April 2, 1888] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 701 
iivo pound note. Were gonuino dealings in sugar and 
coffee alone in question, a capital of fifty thousand 
pounds would have b ien quite enough for any Company 
of the kind ; but the aituis fret; gambling, not honest 
business, and hence this great parade of money. The 
Coiuuuy must have enough margin of moans to be 
able to attia'it deposits and to guarantee the payment 
pf diffieroncts; to hnd, also, to iti unlucky customers 
From this point of view the proposed business wear 
an extremely repulsive appearance, but— such is the 
extent to whh h speculative habits now prevail-it may 
be all the more prolitablo for that. There, indeed 
lies tho sole justification, such as it is, for the creation 
of this Company. " People will gamble," it is said' 
" and if we do not eualle them to do so at home they, 
will go to Havre or Hamburg." This is quite true, and 
Wi r i the project based openly and fraukly ah this 
ground there would lie little more to be said. Its exis- 
tence would have to be regretted, but it would at 
least not come into being under false pretences. 
The fouuders of the Company, however, bold alto- 
gether lo'ty language. 'J hoy are qu'te tho Gladstones 
of commerce. Tliey euphemise gambling bargains as 
" special transactions," and announce that by placing 
these on " a good commercial basis" the Company 
may bo "considered as of general advantage to British 
trade," which is now "injured" by so much "busi- 
ness" being diverted to other channels. Take the cant 
away from this language, and all we have left is an 
assertion, probably true, that the people who have 
hitherto thrown the dice at Havre or Hamburg will 
now do so iuLmdon. They will do this, and their 
example will draw thousands of people after them to 
lose 11101. ey for the good of the " Clearing House." 
But this has nothing to do with the prosperity of 
British trade. All the gambling in tho world will not 
make the English people larger drinkers of coffee than 
they have been, or greater eaters of sugar. But it 
is quite possible that a considerable portion of the 
large transit trade in produce of all kinds which now 
centres in Loudon might be lost to us as the result of 
"bear" speculations conducted under the wing of the 
"Clearing House." (<)r there might be an excessive 
importation, as tho consequence of a " rig up " of prices 
which would end equally disastrously. The best that 
can be said for such an Institution is that it may pro- 
vide a readier market than Miueing-laue now does, with 
its old-fashioned ways and prejudices. Producers may 
be always, or almost always, sure of rinding their goods 
saleable here, at some price or other. That is a plau- 
sible view, at least; but is it an advantage which out- 
weighs the positive mischiefs sure to follow the in- 
troduction of the Havre system? Let us allow that 
under the preseut quiet, half-secret modes of doing 
business the market sometimes takes the merchant 
or the producer, or both, at a disadvantage, and 
still it does not follow that some p an less 
objectionable would n t have met the necessities of 
the ease. But there is no complaint hinted at 
aguinst I.ondou modes of doing busiuess. They are 
not gambling modes, that is all. Tom, Dick and Harry 
cannot now stake their "livers" at a public tablo in 
tho Lino, and lo-o them for the good of tho keepers 
thereof ; so the promoters of this scheme — foreigners, 
»i believe, and men themselves of little standing in 
Kiitish commerce — mean to give them this additional 
chance, (ienuiuu business cannot be helped by such 
in. mi ; but it does not follow that consumers will, 
on the average, miller. They might gain. Now and 
then, no doubt, thoy w ould have to pay an unjustili- 
ably high price fur Homo article in which the crowd had 
11 inncy to speculate for the rile, but this would be coin- 
pi-UHiited for by the long periods of collapse nod low 
prices which always follow escapades of this sort . Tin re 
would luir ben, no adverse critici - ins if the Mincing- 
lane brokers had formed an association, or groups of 
associations, like the cotton brokers of Liverpool, in 
or ler to adjust or control their own or I heir customers' 
time bargains ; li r tusu speculation would thou have 
buen for tho most part legitimate, conducted by 
moil who knew tlmir business. It is because tlm 
"Clearing House" scheme is intended to attract the 
multitude that it is so objection tblc. Tie- more striking 
its success, the more will it demoralise busiuess. 
THE CANTON TEA TliADE. 
The minutes of a meeting of the Committee ap- 
pointed to enquire into the state of the tea trade in 
Canton have been pub ished. Mr, B. Deacon, the Chair- 
mtn, having invited the members of the Committee 
to givo their views, a long discussion followed and 
eventually it was decided to put on record some of 
the p ints worthy of the consideration of the Chinese 
authorities, unless the tea trade at Canton is to be 
sciously crippled if not altogether annihilated by the 
yearly competition with India. The Committee say 
that Canton Hceuted capers, of which the bulk of their 
export consists, competes more keenly with Indian 
kinds than any other class of China tea, being espe- 
cially useful for mixing purposes. But the competi- 
tion is now growing so severe, and home prices have 
reached so low a range, that unless some steps are soon 
taken to relieve the tea of the excesdve burdens of 
lekin and export duty, a time must come when scented 
tea will cease to be au article of consumption alto- 
gether. These scented teas are produced in districts 
the most remote from Canton, and aro there- 
fore subject to high inland t-ixatioD, which 
leads the native merchauts to mix with it inferior leaf 
grown in Canton, and suffering therefore lighter dues. 
Buyers also oomplaiu of the large proportion of dust 
found in the teas, and the committee say, " the dust 
should if possible not be sent to Canton from the dis- 
tricts at all, as the leTiin dues havo to be paid on it as 
well as on the whole leaf, and this of oourse increases 
tho ultimate cost of the tea; this complaint is es- 
pecially to be made about leaf arriving from the 
Loting and Hoyuue districts." Canton scented orange 
pekoe has— both in the long and the short leaved 
descriptions — been already seriously beaten out 
of the field by their Indian competitors. This 
is amply proved by the figures, which disclose 
the significant fact that in the lust ten years the 
exports from Canton have fallen from 3,870,000 
pouuds to 1,000,000 pounds, and the decrease con- 
tinues year by year, so that, as the committee say, 
it now seems impossible that this class of tea can 
regain the position it has lost on the London market. 
There is a steady market, as a rule, in Londou for 
the congous of which the best come from the Tayshau 
districts, and the only suggestion which the com- 
mittee offer about them is that the growers 
should be contented with fower pickings in 
the year, experience having shewn that the teas 
plucked in August and September are deficient in 
every quality except make. Of course, too, the picking 
of these teas in these months affects the supply of 
the autumn crop, which is the best produced iron) 
the districts. So much for the remarks which the 
Canton tea exporters make upon their trade, which 
aro pretty much to the same effect as those offered 
by our own experts and by the Chamber of Commerce 
in Pooehow. The Canton Committee sum up their 
minute by concurring in tho opinions of the Poochow 
and Shanghai Chambers of Commerce, ami consider 
that " tho only real remedy for preventing total 
extinction of tho trade is tho abolition of all lekin 
and export duties, so that tho China article may bo 
on the same footing as the Iudian, Ceylon 
and Java, all of which are free from taxes." The 
Canton committee make no referonce to the valuable 
suggestion offered by tho gentlemen who wore deputed 
to make tho report for our Chamber of Commerce, that 
tho Chinese Government, if it is really anxious to 
improve tho production of tea, should throw the 
country open to foreigners, ho that they may estab- 
lish tea hongs with modern machinery. This may 
however bo dealt with in the report which the 
Canton merchant . will doubtless make, for as so 
much of their trade is, or rather ihonld be. in 
scented and fancy teas, there would Been) to be 
more necessity for reform in their production than 
in plain congous. Hut the following scntenc ■ from 
tho minutes leads tin to doubt whether the I 'anion 
merchants take tho sumo view on thin point as 
tho Shanghai Chamber of Oointierca: " The native 
grower must bo looKod to for any iinpr.n euieu' in 
inunufiicturc or production, an i as long as be to 1^ 
