March, 1909.] 



223 



DYES AND TANS. 



A NOTE ON THE PRESENT POSI- 

 TION AND FUTURE PROSPECTS 

 OF THE CUTCH TRADE 

 IN BURMA. 



By R. S. Troup, f.ch., 

 Imperial Forest Economist. 



Recent drop in the quantity and value 

 of cutch exported. — Some apprehension 

 has of late been caused by a marked 

 decrease in the quantity and value of 

 cutch* exported from Burma during 

 recent years, for which various reasons 

 have been assigned, and as a result of a 

 detailed enquiry which I have recently 

 had occasion to make in the matter, it 

 may be of interest to consider the facts 

 elicited, particularly as to bearing on 

 the probable future of the cutch trade. 

 A glance at the figures in Appendix A. 

 will show that the net export value of 

 Burma cutch is now considerably less 

 than it was ten to fifteen years ago ; it 

 reached a very low figure in 1904-05, but 

 has recovered slightly since then. The 

 coasting trade, on the other hand, does 

 not show the same marked tendency to 

 decline in net value, though the quan- 

 tity now handled is much less than it 

 was formerly. 



Drop in local prices.— The local up- 

 country prices of cutch have also shown 

 a serious decline. Thus at Pakokku, one 

 of the local centres of the cutch trade 

 in Upper-Burma, cutch sold a few year? 

 ago at Rs. 50 per 100 viss,t whereas of late 

 the price has dropped to Rs. 25 to Rs. 30. 



Temporary fluctuations in the value 

 of cutch have been of frequent occur- 

 rence in the past, and are bound to 

 continue so long as the supplies fluctu- 

 ate so much as they have done and 

 still continue to do. This is inevitable, 

 because there is but a limited consump- 

 tion of cutch, and any production ex- 

 ceeding this amount is followed, as a 

 matter of course, by a decline in price. 

 The permanent decline observed for 

 years past is a more serious matter. 



* Cutch is a brownish coloured extract obtained 

 by boiling chips of the heartwood of Acacia 

 Catechu, Willd. (including two varieties, A. cate- 

 chuoides, Benth., and A. Sandra, CD,). The 

 liquorobtained by the boiling is further boiled down 

 to the consistency of syrup, poured into moulds, 

 and allowed to harden. The valuable constituents 

 of cutch are a tannin and a crystalline substance 

 known as catechin, and the value of cutch as a 

 tanning and dyeing agent depends on the amount 

 of these two substances. 



t 1 viss=3-65 lbs. avoirdupois. 



Money sunk in cutch plantations and 

 reserves- — Any tendency towards a per- 

 manent decline in the cutch trade is a 

 matter which closely concerns Govern- 

 ment interests. Up to 1907 cutch plan- 

 tations aggregating 8,656 acres have been 

 created and maintained at a total cost, 

 to date, of Rs. 1,46,014, in addition to 

 which 6,690 acres of mixed teak and 

 cutch plantations have been formed and 

 maintained at a total cost, to date, of 

 Rs. 1,00,487 : charging half of the latter 

 sum to cutch, it will be seen that about 

 two lakhs of rupees have already been 

 spent on cutch plantations. 



Besides this, considerable sums have 

 been spent in forming and maintaining 

 natural reserves of cutch forests, so that 

 any permaneut decline in or total cessa- 

 tion of cutch trade will be a matter of 

 grave corcern. 



Factors which may account for the de- 

 cline in the cutch trade.— Several reasons 

 have been suggested to account for the 

 decline in the cutch trade. Some of 

 these are of little value, but there are 

 three factors which are worth examining 

 in some detail, and as will be seen 

 below, thetiue reasons for the decline 

 in the trade are to be found in a com- 

 bination of three factors, which are (1) 

 the limited uses and demand for cutch, 

 (2) substitutes for cutch, (3) adulter- 

 ation and faulty manufacture. 



(1) Limited rises and demand for 

 cutch.— Owing to the introduction of 

 cheaper substitutes, the quantity of 

 Burma cutch now consumed is consider- 

 ably less than it it was some years ago. 

 The world's annual consumption of 

 Burma cutch probably does not now 

 exceed 4,500 tons per annum, and when 

 this demand is satisfied there is no other 

 outlet for cutch. Moreover, the price 

 must be a low one to tempt importers 

 to purchase in anticipation of future 

 requirements, as the cost of keeping 

 cutch in store in Great Britian, and 

 the loss in weight during about six 

 months, adds some 10 per cent, to im- 

 porting prices. As the speculative value 

 of cutch is thus a low one, and as the 

 quantity of cutch manufactured fluctu- 

 ates a good deal year by year, the mar- 

 ket prices of the product must, in view 

 of the restricted demand, also fluctuate 

 proportionally, and this fact explains 

 to a great extent the ups and downs 

 of the cutch market at comparatively 

 short intervals, though it does not 

 entirely explain the drop which has 

 taken place for a long series of years ; 



