August i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 
87 
suddenness; the "bulls" could not obtain even 
cost price for their wares ; and so the whole fabric 
so carefully built up came tumbling about their ears, 
overwhelming them with swift and utter ruin. 
One firm lost half-a-million dollars in a day. 
There are sixteen million bushels of wheat 
held by the collapsed ring to be sold under the 
hammer for whatever it will fetch. The coffee ring 
forced the price of that commodity from 6£ to 22 
cents per pound. These are some of the facts 
of this stupendous " operation," The failure of 
the firms engaged in it is the least evil result. 
Not only have the consumers, the legitimate buyers, 
had to pay an artificially increased price, but the 
whole market has been demoralised. The enormous 
auction of the Chicago " ring " drew into the city 
about half a million bushels of wheat every day. 
Everybody who had wheat to sell sent it to Chi- 
cago, and there it is now, drugging the market. 
For weeks corn and coffee have been kept up to 
famine prices. The supply has consequently been 
unduly stimulated. The reaction will so convulse 
the whole productive and commercial system, from 
the grower to the consumer, that many an honest 
man will today find ruin knocking at his door. 
And all for what ? That a dozen men in Chicago 
and a dozen men in New York may by one gi- 
gantic " gamble" make colossal fortunes. There is 
no term in the vocabulary of legitimate commerce 
to describe this proceeding. It is an infamous 
conspiracy, entered into for private gain and with 
an utter disregard of the public interest. If not 
technically a crime, it is so morally. People who 
engage in "corners" are enemies of society. 
These disgraceful enterprises are peculiarly Ameri- 
can. They are intimately associated with two leading 
American traits— the haste to become rich and the 
worship of "big" things. The haste to become 
rich is stimulated by the universal admiration the 
American people have for the man with a " big 
pile." A ten-million-dollar man is a popular deity ; 
and whatever it is— a prairie, a mountain, a river, 
a city, a benefaction, or a crime — the admiration 
it excites is measured by its " bigness." But there 
are signs that the Socialistic democracy of America 
is beginning to resent the special form of the tyr- 
anny of capital which is exhibited in these 
" corners." Here are men who, by sheer force 
of the command of capital, propose to lock up 
and monopolize the possession of the first' article of 
food, with the view of compelling people, under fear 
of starvation if need be, to buy from them at whatever 
price they may choose to demand. It is true the Am- 
erican people have not hitherto seen the matter quite 
in that light ; but they have been dazzled by the 
"bigness" of the thing, and we believe the flashy 
brilliancy which has blinded them is beginning 
to wear oil. There can be in the breasts of thou- 
sands of Americans today nothing but feelings of 
resentment and disgust towards the defeated and 
ruined confederacy. And we may hope that simi- 
lar feelings on the part of the English commer- 
cial classes will prevent the idea from ever taking 
root here. We had a cotton comer in Manchester 
some few years ago, and there have been attempts 
at a pig-iron ring in Glasgow. But in no case 
that we are aware of has the scheme succeeded ; 
and we may hope that, beyond the natural shrinking 
from the risks that must be run, there is in the 
English mercantile mind a repugnance to these 
disgraceful plots against legitimate trade and 
against society in general. Why, society would be- 
como impossible if it was always to be placed at the 
inrrcy of some great combination formed for the 
purpose of creating a monopoly of a necessary of 
existence. What if all our ship-owners, our rail, 
way companies, our corn-factors, and cattle-breeder 
were to combine in order to exact for their services 
or their commodities some unheard-of price which 
would enrich them while impoverishing everybody 
else ? These considerations are beginning to be 
understood in America ; they are already, we hope 
understood in England. 
If we insist with special earnestness on the in- 
iquity of the system, it is because we are conscious 
that public opinion is more powerful to check it 
than legislation. " Cornering " is even more 
difficult than boycotting to define as a legal offence. 
When a man goes into the market, buys wheat and 
pays for it, how are we to limit his purchases ? 
Having bought, he declines to sell, and why should 
he sell if he has a mind to hold ? At what point 
does legitimate trading suddenly become trans- 
formed into mad speculation, involving the public 
in the greatest inconvenience and entailing loss or 
ruin upon thousands of innocent people ? All this 
is extremely difficult to define in terms which 
would give society a legal hold upon the offender. 
But public opinion soon perceives where legitimate 
trading ends and" cornering " begins ; and public 
opinion has its own way of hanging Haman on the 
gallows prepared for Mordecai.— St. James's Budget. 
♦ 
Tea fob the Masses. — With regard to the recent 
movement in Calcutta to cultivate a taste for tea 
among the inhabitants of India, the Englishman 
of the 25th instant says: — "Today we have the 
pleasure of publishing the prospectus of the 'Ind- 
ian Tea Supply Company, Limited,' the shares in 
which we expect will be quickly taken up. The 
scheme has commended itself widely, so that not 
only is there enthusiasm about it in Calcutta, but 
already, before the appearanc ; of an advertisement, 
the Managing Agents are receiving letters about it 
from all parts of India." — Pioneer. 
The Amsterdam Quinine Works. — In the India 
Mercury some additional particulars are given con- 
cerning the future of this concern, which was sold 
the other day by public auction at about 8,400/. 
It is proposed to furnish the works with improved 
machinery for the extraction of alkaloids from 
cinchona bark, and thus to increase the producing 
capacity from 8,000 lb., the former standard, to 
18,000 lb. per annum. This will entail an outlay 
of about 2,800/. The works will resume operations 
with a capital of 21,000/., of which the public 
will be invited to contribute 8,500?., in shares of 
500 florins, or about 42/. each. The purchaser of 
the concern, Mr. W. Sieger, together with a few 
well-known Amsterdam firms, among which are 
the Dutch Trading Company, S. B. Zeveryn, A. d'Ailly 
& Sons, and C. F. Boehringer & Sons, of Mannheim. 
The latter firm will take over technical manage- 
ment of the new company, and a chemist trained 
at their Mannheim works has been appointed 
technical manager of the Amsterdam manufactory. 
— Chemist and Druggist. 
Ecuador Cinchona. — The falling-off in the 
Cinchona Bark Trade of South American States 
is very noticeable : — Of Peruvian bark, 2,987 
quintals (value 8,901/.) were exported in 1885, and 
only 613 quintals (value 2,452/.) in 1880. This 
is the only article showing a decrease during the 
past year, and it may be noted that the collection 
of cinchona has now been almost abandoned, owing 
to the difficulty of its transport through the forosts 
of the interior, and the fact that its value has so 
declined as to render the product insufficient to 
cover expenses and freight. The abolition of ex- 
port dues and reduction in freight, have not been 
found sufficient to overcome this drawback, 
