THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [May i, 1882. 
The present price of good coffee in Rio and Santos 
is 4$000 per 10 kilas., say 6$000 per arroba ; for 
calculation we will take the milreis at the value of 
3s. The value in gold is 27d, but at present rate of 
exchange currency is only 21gd to 22 i. 
The arroba, by which all Brazilian calculations are 
made, is 321b. (3^ to the cwt.), although sales take 
place by 10 kilos., and a sack of coffee is 60 kilos. 
Value of an estate with 200,000 coffee trees :— 
Pasture, land for growing pro- 
visions, houoee, machinery, cattle, 
horses, mules, &c R300,000$000 (£30,000) 
Value of 80 slaves at 2,000«000 
each .. 160,000^000 (£16,000) 
Total value 460,OOOfOCO (£46,000) 
Yearly expenditure, clothes 
for negroes .. . 1, 600^000 (£160) 
Medicines for do. 400$000 (£40) 
Loss by death amongst 
negroes 2^% ... 4,030»000 (£400) 6,0008000 (£600) 
Repairs to machinery, 
wages of mechanic and 
engine-man ... 3, 000$000 (£300) 
Repairs to build- 
ings, &c 5:000$000 (£500) 
Administration, 
overseers, &c. ... 6,000$000 (£600) 14,000$000 (£1,400) 
. Transport, say 10,000 arrobas 
(2,857 cwt.) at 1$500 
per arroba ... 15,000.$000 (£1,500) 
Commission, &c. 
at sea- port at 300 
arrobas 3 000$000 (£300) 18,000$000 (£1,800) 
Total expenditure on crop of 
10,000 arrobas 38:000$000 (£3,800) 
value of crop at present prices 4$000 per 10 kilos. or6$000 
per arroba (2,857 cwt. at 43f.) ... 60,000| (£6,000) 
Deduct expenditure as above ...38,000$ (£3,800) 
Leaves profit 22,000$000 (£2,200) 
This would be 4| per cent on capital 460.000$000 
(£46,000) invested. Some will say that 10,000 arrobas 
is a very small crop considering that a great many give 
an arroba for every 10 trees. With young coffee 6, 
7, 8, and 9 years old this can be got, but only when 
the cultivation is good, i. e., when the coffee is kept 
clean. Most of the estates are kept in a dirty state, 
and a great many do not give over an arroba to thirty 
trees. 35 arrobas per 1,000 trees was given as the 
average crop by a planter at the Agricultural Congress; 
and, although mauy people cried out "not so" the 
speaker was not publicly contradicted. Taking the 
average for a number of years more, estates give un- 
der the estimate I have given than above it. As re- 
gards the price of coffee sold in Rio or Santos that 
can give a profit to the grower, Mr. Robert Clinton 
Wright, a coffee merchant of i>io de Janeiro, who had 
an experience of over fifty years in the country and 
died about a year ago, gave 735500 the arroba as the 
price required to give 6 per cent on capital in 1875; 
my figures, as stated above, 6$500 per arroba would 
give (i per cent. This shows that I have not over- 
sta'ed the expenditure of the Brazilian coffee planter. 
The late Mr. Wright also stated that at 7$500 per 
arroba and adding 13 per cent export duty cost of 
bagging, shipping expenses, commission freight, and 
insurance involved a sale price in the> United States 
of about 18£ cents per lb. without profit to the shippers 
— meaning thereby the coffee buyer in Rio de Janeiro 
aud Santos, 
The present price of Rio and Santos coffee in the United 
States is 10J cents per lb. No doubt coffee was pro- 
duced formerly at a cheaper rate in the Province of 
Rio de Janeiro, but the bulk of the crop was grown 
near the coast on hills around the city of Rio de 
Janeiro on ground now abandoned. Formerly a slave 
could have been bought for £30 or £40; now a good 
negro cannot be got under £200. At that time little 
coffee was grown in the Provine of Sao Paulo, owing 
to the distance from the sea, of land fit for growing 
coffee and the rugged range of mountains that had 
to be crossed. The same applied to the interior of 
the Province of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Geraes 
where the coffee crop now shipped at Rio grows. Rail- 
ways have changed this state of things. 
I have said that only those who had no indebted- 
ness would be able to carry on at the present price 
of coffee, and that those who were working with bor- 
rowed money would become insolvent. I do not re- 
quire to demonstrate to the Ceylon coffee planter 
the hopelessness of the coffee estate proprietor's case, 
when fie gets into difficulties with regard to money 
matters. I shall content myself by sayiDg the case is 
a great deal more so in Brazil, wheie money cannot be 
got under 12 per cent per annum, even by giving 
good security. 
The proceedings of the Congress Agricola, held in Rio 
de Janeiro in February 1878, showed not only that 
a great many were wishing for some relief financially, 
but the majority were really feeling embarrassed, 
and were pressing the Government to take in hand 
the formation of Agricultural Banks, or establishments 
for advancing money on the securty of agricultural 
holdings. In fact the settling of the financial ques- 
tion seemed to be considered the principal — indeed 
was to be the great cure of — agricultural depression. 
The minister of agriculture said, in his report in 
February 1877: — "The want of money still continues 
to aggravate the difficulties of the planters, especially 
those of the north, who have had to pay in some 
provinces 18 to 24 per cent, and in some casi-s even 
48 to 72 per cent. The obligations of the Bank of 
Brazil to lend 25,000,000$000 (£2,500,000) in long 
loans to planters has rendered much service iv the 
provinces of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Minas Geraes, 
Bsperito Santo and Santa Catherina." 
At the Congress a great many speakers lamented 
that the law of 1875, giving a Government guarantee 
to the Bank of Brazil for advancing money to agri- 
culture, was a complete failure, owing to the strict- 
ness of the conditions under which loans to planters 
could be given. 
But you will ask : " Are there many of the Brazilian 
coffee planters realJy in money difficulties?" This is a 
very difficult question to answer. Many amonust 
those who live in great style in the cities of Rio 
de Janeiro and Sao Paulo are said to be owing money, 
and the affairs of deceased persons often exhibit a state 
that one would not have expected of the principals 
when in life. Planters, whom popular opinion believed 
to be rich, have been found to have had estates and 
slaves heavily mortgaged. 
The old Fazendeiio, who made money at cotton- 
growing during the American war and left the culti- 
vation of that in time to have coffee in bearing during 
the period that high prices ruled, in 1872-73-74-75, is 
well off. But during the last five years a great many 
estates have changed hands. The sales were generally 
time bargains, and at very high valuations. The new 
proprieiors of these must feel the effecls of the 
low price of coffee ; a great many of these will go 
to the wall. 
Under this head we must not forget to note that of, 
the 850 miles of railway open in the province of Sao 
Paulo, 800 miles were made by local capital, and the 
original shareholders were the coffee planters. 
