78 REPORT OF SCHIMMEL & Co. APRIL 1914. > 
the question that the prices may tighten in the course of the summer, when the supplies 
in England are nearing an end. 
Peppermint Oil, Japanese. The market in this important article, of which the 
position notoriously directly affects the price of menthol, has been exceedingly inte- 
resting during the last few months. Influenced by the general reports of a record-crop 
a very animated business of new crop oil for shipment at falling prices began to develop 
shortly after the publication of our October Report. But when the slump began to 
progress more quickly the buyers retired from the market and a state of listlessness 
set in which gradually led the bear-party among the Japanese firms to make new offers 
of some importance at quotations which it was simply impossible to resist. The price 
quoted was 6/— for assorted shipment, which works out at about 9/3 for menthol and 
4/- for oil. Shortly after we had succeeded in: buying at least a few hundred cases 
for shipment during the spring at these low prices, various rumours suddenly obtained 
currency which resulted in a rapid rushing-up of the market. In one quarter it was 
asserted that the greater part of the 1913 output had been taken out of the market by 
a combine of several Japanese refiners, in order to obviate a further slump in prices, 
while other reports said that the farmers, alarmed at the low prices, had petitioned 
the Japanese Government to establish a Monopoly for the production of peppermint, 
on the lines of that which is already in successful operation for camphor. Fortunately 
the bull-party were not successful in giving the European and American markets an 
attack of nerves. Only a.quite unimportant business was done at the increased quo- 
tations, and the feeling soon became calm again. The tendency of prices turned in a 
different direction, but without, for the present, reducing the market again to the low 
level which prevailed at the beginning of the year. This is probably connected with 
the fact the bear-sellers have been compelled to cover themselves against their 
January/March sales, and that as a consequence no considerable supplies could 
accumulate at the ports of shipment at the other side. It must be left to the future 
to show what course the Japanese menthol- and peppermint-oil market will take. We 
are inclined to think that the exceptionally large yield of the 1913 must depress the 
market, but the trade in these two important articles has so often brought surprises 
in the past that it is better to abstain from any forecasts about the future. In any 
case, the fact must be taken into consideration that reports are also in circulation 
which talk of a serious restriction in the extent of cultivation this year, and hold out 
the expectation of a considerable falling off in the output during the coming season. 
It will not be possible to form an even approximately reliable idea of the position on 
the basis of figures before the ensuing summer. 
The German Consul at Kobe, Herr Ohrt, has had the courtesy to bring to our 
notice that the figures given under the heading “peppermint oil” on p. 81 of our 
Report of April 1915 do not refer to peppermint oil, but to fatty oils in general, a fact 
which is not self-evident in the original, the Financial and Economic Year Book for 
Japan, from which we took the data. Herr Ohrt informed us at the same time that 
the figures quoted for “peppermint” represent the value of the annual production of 
menthol and peppermint oil together. The annual exports of peppermint oil up to the 
year 1912 have always been below 700000 yen. We now recapitulate the figures under 
their proper denominations up to, and inclusive of, the year 1912"). . 
1) Finanz. u. wirtsch. Jahrbuch f. Japan 18 (1913), 72, 102. 
