108 
THE TROPICAL AGEICULTUlilST. fAcGUSt 1, 1898. 
As silver continued to fall in value, the Bengal 
Chamber of Commerce in 1876 addressed a memorial 
to the Government of Lord Lylton 
TO SUSPEND THE COINAfJE OF SILVER J 
but the Govtrnraent replied that it would be im- 
possible to suspend Ihe coinage of silver without 
at the same lime opening the mints to the free 
coinage of gold as unlimited legal tender. The 
Indian Government being then ))rohibited from 
attempting to reintroduce pnie binietallism into India, 
addressed several memori.ils to the Home Govern- 
ment to aid in bringing about an international agree- 
ment to fix the ratio between gold and silver, and 
several fatuous international conferences were held 
to see if anything could be done ; but they all ended 
in smoke, as they were bound to do. For every 
sound economist knows that it is just as chimerical 
to secure a fixed ratio between gold and silver by 
international agreement as for any single State to 
do so. It would be just as rational to appoint an 
international conference to square the circle or to 
discover perpetual motion. Both of these are known 
impossibilities. In economics it is equally a known 
impossibility to fix by law a ratio between any two 
quantities which are produced without limitation. 
At least, in 1893, when the value of silver continued 
to fall, and it was expected that the United States 
would repeal the Bland and Sherman laws, the Indian 
Government found itself on the verge of bankruptcy. 
It then closed tlie mint.s to the free coinage of silver, 
and declared its intention to restore the gold currency. 
But just five years have passed away, and it has 
never yet taken a single step to carry its purpose 
into effect, and of course it has found itself sur- 
rounded with constantly-increasing difficulties. The 
whole of this unhappy India business for thirty years 
is an everlasting stigma on the British economic and 
financial statesmanship of the nineteenth century. 
— Financial News, M&y 28. 
PLANTING COFFEE IN BKAZIL: 
DUMONT COFFEE COMPANY, LIMITED. 
ME. P. E. BUCHANAN GIVES A FULL 
EXPLANATION. 
The second annual general meeting of the Dumont 
Coffee Company, Limited, was held Thursday, at 
Winchester House, Old J'road-street, B.C., under 
the presidency of Mr. P. H. Buchanan (chairman of 
the company). 
The Chairman, in moving the adoption of the 
report and accounts, said that the result which was 
disclosed in the accounts showed the company 
had made a profit for the year of £54,42,5, 
as against some £9.^,000 in the year 1891). The sole 
cause of this dmiinution of profit was the continued 
and persistent fall in the price of coffee. There was 
no other reason that the directors were able to give. 
It undoubtedly was a most unfortunate thing that this 
company had had to commence its career with the 
very worst year that had been known in the coffee 
trade for the past forty years ; but such was the case, 
and they could only accv^pt it and work for better re- 
sults in the future. There were those who had sug- 
gested reasons other than he had mentioned for the 
board's inability to recommend a dividend. These 
suggestion's however unjustifiable they might be, he 
felt bound to bring before the meeting. They were, 
first, that the vendors got a great deal too much profit 
that was that the company paid far too high a price — 
for the properties ; and, in the second place, that the 
commission given to the promoter was excessive in 
the extreme. In regard to the first point, the direc- 
tors knew nothing of what profits the vendors made. 
What they did know was that those gentlemen had 
owned for some time previously the estates which 
they sold to the company ; they had worked them, 
added to them, and improved them. They offered 
them for sale to the company, and had made a profit 
on tJie Bale. In doing sp they did nothing they had 
not a perfect right to do. The directors made full 
investigation, and, being eatiefied at that time that the 
price dasked was not an nureasonable one, tbey con- 
cluded the bargain, and, eo far hs they had been able 
to judge, the stateineuts made at the time had in do 
way been discredited. The estatce were as good as 
ever, and as good as they had been staled to be, 
and if the price of coffee had been maintained at 
what it was when the company made the purchase 
the profits would have been Quite as gooa as waa 
antici))ated, or even better. That being »o. it wng 
not fair to turn round on the vendors and accuse theru 
of having taken anything in an undue or improper 
manner. It was a truism which was scarcely worth 
repeatiDf.^ to say that if they had known that coffee 
was going to take this tremendous drop they would 
not have given the price they did for the properties. 
On the other band, if coffee had taken a rise tliey 
would all have been very pleaeed at having a good 
investment. With regard to the other suggeetion, 
that the company conld not pay a divideiid today 
because the commiHsioii paid to the promoter was ex- 
cessive, under ordinary circuaistancea if be were satis- 
fied, as he had alrea(iy shown be was, the price f{iven 
for the properties at the time of their sale waa reason- 
able, he should hold that for them as a company to go 
behind that and to claim the right to ascertain what 
the vendors chose to do with the money the company 
paid them was not in order. But the circumstances were 
a little different; for the promoter in tbii instance 
happened to be their chairman. He claimed the 
right to take advantage of the present opportunity 
for settling this question once fur all. There bad 
Never been any secret as to what the terms of the 
promotion were. A° a matter of fact all the gentle- 
men vs'ho were invited to join the board, all who 
were invited by him to do any underwriting for the 
company, and all, in fact, who had anything to do 
with the formation, were not only informed by him 
exactly the terms that were given, but they also had 
placed in their hands every document of every kind 
connected with the whole transfer of the company. 
What he undertook to do was to have the properties 
thoroughly inspected, and the whole of the state- 
ments of the vendors investigated. He placed bis 
services for nearly a year at their disposal in both 
Brazil and England. He advanced all the money 
necessary for those investigations, entirely at bia 
ewn risk, and for what might be called the preli- 
minary expenses, amounting, as they did, to several 
thousands of pounds. He agreed, on being satisfied, 
to take all steps to bring out the company, and to 
get underwritten on behalf of the vendors any 
amount of capital they required underwritten for the 
purpose of carrying through this transaction: That 
was what he carried through. He received for this 
in cash a little less than the actual amount of cash 
that he was out of pocket, viz., £7.000 in payment of 
£7,200 that he had disbursed in cash, and besides that 
he received a commission of slightly over 2^ per cent 
upon the whole transaction, that commission being 
payable in shares. He ventured to say there were 
very few gentlemen in the City of London who would 
have rendered such services and undertaken such datiea 
on similar terms. If the shareholders were not satis- 
fied that he had made out a good case for himself 
he was glad to think he was one of the directors 
retiring at that meeting, and they could have an 
opportunity of showing their opinion with regard 
to him pretty forcibly a little later on. 
Reverting to the heavy fall in the price of coffee, 
the Chairman said it had dropped about 21s a 
hundi'edweight during the past year, which meant 
a difference of £270,000 to the Company in the 
year. Their estates were in a very much 
better condition than they had ever been previously 
and, instead of producing coffee which, as in 1896, 
sold at 5s. per hundredweight under the average 
price of Santos coffee, they had produced coffee which 
had realised nearly 5s. per hundredweight over the 
average price, and great credit was due to the manage- 
ment for that very satisfactory result. 'There was a 
large expenditnre 0{i capital account, aQioanting alto-* 
