52 
The Indian 'Wlieat Trade. 
The other countries and colonies are Egypt, Arabia, Aus- 
tralia, Mauritius, Aden, Turkey in Asia, Straits Settlements, 
Reunion, Ceylon, Abyssinia, Zanzibar, Cape Colony, Persia, 
Mekran and Sonmiani, China, South America, and Mozambique. 
Of course, the quantities exported to some of these countries, 
which are named in the order of the quantities sent to them, 
received quite insignificant contributions. Indeed, bearing in 
mind the close connection of Egypt with the European wheat 
supply, Indian exports of that gi'ain might, without causing 
much misapprehension, be reckoned as all for Europe. 
In addition to wheat, India exports a small quantity of flour, 
but none of it comes to Europe. In 1886-87 the amount was 
319,143 cwts., from which imports of 22,687 cwts. must be 
deducted, leaving the net exports 296,456 cwts. The quantity 
exported has increased five-fold since 1882-83. The "Miller," 
a journal which has published many valuable articles on the 
Indian wheat trade, regards the extension of flour-making in 
India not only without apprehension on behalf of British millers, 
but as actually advantageous to them. In an article on the 
" Oriental " Flour Mill, Bombay, in its issue of December 5 last, 
the "mier" said:— 
" The large supply of wlieat in India convinced some of our most enter- 
prising milling engineers that it was advisable to erect mills to manufacture 
ilour in India for native consumption and to compete with American flour 
in the far East, and thus, without building up a dangerous rival to the mill- 
ing interest at home, help the English milling trade in their competition 
with American flour by reducing the profits that the American millers are 
obtaining in China and Japan. Flour manufactured entirely from Indian 
wheats would not be acceptable to the home market on account of the 
peculiar feature in the gluten and the aromatic flavour in the flour." 
It has been pointed out that the exports of wheat from India 
were not considerable untU 1881-82, and, whether it be merely 
a coincidence, or more than that, it is a fact that the average 
annual price of wheat in England has been permanently below 
45s. a quarter only since 1882>, It has further been remarked 
that we must consider the total supplies of Indian wheat to 
Europe, and not those received in England' only, in endeavour- 
ing to form a fair estimate of tKeir effect upon prices here. Let 
us now see the proportions- of our foreign wheat supplies received 
from India and the other principal sources in the calendar years 
most nearly corresponding to the Indian financial years referred 
to specially above. .As the Indian financial, year ends on 
March 31, and the n^ew crop doe^ not begin to move to any 
considerable extent before the middle of that month, it is clear 
of the wheat crop of 1887, have been much smaller than those of cither of the 
two prenous years. 
