166 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Sept. 1, 1899. 
tive. The Santor correspondent o£ the Brazilian 
Bevzew reports that planters are trying to combine to 
reduce wages, ha' th'it the Italian labourers are 
leaving the estates and are settling in the towns. We 
all know by experience that an attempt to reduce 
wages when labour can go elsewhere is a policy of 
desperation ! 
Isearer home it is reported by iMr. Elliot and the 
Ooorg Planters' Association that 
A LARGE ACllEAGB OF NATIVE COFFEE 
has been abandoned in Mysore and Coorg. From 
the Straits, the Mahiif Mail and Sir Graeme El- 
phinstone, a Ceylon planter settled iu Perak, report 
that planters are being driven by low prices 
to abandon coffee for coconut cultivation. The 
British Consul iu Java reports that s6me plantations 
are being disposed ot and more are likely to be aban- 
doned if no improvement in prices takes place. 
In fact, not only is there a decided check on the 
increase of production all over the vporld, but a 
prospect of an actual diminution of production. And 
Bast Indian planters have this advantage on the 
present occasion. Fifteen years ago East India 
prices fell pari passu with those of 13razil ; but the 
prices of all rough coffee began to fall heavily in 
1897, wheras East India prices were not seriously 
affected till this year. So that, taking into account 
only the eiieot of the natural increase of consumption 
and check on production caused by low prices, it 
should, on the analogy of 1881-36, take only two years 
more for prices to rise again. This is the actual time 
named by the A)ncrican Ornrer as that during which 
grocers can reckon on low prices. 
This calculation, however, leaves out the factor ot 
A RISE IN BRAZILIAN EXCHANHE 
which is almost certain to occur. The following 
figures will show that the value of the millereis 
depends almost entirely on the amount of paper 
money in circulation: — 
Paper money Rate Population 
in circula- of Ex- (including 
tion. change Indians.) 
In 1887-9about 200,000 contos 22(£. 27rf. 14,000,000 
In 1892 „ 556,000 „ 12rf. 15 000,000 
In 1898 „ 790,000 „ 8d. 17,000,000 
For an increase of population under 25 per cent, 
the paper money was nearly quadrupled, and Ex- 
change fell in 1897 to under the quarter of the par 
value which obtained in 1889. The quadrupling of 
the paper money made no difierence in the gold value 
of the circulation per head of population, which was 
almost exactly the same in 1898 as in 1889. This 
fatal over-issue of paper money was due to false 
ideas of the value of money, to the weakness of con- 
stantly* changing Governments, to reckless extrava- 
gance in the cost of administration, and to gross 
laxity in the collection of revenue. In December, 
1896, an attempt was made to raise the value of 
the millereis, and a law passed assigning certain funds 
to the redemption of paper money ; but practically 
very few of these funds were applied to this pur- 
ipose up to 1898. In that year the President-Elect 
paid a visit to Europe and arranged with Roths- 
childs the following scheme, which came into force 
on the first July, 1898 :— £10,000 000 is to be advanced 
by Rothschilds on the security of the Customs re- 
venues, and the interest on the Government debts, 
amounting to nearly £3,000,000 a year, is to be funded 
for three years. As funding bonds are issued. Gov- 
ernment undertakes to deposit an equivalent amount 
in paper money at the exohnnge of ISd. per millereis 
with certain Banks. This paper money is to be de- 
stroyed, or used t:o purchase Bills in London when 
ICxchange is iavourafele, that iS; at or over 18fZ. per 
millereis. By this means it is proposed to reduce 
the excessive paper money by 133,' iOO contos (thousands 
of milleri is,) when it is expected the millereis will 
rise to IHiL, " the r.ite agi-L-ed on." Strict economy 
is also to be practised by the Government, and the 
recenue is to be duly collected, when it is expected 
tof yield much more than it has hitherto done. Up 
to;;March;Jast, or for nine months since the scheme 
came into' force. Government has burnt 9,000 contos 
of paper money; has paid off 31,000 contos o£ debt 
instead of as usual incnrrin? fresh debts, and had 
a credit balance of 2,600 contos with the Banks in 
place of the usual debit balance. Up to the end 
of 1899 the benefits of the scheme will be retarded 
by the debts contracted in 1897, but from i9(t0 on- 
wards the full benefits of the scheme will be realised. 
Although since the new President came into office 
the Government has faithfully fulfilled its obligations, 
it is obvious that this scheme cannot be judged by 
its effect on Exchange in the first nine months of 
its existence. As a matter of fact. Exchange wai 
raised at once from about 6(7 to 8gj., and thongh it 
receded a little below 8d. for a time it now stands 
at S3-.32ri. But the Government of India's scheme 
for fixing Exchange failed to be of any beneficial 
effect to Indian Exchange for the first two years of 
its existoice, and yet succeeded m the ne.tt two 
years in raising the value of the rupee to the de- 
sired level. So probably every year the Brazilian 
scheme is kept at work its influence will increase in 
geometrical progression. We may fairly hope that 
the Brazilian Government, having begun so well, 
will carry out the scheme without wavering— more 
especially, if it does not raise the millereis to IHd. 
in three years time, it will be face to face with 
bankruptcy. 
There is another reason which has not yet been 
touched on why coffee prices cannot long remain 
at a low level, and that is 
THE INCREATED COST OF PRODUCTION 
all over the world. Twenty-five years ago coffee 
was grown in India chiefly without manure. 
Now manuring is almost universally necessary, anc" 
this has increased expenses quite 50 per cent while 
the yield has not increased. In Brazil, the substitu- 
tion of Italian for slave labour, the exVaustion of 
land near the sea board, and the open in" up of 
districts in the interior seems to have increased the 
cost of production about 75 per cent in the last 15 
years, for Brazil coft'ee is now worth in millereis 
quite that much more than in 1885 and yet does 
not pay any more than it did then. Thus : 
Gold price. Exchange Millereis price. 
1885-6 . . 48 francs 19d. 04 
1798-9 .. 34i 8d. 41 
Similarly the cost of growing in Central America 
must have about doubled, as the rate of Exchange 
in nearly all Central American States is abont half 
what it was 25 years ago, and yet present prices 
are unremunerative.— J/acZras Mail, July 17. 
The "Statlst" on Tea Ppospects.— The fol- 
lowing are the material parts of the article we 
referred to on Saturday : — 
We think, that the prospect before the tea-growing 
industry of India and Ceylon is a favourable one at the 
present time, and that the moment is opportune for 
considering investments in the shares of sound com- 
panies. In this industry, as in others, there is no lack 
of " wild-cat " enterprises ; but ther- are also good and 
sound ventures which may be brought to give a com- 
paratively high yield, and at the same time afford a 
reasonable measure of security. We give below some 
notes on companies which have recently issued their 
reports, which will assist readers in making a selection 
As the fall m last year's profit is due in the main to 
temporary causes, there seems a prospect of larger dis- 
tributions in the future, and some may be inclined to 
invest in the shares as a somewhat speculative look-up. 
Ceylon Tea Plantations.— Tl^is is one of the older com- 
panies, which has the recommendation of having miin- 
tamed a dividend of 15 per cent, on its Ordinary shares 
for many years. Profits for 1898 were £41,381, as com- 
paced with £42,199 in 1897, tha slight decline being due 
to the crop being rather below that of 1897 and to a rise 
in exchange. The issued capital of the Company is as 
follows :— 
Shares. Norn, value. Price. Yield 
,„f„„„ ,. .. £ percent. 
167,380 Ordinary . 10 96i 5a 
81,080 7 Percent. Pref. IQ 18 4* 
The reserve fund now amounts to £95,000. At present 
prices, both the Ordinary and the Preference metis 
attention, 
