54 REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. APRIL 1914. 
from this side. They adopted towards the high prices then demanded an attitude of 
masterly inactivity, which in fact, had the result intended, namely that the owners, in 
order to find purchasers for their wares, were compelled to reduce their prices steadily. 
These conditions continued to affect the market so long as manufacturing was brisk, 
and the quantities of new oil brought to market grew larger day by day. But when, 
at the beginning of the month of March 1914, manufacturing came to an end, the daily 
market-supply of course began to shrink, and those parcels of oil which still were 
available now remain in the hands of strong holders, who are not at all eager to sell, 
and whose custom it is, in most cases, to speculate with their holdings for awhile 
upon a possible bad outturn of the coming crop. In sympathy with this state of 
things it is possible that in the course of the next four or five months less bergamot 
oil than heretofore will be offered for sale in the market, and that consequently there 
is a possibility that for some period to come higher prices will rule. On the other 
hand, it is not possible to disregard the fact that artificial bergamot oil and the many 
substitutes for the natural article are becoming more and more popular among the 
- consumers. The reason that, in spite of these disadvantages, bergamot oil continues 
to be able to maintain so high a level of prices compared with former years, is no 
doubt the steadily increasing consumption of this and similar oils throughout the 
world. If, at the critical period, the industries concerned had failed to find a substitute 
for the costly natural oil ‘(which in fact they then did find), natural bergamot oil would 
be much dearer still than it is now. Taking it all round, its future course of values 
will be determined by the conditions of flowering of the trees which will prevail a 
few months hence. If the new flowering-season should awaken good expectations, the 
owners of available oil will be induced to realize it while they are still able to 
command acceptable prices; on the other hand, if the prospects of the coming crop 
should be bad, a wild speculative movement may be let loose in the producing districts. 
At present it is impossible to form any opinion of the prospects of the new crop one 
way or the other. 
Lemon Oil. The position of this article in the month of September was as 
follows: Old prompt oil was held by the few local owners at about 32 -Z to 33 %, 
while the ruling price for new oil for delivery in January/March was approximately 
24 KH to 25 #. Foreign buyers purchased the new oil for delivery freely and eagerly, 
while holding off as much as possible from the old prompt high-priced article. They 
tried to the utmost to supply their immediate requirements from the existing stocks 
abroad, in the hope that an early commencement of the gathering-season would make 
it possible to replenish the empty warehouses as early as November and December 
with cheap supplies. The paucity of the demand for prompt oil finally compelled 
the holders of such oil to adjust their demands to the unfavourable market-conditions 
and to accept offers which grew steadily lower. On the other hand, the foreign demand 
for oil for future delivery continued brisk, for there was no disguising the prevalence 
of the impression that several factors were in existence which might well have the 
result of bringing about increased firmness in the prices of lemon oil. The most 
important of these was that no large accumulation of new supplies was to be expected 
before the spring; secondly, there was what seemed to be a well-founded hope that 
the export of green lemons, especially to the United States, would assume unusually 
large dimensions in the coming season. For it was known that the Californian lemon- 
and orange-plantations had been extensively damaged, both as to fruit and trees, by 
severe frosts in January 1913, and in addition to this, the reduction in duties decreed 
