December i, 1889.I THP TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
« 
To the Editor. 
PENNY QUININE. 
London, Oct. 4th. 
Deae Sie, — When, during the last decade, the value 
of quinine went up to as high as 18s the ounce (at 
which price a large quantity of foreign make was 
sold wholesale) this valuable preservative from and 
curer of fever was only available for the rich ; and 
the traders in the article, from the collector of the 
wild bark in its native forests or the grower of the 
cultivated cinchona in the East to the chemist who 
handed the prepared drug over the retail counter, 
all enjoyed good profits, and there appeared to be no 
particular inducement to lower the retail price of 
quinine. 
At the present time, on thd contrary, after cin- 
chona has been so largely cultivated during so many 
years in the East and less largely in tne West, 
the markets of the world have been supplied with 
quantities of bark so large that they have only been 
saleable at ever decreasing prices, and lately the prices 
have been so low that they have meant extinction 
to many and loss to all growers ; whilst the collectors 
of the wild barks have retired many years since from 
the oollection as unrernunerative, and that at a time 
when prices were many time as high as they now are. 
The present prices therefore would, if they should 
continue t> prevail long enough, mean the elimination 
of the growers of the excess of cinchona by a gradual 
but progre-sive process. By the action of the law of 
the survival of the fittest, the growers of the lower 
qualities of cinchona have already lollowed the collectors 
of wild bark and disappeared ; and as the growing of 
a moderately rich bark is now carried on at a loss 
the growers of this quality must be expected to leave 
the supplying the market to the growers of the richest 
varieties, unless the equilibrium of the trade should 
first have beeu restored. This process of starving out 
the producer besides being unpleasant and unprofitable 
to him is exceedingly wasteful, and this action is not 
confined to its effect on the grower, for the same 
process is at work amongst the manufacturing interest. 
The mode of extracting the quinine from the bark 
has also been greatly improved of late years by the 
utilization of the latest scientific discoveries and of 
labour-saving inventions wfth the result of lowering 
the cost of manufacture and of multiplying the manu- 
facturing capacity of the world, viz. the huge works 
which have been erected and brought into working 
order have been capable of turning out far larger 
quantities of quinine than even the largely extended 
bark plantations could produce the raw material for. 
The trade demand for quinine has however never, 
of late years, been large enough to absorb the quan- 
tities actually turned out by the manufacturers, and 
the manufacturers have, in their eagerness to secure 
the sale of their own brands, reduced their profits to 
such a level that many of their number have pre- 
ferred waiting and watching to working at a loss ; 
and it may be said of the manufacturing interest as 
a whole, as it may be said of the growing interest 
as a whole, that the present prices mean extinction 
to many and insufficiently paid work to all. Thus again 
the process of starving out is unpleasant, unprofi- 
table and wasteful to the manufacturer, and its action 
is not exhausted in its damage to this interest, for 
distributors are also affected. 
The wholesale distributors of quinine again have 
suffered from the (for all practical purposes) un- 
limited quantities poured out by the factories, which 
both rendered profit on stock-holding by distributors 
out of the question and made impossible anything 
like a good profit on the current sales of the article ; 
in the absence of any extraordinary increase in the 
consumptive demand. 
it is true that the wholesale trade, by largely 
reducing their rate of profit on the Bale of 
quinine, has secured a certain increase of trade, 
but that increase has not been anything like 
! sufficient to make up for the loss by the decreased per- 
centage of profit. 
With many, very many, wholesale houses, quinine, 
which not so long ago ranked as a first-rate article, 
is now hardly worth doing at all. Thus the starving 
out process does not suit the wholesale distributor. 
The quinine retailer's position is hardly more envi- 
able. The chemist who maintains the old high prices 
to the public finds on the one hand that inferior 
substitutes creep in and temporarily and for mild cases 
lessen his sale of quinine; whilst, on the other hand, 
the stores and the cutting houses, by a slightly lower 
price, oust him as to the greater part of his possible 
sales. Thus the retailer at high prices finds his sale 
rather decrease than increase. The stores man or 
cutting chemist, on the other band, whilst he may 
and doubtless does draw to himself a fair share of 
the custom of that very limited number of people 
who have hitherto been in the habit of taking qui- 
nine, does not find the increase in his sale sufficient 
to make the business a satisfactory one. Like 
the wholesale distributor, his increase in quan- 
tity is not sufficient to make up for loss occa- 
sioned by lower percentage of profit. Thus the 
starving out process does not suit the retailer either. 
The decrease in the retail price of quinine has not 
been marked enough to reach a class of buyers suffi- 
ciently numerous to absorb the increased production of 
bark ; and thus, although consumption has largely 
increased, and although the trade is a growing one, 
yet, as a whole, it is carried on at a loss in a waste- 
ful way : that is to say that the brains, capital, and 
labour employed in the growth, manufacture and dis- 
tribution of quinine are much worse, very much worse, 
paid than such brains, capital and labour have a fair 
right to expect to be paid. 
What is the remedy for this state of things ? 
The process of reducing production to the level of 
consumption is one remedy, and its carrying into effect 
means the continuance of this bad trade, and of losses 
to the trade, until the desired object of equalisation 
of supply with demand shall have been reached 
or passed. 
The other remedy is : To stimulate consumption 
until it shall have reached the level of production. To 
effect this, soon enough to be of benefit to the trade, it is 
necessary, that all sections of the trade should put their 
shoulders to the wheel and insure that those who 
require quinine — the inhabitants of India, China, 
Africa &c. — shall have it in such a form as to enable 
them both to understand its value and how to use 
it, and at such a price as they can afford to pay 
for it, and, at the same time, one at which growers, 
manufacturers and distributors can afford to sell it. 
ThaUhe world, with its (?) 1,200,000,000 inhabitants is 
capable of consuming the present highest annual 
production of 10 millions of ounces of sulphate of 
quinine, no on© will even question ; especially when 
the 60 millions ©f inhabitants of the United States 
do already consume at least 3 millions of ounces. 
It does therefore seem to be a pity that a trade 
with the brains, capital and labour at its disposal 
which the quinine production, manufacture and 
distribution possess, should have failed, so far, to 
solve the problem of bringing together the producers 
who are commercially dying because they have pro- 
duced too much quinine, and there should be con- 
sumers who are actually, literally and physically 
dying for want of that very quinine. 
In these circumstances and hoping that all sections 
of the trade will give him sufficient support to make the 
venture not only a success to himself but a benefit to all, 
Mr. Rivers Hicks of 5 Savage Gardens, Tower Hill, 
Loudon, offers to the trade a very great convenience 
at a rate so low that it can hardly fail to be to their 
advantage to buy his 
Penny Quinine: 
that is such a quantity of sulphate of quinine made up 
into pills as in ordinary cases will restore health or 
even, humanly speaking, save life at a price whioh 
places this invaluable remedy within the niwans of 
the lowest paid of the world's labourers. 
