342 



PROVINCE OF BAHIA. 



weather which burnt up the plants; and for the year ending the 1st of October, 

 1818, only thirty-two thousand six hundred and eighty-one arrobas, were 

 shipped. One-third, and more frequently one-half, of a tobacco crop is rejected 

 as unfit for shipment to Europe. 



Tobacco comes to market from January to March, principally through the 

 medium of the towns of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro, where it is previously made 

 up into rolls. The whole is accumulated in one government warehouse, where 

 it undergoes a very rigid inspection, and is separated into approved and rejected 

 portions ; the latter is only shipped to the Portuguese possessions in Africa, 

 and, since the abolition of their slave trade north of the Equator, where it was 

 principally used, the price has fallen greatly, and very little of it is now taken in 

 their outward cargoes to Cabinda, Angola, &c. which consist principally of 

 coarse East India goods, a little rum, trinkets, &c. 



The purchasing of tobacco is deemed by the merchants not only the most 

 troublesome, but the most precarious branch of their dealings. Tobacco is 

 usually bought before inspection, so that the merchant has all the trouble of 

 that operation. The whole of the crop coming to market in a short period, and 

 piled together in one warehouse, produces great confusion, rendering it very 

 difficult to get at the lots agreed for ; and when found, probably, only a few 

 rolls turn out good, so that other lots are to be purchased, and another search 

 undertaken to find them, attended with the same inconvenience as the first; and, 

 in some instances, an examination of five or six hundred rolls will only afford 

 twenty good ones. This delay is prejudicial to the interest of the merchant, 

 in consequence of tobacco being a perishable article; besides, it is of the highest 

 importance to get the shipments to Europe as early as possible, for not only do 

 the first arrivals sell best, but, in the event of a stagnation occurring, the owner 

 being compelled to retain this article, there is a great chance of its rotting 

 upon his hands.* Previous to the shipments to Europe, the tobacco is opened, 



* The precarious nature of the tobacco trade is evidenced by a shipment made of this article from 

 Bahia to London, where on its arrival it was unsaleable; the agent, therefore, reshipped it for 

 Gibraltar, drawing for the freight and charges he had paid. On its arrival in Gibraltar, it was there 

 equally unsaleable ; and, after being deposited some time in a warehouse, it was discovered to be 

 rotten, and condemned by government to be thrown into the sea; after which the agent there had 

 to draw also for the freight and charges that he had paid, in which was included the expense of 

 throwing the tobacco into the sea. The shippers, no doubt, considered the termination of this specu- 

 lation as unpalatable as the element to which it was finally consigned. 



