^8 
THE TROPICAL AGlilCULTUltLST. 
[Jl'LY 1, 1808. 
Melbourne ini])oiLs large quantities of lemons and 
oranges from Nortliern Australia ; but it is stuted 
tliat something like 80 per cent of the supijly is 
condemned as being affected with «cale ; indeed, 
it is averred tliat oranges completely covered 
with tills disease are foiuid among the consign- 
ments coining fiom that source. It so happens 
that Northern Australia grows very much the 
same kinds of fruit as India, such as guava, 
mango, loquat, Ac. ; in Victoria tliere are large 
areas idanted with fruit trees ; and the Austra- 
lian fiuib trade has grown very large during 
recent yearH. 
It seen)3 to us tliat India's opportunity has 
come at last, and if she does not seize it now, 
and make the most of it, she ought for ever to 
hold her peace. Two important sources of Eng- 
land's truit 8up])ly are practically closed, as we 
have pointed out more than once. India prcdu- 
ces fruit of several kinds and of good quality. 
Her oranges and bananas are far and away 
superior to anything that can be raised in any 
other country in the world. The Allahabad 
guava will compare favourably with the produce 
of any other country ; moreover, the fruit is 
in great abundance, and after leaving a 
large margin for liome consumption, there 
would be more than enough for export, and we 
have no doubt that this fruit wouKI be 
much appreciated at home. Take our lichees and 
naangoes : we do not believe that any other 
country could produce them of the same quality 
and in the same variety. Why should not some 
enterprising firm set about the establishment of 
an export trade in fruit from India for the Lon- 
don market ? We have shown that were shipping 
companies to aft'ord special facilities for the ex- 
port of Indian fruit, by providing refrigerating 
chambers, such as are to be found in most of 
the liners idying between the Australian Colonies 
and iJritain, they would, we believe, have no 
reason to complain of want of cargo. Last week 
we quoted an interesting article Irom the Aiia- 
tralasian on a new jirocess for the preservation 
of. truit for export. It is such a sim))le one 
that it could easily be adopted in this country. 
The fact is that Englishmen in this country are 
so much occupied in trying to make large for- 
tunes out of such products as indigo and jute, 
that they have never troubled themselves about 
the possibilities of an extensive fruit trade, which, 
we consider, would pay much better than either 
jute or indigo ; and would, n)oreover, give an 
impetus to a new industry. —Pioneer, May 24. 
EXCHANGE AND THE TEA TKADE. 
(To the Editor of t\\Q Economist.) 
Sir, — Lord Farrer, in his letter of the 25th ult.. no 
longer holds to his position that an increase in the 
exports of tea from Ceylon in 1897, proves that the 
industry is not now anffering from the Is 4d rupee. 
But with some object, not disclosed, he returns to the 
charge with a comparative statement of the Imports 
of tea into the United Kingdom from India, Ceylon, 
and China, from 1884 to 1896. These teas, it will be 
observed, must have all been plucked from bushes 
plant', d in or before 1S93, up to which yeai-, as Lord 
Farrer kindly reminds us, all three countries had a 
silver currency. The figures tell a marvellous tale of 
the results that have been achieved by Indian labour, 
directed by British energy and supported by British 
capital, in fair and open competition, a tale of which 
Indian an3 Ceylon planters may well be proud ; but 
they give us no information at all as to the course of 
txade when India and Ceylon have to work with rupees 
fixed at Is 4d, China having etill a silver dlandard in 
which the valut- of the rupee is 9'i to lOil 
Fortunately, owing t'; the 1 tsry 
of the ijondon Chamber of ' <r to 
give some figures that beai . i; | i .iiihas 
a gold standard. lu the duya wliru ili<- rupee wa« 
worth 28 she used easily to hold her own w ith Ceylon 
in coffee. About the barae lini'. us C< ■ ■\':iu 
to plant tea. How hap i^he f art d / Tij' iist 
of her exports (iu lb. OOU s oniiltcd) for i. . ia85 
to 1890, as compared with those fiom Ct>iou, will 
show us: — 
From Java From Ceybn. 
1890 ., 9,669 .. lOi.Ul 
1895 .. 10,H7 .. 97.940 
1891 .. 8,731 .. HI, 59-2 
•• 8.792 .. 84,3Hli 
1892 .. 9,157 ., 71,154 
1891 .. 5.SS0 .. «8 274 
18W .. 7,(Mi2 .. ■10,9' -2 
188'J .. 7,027 .. 34,018 
1888 .. 7,179 .. 24,381 
18^*7 .. 7,029 .. 13,b0l 
1«8(5 .. 7,393 .. HIU 
1885 .. 7,029 .. 4,412 
During these years the gold price of Ceylou tea fell 
from Is 3id to Sjd, the gold price of the rupee 
varied from 18-24d to 13-37d. Java made a belter 
start than Ceylou, when the gold price* of both lea 
and the rupee were high, but hag bince been able to 
make little progress. 
But the Ceylou tea-grower has been niHkiiig profits 
"at the expense of thoBe whom he employa." by pay- 
ing his "coolies in deprociited rupeeB,'" say both 
Lord Farrer and your conesponoent '• East India 
Merchant." This, I venture to think, is one of lho4e 
" currency delusions " that Lord Farrer deprecates. 
First, from the point of view of the planter, it ia 
clear that he has notbir.g wherewith to pay his coolie 
but his tea, and the rupee, having even at its lowest 
had an increased purchasing power in respect of lea 
the wage bill has been a heavier charge on the pro- 
duce at the lower rates of exchange. Secondlv, from 
the point of view of the coolie, his fixed daily wa«e 
(it has for fifty years past varied little from one- 
third of a rupee) has bought him as much rice 
provided at a fixed rupee rate, as much cotton 
cloth, curry, tituffa, A'c, whfu the rupee h.Td fallen 
to Is IJd, as when it was 2a. He has been able 
to live as well and to put by as many rupees 
wherewith to return home to India as ever. " He is a 
man free to come and go as he will, and bis content- 
ment with his lot is proved by the fact that rarely 
during the recent wonderful expansion of tea cultiva- 
tion has the supply of labour fallen short of the con- 
stantly increasing demand. 
So, then, though there has been a steady and 
prolonged depreciation of silver in respect of gold 
there had been up to 1893 no depreciation of that 
metal either to the disadvantage of the coolie or to the 
undue advantage of the employer. In a word, silver 
had up to that date shown itself, so far as Ceylon was 
concerned, a fairly stable standard of value in respect 
both of commodities and of the "services of man " 
This has been all changed bv the closing of the 
Indian Mmts and the forcing of the rupee to Is 4d 
The rupee price of tea has experienced a heavy fall' 
the silver price a corresponding rise. ' 
The real vital question that lies behind these 
currency changes, this diminishing of " the nnmber of 
counters out of which Lord Farrer and the Indian 
Government seek to make profit, is the effect on the 
comparative cost of labour in the competing producinc 
countries. ^ pxuuuoing 
In Ceylon the daily wage, which in 1894 and 1895 
was equal to 4ia, has been raised today by the action of 
the Indian Government to 5Jd. Similarly, the w«ae of 
the Chinaman, as measured in gold, will "have fallln in 
proportion as silver has fallen, and there is not the 
least reason to suppose that in either country the 
currency changes will lead to a change in the nominal 
