 piculs camphor oil in 1904, 

 41023 „ „ „ 34175 n „ » » I9°5> 



41859 „ „ „ 34833 „ „ „ „ 1906. 



It should be taken into consideration that the above figures for 

 camphor really come considerably higher, owing to the production 

 of camphor from camphor oil, but how much this increase amounts 

 to cannot be determined. The export-figures of the Custom's statistics, 

 from which the total annual production can be approximately cal- 

 culated, were: — 



x ) Bench te fiber Handel und Industrie 10 (1907), 605. 



