Ma^ 1, 1903.1 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
755 
PRODUCE AND PLANTING. 
INSURANCE OF TEA CROPS. 
An ioterpsting and important departure is, we un- 
derstand, being made in connection with the insur- 
ance of the new season's Indian tea crop. The risk 
of damage from the time the tea is plucked until 
arrival in the United Kingdom has always been readily 
undertaken by marine underwriters at reasonable 
rates, but injury to the leaf before plucking, fi-om 
whatever cause, has had to be borne by the planter. 
Hail storms are amongst the worst enemies which 
threaten the growing crops, and extensive damage can 
be done by a visitation o£ this nature. Cases are on 
record where over 20 per cent of a wh^le crop has 
been destroyed in a few minutes, and instances of 
damage amounting to 10 per cent, are legion. So 
urgent has the matter become that the Tea Association, 
having been appealed tn, took steps with a view to 
find a workable basis for the insurance of the risk. 
It circularised the trade asking for statistics to enable 
a comparison to be made between total outturn fljud 
losses due to hail, and the immediate response of a 
large section sufficiently indicated their appre- 
ciation of the importance of the matter. A num- 
ber of concerng, however, had to refer to Cal- 
cutta, as the required figures were not available 
in London ; meantime, the statistics which had 
been secured covered sufficient ground to enable 
inquiries to be made in the insurance world, with the 
result that a favourable rate of premium has been 
obtained with a workable clause to govern the as- 
sessment of losses. We should imagine the in- 
dustry will largely avail itself of the new facilities, 
especially as the statistics of losses due to hail prove 
without any doubt tbat no district or garden can 
consider itself safe from a visitation, whatever may 
have been its experience in the past ; the figures show 
that the longer the immunity the greater the disaster 
when it arrives. Under such circumstances no pru- 
dent planter can afford to ignore such an opportunity 
to replace, in his calculation, the very real risk of a 
oalamity with a reasonable annual charge in the form 
of an insurance premium. The rate is of necessity 
experimental to some extent, but should experience 
show it to be too high, competition will no doubt 
afford a ready and effective remedy. In any case 
the Tea Association, by its efforts which have led to the 
establishment of insurance facilities, has earned the 
thanks of the tea-producing industry, 
MARKET VALUE OF TEA SHARES. 
From the following figures, compiled, as usual, by 
Mr Georgy Seton, of the Indian Tea Share Exchange, 
120> Bishopsgate Street, E.C., it will be seen, says 
tbe " Financial Times," that the market value of the 
shares of the forty five representative companies has 
again advanced to a moderate extent. With one or 
two exceptions, the advance has been '■ all along 
the line " : — £. 
Face value of 45 companies' shares 9,500,000 
Market value July 1, 1897 (too point) 12,000,000 
Do J ID. 1, 1902 ■ 7,000,000 
Do Sept. 1, 1902 (lowest point) 6,050.000 
Do Jan. 1, 1903 6,600,000 
Do Feb. 1, 1903 6,800,000 
Do Mar. 1, 1903 7,000,000 
So that the recovery has been just to about the level of 
the beginning of 1902, As the grand total of the share 
and debenture capital of the one hundred and seventy 
tea companies registered, with sterling capital, in 
the United Kingdom (exclusive of private-owned estates 
and companies registered, with rupee capital, in India 
and Ceylon amounts to ubout £19,000,000, the lluctna- 
tions of the entire volume, based on the above figures, 
may be thus roughly estimated : — £. 
Face value nf (about) 170 companies . . 19,000,000 
Highest market value, July 1, 1897 . . 24,000,000 
Lowest market value, Sept. 1, 1902 ... 12,100,000 
present market value, Mar. 1, 1903 .. 14.000,000 
This shows a rise in value from the lowest point of 
nearly 16 per cent, but there is etill a depreciation 
from the highest point of nearly 42 per cent, or, 
taking 100 as representing the cop value, the lowest 
level would be represented by just over nU and the 
present level by 5i. 
Notwithstanding the present rather uncertain out- 
look aa regards dividends for the producing year 1902, 
Mr Seton considers that, with the rentoration, or 
partial restoration, of public confidence in the stability 
of the industry, a further moderate hardeniuK of 
values is to be expected. It may be noted, however, 
that the better prices now ruling in Mincing Lane, 
coming, as they have done, late in tbe selling season, 
are just barely compsnsating for the very low prices 
at which the first half or two-thirds of the crops were 
S3ld during the summer and autumn of last year. 
The following letter appeared in the Produce 
JIarkets Bevieiv of February 28, and was signed 
" Home Tea Trade." This correspondent wrote : 
" It seems to me that 
THE TEA POSITION, FROM THE DEALERS' 
POINT OF VIEW, 
is left entirely without an exponent. In the trade 
and daily papers we have const. mfcly brought before 
us the importers' and growers' side of ihe question 
in the reports emanating from such brokers' firms, 
and their policy at present seems to be to write so 
as to foster tha idea of an adva-jsing m irket. To do 
this they have to introduce st'tistics which may be 
very interesting and instructive, but, which should 
have very little real bearing upon tl-.e condition of 
the market in London. Some two or three years 
since these same firms were asserting that the accu- 
mulated over-production of the previous year amounted 
to fifty million pounds, and, seeing that the present 
stocks in bond are, if anything, larger than they 
were at that time, it is at least doubtful if that 
overplus has been worked off, and when it is re- 
membered that there is sufficient tea in bond — let 
alone duty-piid stocks in the country — to supply about 
five months' consumption, it eeenis very reasonable 
to suppose that production i"; Hoiil outsciipping con- 
sumption, .it any rate, it will be pretty generally 
admitted that five months' stock cf tea is quite 
an unnecessary amount to carry, having reg rd 
to the heavy supplies reaching us month by 
month all through the year, and bearing in 
mind the fact that much of the tea deterio- 
rates rapidly after reaching this country. A five 
month's stock must mean that much of the tea 
becomes eight or nine months old before being u^ed, 
it will lie tor several weeks in the distributors' hunda 
after leaving bond. Values have been forced upwards 
by a sort of cornering process described as regulating 
the supply,' presumably with the object of enabling 
dividends to be paid on the cupitals of the tea-growing 
companies, and advantage i^ being taken of a rather 
poor season to try and make out that at last consump- 
tion has overtaken production, but the asserted smaller 
production of this season over last seems quite problem- 
atical ; and, given favourable condiiions in the coming 
season, there will again be an enormously increased 
outturn, as it appears from the reports of the various 
companies that no determination has been reached to 
reduce the area under cultivation, and in some cases 
mention is made of increased plantations coming into 
bearing this season. With an expectation of more tea 
to sell it is probably bid poliry on the part of producing 
interests to push the price of lowest teas upwards, as 
with common tea about sis pence per pound the 
retailers will soon abolish their shilling canister, 
which will mean materiiilly reduced consumption, 
as poor people will buy one ounce for a penny 
instead of two ounces for three halfpence ; also, dear 
common tea has the effect of bringing do'.^n the 
values of medium t?a throogh the blender being 
unable to use the higher cost teas so freely iu hia 
lower-priced blends, AUo, of coarse, he ases Chins 
