July  i,  1892.] 
THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST, 
9 
THE  COMMERCE  OF  INDIA  FOR  THE 
YEAR  ENDING  MARCH  31ST,  1892: 
THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  TEA  ENTERPRISE 
AND  THE  REVIVAL  OF  COFFEE. 
Our  own  copy  of  the  figures  compiled  by  Mr. 
0 Conor  having  reached  us,  we  naturally  turned 
first  to  those  which  represent  the  position  now 
occupied  by  the  great  tea  enterprise  of  India. 
Although  the  discovery — fraught  with  euch  im- 
portant and  beneficial  consequenoes  to  the  Indian 
Empire  and  so  disastrous  to  that  of  China — 
of  the  indigenous  tea  plant  of  Assam  dates  back 
more  than  sixty  years,  the  enterprise  itself  is  not 
more  than  a generation  old.  The  cultivation  of 
the  indigenous  product  was  at  first  hindered  for 
years  by  the  persistency  of  the  eminent  botanist, 
Dr.  Wallich,  in  the  error  that  the  large-leaved 
trees — for  trees  they  were  of  forty-five  feet  high 
and  more— were  not  tea  at  all,  but  true  oamel- 
lias.  Then  came  the  more  serious  and  prolonged 
hindrance  arising  from  the  belief  entertained 
that  the  Assam  species  of  tea  was  inferior  for 
purposes  of  cultivation  to  those  grown  in  China. 
Mr.  Fortune  was  therefore  deputed  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  East  Indian  Company  to  visit  the 
tea  districts  of  China  and  bring  thence  seeds  and 
plants  of  the  best  species  and  varieties.  This 
was  successfully  accomplished ; and  in  1848 
Chinese  tea  manufacturing  experts  were  also 
introduced.  Since  then  the  revolution  has  been  so 
oompl6te  that  Commissions  have  been  sent  from 
China  and  Japan  to  India  and  Ceylon,  to  learn 
the  seorets  of  the  better  teas  gent  into  the  marketa 
by  those  British  possessions.  Government  planta- 
tions of  the  China  tea  plants  were  established  on 
the  eastern  and  nor;hern  slopes  of  the  Himalayas  ; 
and  to  this  day  China  tea  is  cultivated  on  many 
of  the  private  plantations  in  the  districts  of  Darji- 
ing,  Kumaon  and  the  Kangra  Valley.  The  s uperior 
quality  of  the  indigenous  tea  began  to  be  recog, 
nized,  however;  and  in  the  low-lyiDg  valleys  of  Aseam- 
Cachar  and  Sylhet  it  was  largely  cultivated  and 
with  great  success,  as  far  as  growth  went.  Col. 
Money  and  others  contended  that  great  harm  was 
done  by  the  introduction  of  the  China  tea  plants, 
from  the  consequent  hybridization  which  took 
place;  With  this  view  we  could  never  agree,  and 
we  suppose  it  is  now  generally  abandoned.  The 
native  habitat  of  the  Assam  and  Burmese  teas  is 
low  and  hot ; and  the  plants  were  delicate  in  pro- 
portion and  impatient  of  high  altitudes.  The 
China  teas,  on  the  other  hand,  contrary  of  popular 
ideas,  were  (and  are)  grown  up  to  high  altitudes 
and  in  latitudes  where  snow  and  frost  prevailed. 
The  plants  introduced  to  India  were  hardy  in  pro- 
portion, and  good  hybrids  between  the  two  species 
are  now  obtained  suitable  for  all  altitudes  and  a vast 
range  of  climate.  For  the  higher  altitudes  in  Ceylon 
a good  hybrid  with  long,  thin,  pointed  leaves,  is 
oertainly  better  than  the  large,  broad,  deeply- 
corrugated-leaved  Assam  indigenous.  That  is  our 
personal  experience.  We  have  planted  indigenous 
tea  at  5,000  to  6,000  feet,  and  now  the  bushes  have  so 
assimilated  in  appearance  to  the  hybrids  in  their 
neighbourhood  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  dis- 
tinguish them  merely  by  their  foliage.  To  return 
to  the  history  of  the  Indian  Tea  Enterprise.  Its 
next  great  hindrance  was  the  ruinous  crash  which 
followed  a wild  “boom,”  during  which  estates 
were  perfunctorily  opened  to  be  sold  at  fabulous 
prices,  while  there  were  neither  labour  nor  appli- 
ances to  work  them  properly.  But  pfccenix-like 
the  enterprise  rose  from  the  ashes  of  the  dead 
past,  and  has  advanced  all  along  the  line  of  northern 
India,  with  a few  outposts  in  the  south,  until 
the  figures  for  1891-92  are  120,000,000  lb.  exports 
2 
valued  at  R59,G81,000,  even  at  present  low  prioes. 
Of  the  exports  111,000,000  lb.  went  to  the  United 
Kingdom  ; nearly  5£  millions  to  Australia,  which 
was  only  struggling  into  existence  when  in  1830 
tea  was  discovered  in  the  juDgles  of  Assam;  and 
2,789,000  lb.  to  Persia.  Only  83,000  lb.’ went 
to  the  United  States,  and  903,000  to  other 
countries.  The  latter  are  now  appreciably  sup- 
plied from  London ; and  some  portion  of  the 
Indian  crop  (far  less  than  well  wishers  of 
the  country  could  wish)  is  consumed  in  India 
itself.  Even  at  the  present  depreciated  value  of  the 
rupee,  60  millions  of  rupees  are  the  equivalent  of 
about  four  millions  sterling,  contributed  to  the 
commerce  of  India  by  a produot  which  thirty  years 
ago  scarely  entered  into  the  accounts.  In  Ceylon, 
where  all  the  experience  of  India  was  available  as 
well  as  the  labour  supply  oreated  for  the  ooffee 
enterprise  and  the  fields  on  whioh  coffee  had  been 
grown,  tho  progress  of  the  tea  enterprise  has  been 
beyond  all  comparison  rapid,  so  as  to  be  really 
marvellous.  Our  export  of  last  year  was 
very  considerably  more  than  half  that  of  India 
which  had  preceded  us  by  a quarter  of  a cen- 
tury or  more  in  this  oulture, — while  indeed 
our  almost  undivided  allegiance  was  given  to  an- 
other king,  even  coffee,  to  whioh  we  now  turn, 
in  these  accounts.  While  tea  is  principally  grown 
in  the  north  of  India  in  latitudes  extending  beyond 
28°,  coffee  has  been  cultivated  commercially  ex- 
clusively in  the  south  of  India,  where  the  condi- 
tions are,  like  those  of  Ceylon,  tropioal.  The 
disaster  which  almost  annihilated  coffee  in  Ceylon 
affected  the  coffee  districts  of  Southern  India  very 
seriously,  but  not  quite  with  the  same  deadly  viru 
lence,  and  coffee  is  still  the  staple  product  grown 
by  European  planters  in  the  Wynaad,  Travancore 
and  especially  Mysore.  The  figures  for  the  past 
three  years  show  a very  remarkable  recovery  last 
year,  thus  : — 
1890  ...  239,795  cwt. 
1891  ...  233,457 
1892  ...  311,864  „ 
This  ia  far  and  away  better  than  Ceylon,  whioh, 
in  1869,  exported  over  a million  cwt.,  while 
we  believe  India  scarcely  ever  exceeded  one-half 
of  that  quantity.  The  value  of  the  ooffee 
exported  last  year  from  India  is  given  at 
R1 9,986,588,  say  in  round  numbers  twenty  millions 
of  rupees,  or  exactly  one-third  the  value  of  the 
tea  crop, — iu  sterling  nearly  £1,333,000.  Coffee, 
therefore,  is  still  an  article  of  very  considerable 
importance  in  the  oommerce  of  India.  For  total 
crop  considering  how  largely  coffee  is  consumed  in 
the  country,  we  may,  we  believe,  add  at  least  an- 
other 100,000  cwt.  to  the  312,OCO  shown  as  ex- 
ported. Some  of  the  coffee  is  exported  from 
Bombay  (to  Australia  and  Egypt,  to  be  drunk  as 
best  Mocha?)  but  the  whole  is  grown  in  the  Madras 
Presidency,  where  all  the  signs  point  to  a revival 
of  the  coffee  enterprise,  rather  than  a large  exten- 
sion of  tea  cultivation.  With  reference  to  ulterior 
action  in  Ceylon  it  will  be  well  for  our  planters 
to  watch  carefully  the  history  of  coffee  for  the 
next  few  years  in  the  neighbouring  Indian  Pre- 
sidency. 
We  next  turn  to  the  great  staple  artiole  in 
Ceylon  commerce,  coconut  oil,  of  whioh  the  Coohin 
produot  is  a formidable  competitor.  The  exports 
from  India  last  commercial  year  were  1,396,000 
gallons,  valued  at  Rl, 549, 000,  or  about  £100,000; 
The  exports  of  rawfeoir  were  insignificant  compared 
with  ours, — only  29,204  cwt.,  valued  at  R204,000. 
but  of  coir  wholly  or  partially  manufactured  the 
exports  were  : — Coir  (excluding  rope)  289,343  owL 
valued  at  R2, 449, 000  or  about  £81,000.  Besides 
this  of  oordage  and  rope  of  vegetable  fibre  (ex- 
