212 TJIE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Skpt. 1, 1898. 
BIG TEA FIRMS AND THE TRADE 
IN LONDON. 
Healthy competition cannot Le ex])ecte(l if tlieie 
sliould be anytliiiig like an luidei.staniling not 
to oppose each otlier's interests, anioii<( a certain 
number of the leading buyers ; and this is the 
onclusion now forced on business and tea men in 
Ceylon. A letter from a " Colombo meichant now 
atliouie," to our evening contemporary, lias an 
intimate bearing on this (juestioii. He says: — 
The reasofis advanced do not altogether, however, 
account for the serious deoHiie in prices which has 
been takhig place during the last few years, and 
whilst the rise in exchauge, inferior quality and in- 
crease in production (particularly in India) is un- 
doubtedly responsible to .a large extent for having 
brought too many Ceylon estates into the bad way they 
are at pi-esent in, yet these reasons do not altogether, 
I venture to think, fully account for it, and since I 
have been in London some other reasons have been 
apparent to me. One of the most noticeable causes 
is the contraction of the trade. By this I mean that 
the large distributing firms have by sheer weight of 
capital and by cutting prices to the lowest possible 
level driven a very largo r.umber of their smaller 
competitors out of the field altogether, and so reduced 
competition in the public sale-room. This coupled 
with the instructions given by a largo number of 
merchants to whom tea is consigned for sale to the 
aelliog brokers " to sell " at valuations (which may 
or miy not mean the value of the article !), means 
on a bad market simply ruinous results. This auc- 
tion business appears to me to ba the curse of the 
tea trade from a producer's point of view, and if tea 
could be sold privately as was the case iu the old 
China tea trade days results would not be so disas- 
trous. Alas I however, I fear that this is no longer 
possible, as the weight of Indian and Ceylon tea to ba 
dealt with is too great, and merchants will not com- 
bine, whilst buyers will. Another important reason 
not to be lost sight of is tint the export trade, ones 
held by London, is now being done directly from 
(Jolombo, — witness the large shipmtuts direct from 
Colombo to America andRus-ia. One comfort to the 
Ceylon producer must be that his produce is more 
readily saleable in foreign markets than Indian tea 
. is, and that, by judiciously supporting the Colombo 
market, a great deal may yet be done to renew the 
prosperity of the industry. Prices realized in Colombo 
during the past twelve months have, undoubtedly, on 
an average, been much above London rates ; un- 
fortunately for the industry, however, a very large 
acreage has passed into the hands of London Com- 
panies so much mixed up with the selling brokers, 
that it is much to be feared that the interests 
of shareholders will not be altogether con- 
sidered, as, indeed, the living of both agents 
and brokers depend upon their commissions, so thot 
no movement will be made in the direction of sell- 
ing in Colombo, without considerable pressure is 
brought to bear by the shareholders themselves. 
There is a feeling in city circles that the Commission 
now sitting will not accomplish much in our interests. 
It is certainly most unfair that we should have 
to bear, iu addition to our own burdens, those of 
India, too. 
CINCHONA IN INDIA- 
The Resolution of the Government of 
iJengal sums up the contents of Sir 
George King's Annual Report on the Go- 
veniment Cinchona Plantation and Factory in 
Bengal for the year 1896-97. The number of trees 
uprooted at the plantations for their bark was 
1.08i,200, against 453,000 uprooted in 1895-9(j, 
The result of the year's operations was that the 
total number of cinchona trees in the plantation 
at the close of the year (excluding the nursery 
etockt >yIuc1i amounted to 79,000) was 2,61^3,451, 
all being of the quinine-proJiicin" sort, with the 
exception of ISj.OOJ trees of the led bark lor the 
manufactuie of cincliona febrifuge. The policy 
steadily ob.sei ve<l for several ycais paht has been 
to reduce the number of the treeir which yield 
tiie febrifuge, and to plant out only the ijuinine- 
prcnlncing varieties. The crop of the year .ui onn- 
ted to 029,222 lb. of dry bark, of which 251,468 lb. 
were obtained from tlm tiee* nprooie I in tlictJo. 
verninent plantations in Sikkim, and 377,754 Ih. 
were collected from the trees in the I'lanlatiuii 
purchased at Nimbong. The bulk of the baik was 
of the nuinine prodncing sort, and wiili thee.v- 
ception of 1,642 lb. supi»lied to a medical depot 
and sold to the jinblic, the whole crop was, as usual, 
made over to the Cinchona Factory for disposal. 
Besides the bark obtained by cropping, J22,.j7I lb. 
weie purchased from private plantations in 8ikkiiii 
and Travancore. The oullnrn of the factory, 
wiiich was strengthened by a new turbine, wan 
10,072 lb. of julphato of <|ninine, and 3,4.52 lb. 
of cinchona febrifuge, against 9,0J4 lb. r.nd .'1.124 lb. 
respectively, in lb9.") y(j, the total increase Iteing 
1,996. The stock ot ([uinine in hand at the clo»e 
of the year was 4,548 ib. and of febrifuge, 1,205 lb. 
The revenue deriveil from the sale of sulphate of 
quinine, cinchona febrifuge, cinchona baik, and 
other products of the plantation, amounted to 
R171,779, against R189,630 in the previous year. 
The expenditure on tlie plantation amounted to 
R82,143, ag.ainst R79,S()5 in the pievious year. 
The amount spent on account of the factory rose 
from R62,982 to R79,8G7, which included the price 
paid for the bark purcha.sed from piivate plan- 
tations, and the cost of a new turbine. The net 
profit on the working of the plantations amounted 
to 1!9,767, against R4,59S in the previous year. 
The result is satisfactory. The amount of quinine 
delivered to the Jail Department, for conversion 
into pice-packets for sale to the pub'ic Mirouph 
the Postal Department, was 3,330 lb. or only 
1.30 lb. more than tiie quantity supplied 
in 1895-90. It ajipcars that the small- 
ness of the increase was due to the inability of 
the Printing Departmciit to sui)ply to the Jail 
Department, in suliicient quantity, the envelopes 
in M-hich tiie quinine is wrapitt-d up. Measures 
have since been ^aken to remedy this defect. At 
the same time, all restrictions on the supply of 
quinine, either in pice-packets or in bulk, to 
other Governments and .Administrations, referred 
to ill the last year s Resolution, iiave been with- 
drawn, and Dr. King has been instructed to 
comply with any demands he may receive. The 
Lieutenant-Governor de.sires to thank Dr. King 
and also Mr. Givmmie, the Deputy Superintendent 
for the Cinchona Plantations, w'ho has since re- 
tired from service, for their efficient management 
of the Department during the year. 
INDIAN TEA ASSOCIATION, LONDON. 
ANNUAL REPORT. 
The following is from the annual report of the 
Association : — 
The general committee have the pleasure to submit 
their report for the eighteenth year of the operations 
of the Indian Tea Association "in London. 
NEW M.^RKETS. 
Mr. Blechynden's work iu America continued to 
receive the attention of the committee during the 
whole of the year. The two Commissioners— Mr. 
Blechynden for India, and Mr. Mackenzie for Ceylou 
— have continued to work together satisfactorily with 
no inconsiderable measure of success in making British 
grpwo teas kuowu to tl;e Am^riQAQ coneumere. Ik9 
