July 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
Now as to the future of the trade, Lord Farrer has 
shown by his table that the United Kingdom already 
takes nearly all its supplies from India and Ceylon, 
and cannot" absorb any large additional quantity. 
The East India Merchant " has told us how for at 
least three or four years to come both India and 
Ceylon will export largely increased weights. This 
exoe3s of tea must go toother markets where at pre- 
sent China and Japan hold the field. In the process 
of expelling China tea from the United Kingdom the 
gold price of the Ceylon leaf fell from Is 3|d to 7:|d ; 
how can we possibly expect that, under the circum- 
stances created for us by the Indian Government, 
there will not be, in the struggle for such maikets 
as those of Russia and North America, a still further 
fall in the gold price ? 
I am no prophet, as Lord Farrer suggests, but I am 
au English manufacturer, and I know too well by 
expedience the inevitable curtailment of profits con- 
sequent on a fixed wages bill and constantly falling 
prices, not to see in these the threatening of disaster. 
Lord Farrer throws light ou my statement that 
within the last few months tea seeds have for the 
first time become unsaleable in Ceylon, by showing 
that so recently as some unuameJ date in 1807 
(probably, I think March 31st) tea seeds were being 
imported from India. The figures given seem to 
add weight to my statemeut, as showing how 
quickly the effict of the Is 4d rupee, established so 
lately as January last, has made itself felt. On 
this point I may quote the following extract from 
the "Ceylon Times" of April 4th, which has reached 
me since the date of my last letter;—" No bidders 
for tea seed ! Such is the repoit which reaches us 
as to the result of a sale of Horagalla seed which 
•was held by Messrs. Forbes and Walker today. We 
do not think tliere is much likelihood of any further 
demand for tea seed yet awhile." 
I am glad that Lord Farrer has not attempted 
to minimise the significance of this sudden cessa- 
tion of planting in Ceylon. 
I now turn to the letter of '' Bast India Mer- 
chant." When next he quotes with a view to cri- 
ticism, even though he quotes but three words, I 
would recommend him to read carefully the sentence 
from which the words are taken, so as to make sure 
of its meaning. He attributes to me not only that 
which I did not say, but the very reverse of that 
which I did say. I did not say there was no in- 
cre'ise in the land planted with tea in Ceylon later 
than 1894. I did say that tea seed had become un- 
saleable for the first time within the last few months. 
I made no error. The "East India Merchant" makes 
many. The Ceylon Directory gives as the area planted 
with tea, old and new, in 1890, not 250,000 but 220,0000 
acres. The years 1890 to 1894 are four not three. The 
yearly average acreage planted in those years was 
17,000, not 13,000. There are not, nor are there likely 
to'be,' 375,000 acres planted with tea in Ceylon. The 
latest estimate of the total acreage planted is 315,000 
■with a probable eventual extension to 350,000. The 
yearly average acreage planted in the last three years 
was probably about 10,000, not 29,000. " East India 
Merchant," when next he rushes into print with figures 
about Ceylon, had better come to me to have them 
verified before publication. 
Pie is so far right, however, in that in each year a 
substantial addition has been made to the planted area ; 
but he omits to notice that in the years subsequent to 
the closing of the Mints the gold price of the rupee 
touched its lowest point, its average values being 13'53d 
in 1894, lH'37d in 1885, ii-lld in 1896, and even in 1897 
onlyl5'37d. The Is 4d rupee was not established till 
January last.— Yours faithfully, 
Wm. MARTIN LEAKE, Secretary. 
Ceylon Association in London, 61 and 62 Grace- 
church street, B.O., May 4th, 1898. 
Since writing the above, I have read the letter of 
the Indian Government giving its new currency pro- 
posals, as reported in The Times, A high official 
lately said something about " lunacy." I will not re- 
taliate, but, like Lord Farrer, I will ask a question. 
"VVhat is to be said pf s°Qlilemeu, hgwevcr eminent, 
who, complaining of the buiden of their gold, debt 
and expressly stating that in payment thereof " the 
real remittance must be made in exported produce," 
propose as a remedy to borrow more gold, and to 
melt rupees, unfruitful operations both, and yet give 
not one word of heed to the effect of these operations 
on the quantity and gold value of the all-important 
produce ? W. M. L. 
TO THE EDITOR OF THE " ECONOMIST." 
SiH,— I have read, with interest and respect. Lord 
Farrer's views on exchange as a factor in the trader's 
calculation. May I be allowed to put the following 
case ? 
Lord Farrer and t arc merchants in India, com- 
peting for a foreign order for the shipment of Indian 
produce. The other conditions of our competition be- 
ing equal, let us suppose that I can command a 
lower exchange for my bills than he is able to do. 
Which of us would make the cheaper tender ? Would 
he secure the oider, or should I? 
Lord Farrer says:— "Of all the mischievous delu- 
sions prevalent in the mercantile world there is per- 
haps none more mischievous than the notion that a 
nation can, by depreciating its standard of value, 
increase its power of production, of exportation, and 
of competition with other nations." 
Bu the Indian contention is not that wo wish to 
depreciate our standard of value, nor that we ex- 
pect benefit therefrom per se. What wo say is, we 
cannot afford to artificially enhance our standard of 
value so long as our trade rivals who have a similar 
standard allow it to rest at a natural level and lower 
than ours. I scarcely suppose Lord Farrer intends 
to dispute this. But if he does, I venture to think 
that he will not find himself in agreement with any 
practical trader. — I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
filay 4th, 1898. H. F. B. 
CEYLON TEA: HOW TO FIGHT THE 
BIG DISTRIBUTING HOUSES. 
It is well to remember liow Ceylon lea first 
came into notice in the United Kinr;doni. The 
prejudice against it in Mincing Lane was very 
great: it is always ho at first witli reftrence to 
any new departure in an e.stabiislied trade. 
Samples or shipments of any product identified 
witii certain regions, coining from a previously 
untried country, are viewed with suspicion and 
brokers and buyers were far from favourable to 
Ceylon tea at tlie outset. The distributing Houses 
and nuddleinen would have notiiing to do with 
it. How tiien was a demand created ? It is 
not too much to say that a tlntusand or more 
Ceylon planters did this ettectually by sending 
sample chests or halt-chests to their relatives — 
parents, cousins, aunts — all over the Kingdom, 
and instructing them how to make and enjoy 
this new tea, and then to insist on getting no 
other but Ceylon tea from their grocers. That 
speedily created a demand which bad to be supplied, 
so that for some years the shipments fioni Co- 
lombo were not equal to the requirements of 
Mincing Lane. To hasten the distiiljution, more- 
over, a considerable number of retired cofiee 
planters or other colonists became agents for 
certain tea estates and supplied the local village 
grocers, or families, taking a chest or lialf-ciiest 
at a time. All this speedily created a revolution 
in the tea trade: "Cliiiias" wcie everywhere 
decried in households that had become accus- 
tomed to the su])erior Havoured " Ceylons" and- 
Indian teas also greatly piolited by the change 
in public taste originally started by the action 
of a thousand or more planters out in Ceylon. 
Now the problem before us at the present time 
is whethci; some jvcUqh caonofc taken to aieeti 
