and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— February, 1912, 177 



SALES OF PRODUCE IN BRITISH AND CONTINENTAL MARKETS. 



Fibres, Cotton, Grain, Oil Seeds, Hides and Skins, 

 Timber, Rubber, Drugs, Wool, Ores, Mica, Gums, Tea, 

 Cocoa, Coffee, Copra, Sugar, etc., are being regularly 

 dealt in; Keymer, Son & Co., being selling Agents for 

 Estates, Mills and Exporters. 



Samples valued. Best ports for Shipments indicated. 



The management of Estates undertaken. Capi tal _ found 

 for the development or purchase of valuable properties. 



KEYMER, SON & CO. , 

 Cables: Whitefriars, 

 KEYMER, LONDON. LONDON, E. C. 



(Same address since 1844). 



TEA IN 1911. 



MESSRS. McMEEKIN & CO. : S ANNUAL 

 REPORT. 



The continued great commercial development 

 of Great Britain, of which the Board of Trade 

 monthly returns give ample evidence, has 

 doubtless influenced tea in respect to progress 

 in consumption and it is the more surprising 

 that there is to record an advance in prices 

 simultaneously with an increase in demand. 

 Producers. 

 For the third year in succession producers 

 in general have had every reason to feel satis- 

 fied with their investments. The yields in the 

 aggregate, although not hounding up as they 

 sometimes did in the lean years, have shown 

 an increase in each of the great producing 

 countries and at the same time a largely en- 

 hanced price has been secured. Takiug the 

 London public auction average of the prices 

 of Indian tea for the calendar year as a 

 factor, the improvement on 1910 has been 

 - 78d, per pound. This may be assumed to 

 apply to all teas, because if the difference in the 

 case of (Jeylon has been less, it has been greater 

 in Javas and Chinas. Upon the world's con- 

 sumption of tea, which (excluding the internal 

 consumption of the producing countries and 

 80,000,000 lb of Brick Tea for Russia)' is in round 

 figures 616,000,000 lb, there was an increase in 

 selling value within the year of fully £-2,000,000. 

 The certainty of high dividends could not be 

 without influence on investors and the outcome 

 is a great appreciation in capital values. This is 

 best shown by the tables of Mr Geo. Seton esti- 

 mating the value of the debentures and shares of 

 170 tea-producing companies representative of 

 India and Ceylon. The progression shown is as 

 follows: — £ 



1st November, 1908 ... 20,000,000 

 1st December, 1909 ... 22,900,000 

 1st December, 1910 ... 30,300,000 

 15th November, 1911 .. 34,400,000 



23 



1910 showed the largest increase, but much of 

 that arose by anticipation in connection with 

 rubber and of what has actually occurred in 

 1911. 



DISTRIBUTORS. 



The gain of the producer? described above 

 has been largely at the expense of the mer- 

 chants, who, in various grades of trade, form 

 the connecting links of the commercial chain. 

 Jn many markets, especially of perishable pro- 

 visions like butter, bacon and cheese, the re- 

 tail prices are elastic and follow the course of 

 the wholesale. Tea has always been fairly 

 firmly established in grades of fixed price and 

 in the good old times, when it provided the 

 mainstay of a retail grocer's profits fluctua- 

 tions in the ruling markets meant merely an 

 increase or diminution in what was, at the 

 worst, a substantial profit. Now that Tea is a 

 severely competitive line, and that pushing 

 retailers are continually selling some of it at 

 less than cost, the advance in prices above re- 

 ferred to has been paid for to a great extent 

 by the distributors. The consumer ha3 doubt- 

 less in many cases been supplied with Teas 

 of lower quality at the old prices and in 

 some cases he has been induced to buy a finer 

 Tea, but it may pretty safely be reckoned 

 that, on the aggregate of the year's trading in 

 Tea, there has been a large falling off in the 

 distributive profit. 



Consumers. 



A rectification of the assumed average rat9 

 of consumption was caused by the figures of 

 the census of 1911. These show the rate per 

 person to have been rather larger than was 

 calculated previously. A further slight advance 

 was shown in 191], but it is considered that 

 the year's withdrawals from bond have provided 

 for some reserve beyond immediate requirements. 

 The working classes, whose demand is the main 

 factor in consumption, have been prosperous. 

 There has been comparatively little unemploy- 

 ment and wages have been advancing. The 



