Oct. 1, 1898.] THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
263 
selves of the [currency] advantage they have over 
tlieir ladian competitors." P'or an alleged drawback 
that is not yet existent cannot be held account- 
able for past results. Thus far, indeed, it is 
confessed that the Chinese producer has been 
at a disadvantage, for we are told that "China 
tea has to bear certain internal and export duties, 
besides which there is some sli^'ht loss in con- 
verting silver into copper cash, in whicli part of the 
producing charges are paid in that country. And 
further, when it is argued that in the interest 
of tea producers and others, the Government of 
India should cease to endeavour to maintain the 
exchange value of the rupee, the fact is o^^er- 
looked that if that were done then there would 
be a heavy deficit of revenue, which would 
necessitate the imposition of new taxes, of which 
the tea-producing companies must expect to be 
made to bear their full share. Beside? the fall 
in tlie prices of Indian tea is largely due to the 
excessive influ.x of capital into the industry, 
which has caused production to increase more 
rapidly than demand, and this state of things 
a siiarp droji in exchange would tend to inten- 
sify and perpetuate. Thus there is great ex- 
aggeration both as to the effect that tlie rise in 
exchange has had upon the Indian tea-producing 
industry and the advantages which a low ex- 
change might be expected to bring to it. And 
when shareholders in the various undertakings 
are asked to pin their faith to currency legisla- 
tion as a sovereign remedy for all their troubles 
they will do well to be sceptica,]. —EcononusL 
THE INDIAN TEA ASSOCIATION. 
(Fi«3m the Financial Times.) 
In our last issue we published a summary of 
a highly-interesting report on the industries 
of India and Ceylon, presented by the well- 
known lirm of Messrs. Gow, Wilson and Stanton, 
whose opinions on this subject naturally carry 
considerable weight ; and, in view of the peculiar 
circumstances which exist at the present moment, 
the document is calculated to attract a great 
amount of attention on the part of the numer- 
ous class of investors who have put money into 
tea plantations in our great Dependency. The 
outlook hns for some time past been clouded by 
fears of increased production outrunning increased 
consumption, and, as recent reports have shown 
only too plainly the effect of the advance in ex- 
change on undertakings which have to remit 
funds to India has been very unfortunate. To 
this latter point Messrs. Gow, Wilson anil Stanton 
devote the bulk of their attention, and it is 
not surprising to find that that they are labour- 
ing under a strong sense of grievance. They 
point out that the gold which the Chinese trader 
obtains in Europe by the sale of his goods re- 
turns in silver coin about 50 per cent in excess- 
of what it does in India and Ceylon. This is, 
of course, an indisputable fact, and there is no 
denying the deduction that the Chinese trader 
is thus placed at an enormous advantage. From 
the merchant's point of view, the margin is 
looked upon as a differential tax on 13ritisli- 
grown tea; an advance of a penny in the ex- 
change now means a loss of £400,000 sterling to 
the tea producers, and we are told that " the 
artificial value recently given to the rupee by 
the closing of the Mints handicaps the growers 
of Indian and Ceylon in their competilion with 
their rivals in other tea-producing countries 
'ivliose cimency isj ruled by uatuial laws." The 
attitule is a perfectly natural one, but, to our 
mind, it illustrates very forcibly the danger of 
approaching a problem so complex as that of 
Indian currency from the standpoint of one in-- 
dustry, ov even of a group ot industries. That 
the value of the rupee has bsen hoisted to the 
neighbourhood of Is 4d by artificial means is a 
well-known fact; that these means were delibe- 
rately adopted with the object of bringing about 
a stable rate of exchange is a m itter of common 
knowledge, and that the progranim3 which has 
been entered upon will be persisted in may be 
regarded as an absolute certainty. We are told 
tiiat this policy means a differential tax on 
British-grown tea ; would it not be more correct 
to say that the depreciation of the rupee had 
l)reviously constituted a bounty, which is now 
withdrawn? Proiucers in other countries, "whose 
currency is ruled by natural laws," have the whip 
hand for the time being, but can it be seriously 
argued that a volatile exchange, such as that! 
which ruled in China last year, is anything but 
a standing menace to general commerce ? A whole- 
sale disorganisation of import trade is hardly a 
desirable occurrence, bat this, as events have prov- 
ed, is a danger worth keeping in mind. When 
the subject was under discussion in the House 
of Commons last spring. Lord George Hamilton, 
in speaking ot the proposal to appoint a com- 
mittee to consider the problem, remarked that 
"it is desirable that, while we get gentlemen 
associated with banking and commercial interests, 
we should try and not put gentlemen on with too 
direct a personal interest in the exchange one 
way or the other." In other words, interest warps 
judgment, and individual persons and individual 
ind:istries must adjust themselves to the conditions 
which are imposed for the general welfare. 
During the few years prior to 1896 the steady 
and continuous decline in the prices for Indian and 
Ceylon tea in London was counteracted by the fall- 
ing exchange ; since the closing of the mints botli 
factois have operated in an adverse manner. Mean* 
while land which has been planted of late is ap- 
protching the stage of maturity, and the in- 
creased supplies will therefore be coming on the 
market under most unpropitious circumstances. 
China has, of course, been letting her old mono- 
poly slip through her fingers, and the flavour of 
Indian and Ceylon descriptions has become a 
strongly-acquired taste. But a vital change has 
come over the situation. As Messrs. Gow, Wil- 
son and Stanton point out, the scramble for con- 
cessions, territorial acquisitions, and trading privi- 
leges that has been taking place in China re- 
cently biings into the range of possibilities the 
application ot European skill and capital to the 
creation in China of the industries which have 
made such remarkable strides in India. Our Con- 
sular representative in Shanghai, in the course 
of a report received only the other day, remarked 
that the Chinese Government appeared at last 
to be awakening to the fact tliat the tea trade 
was rapidly leaving the country, and he perceived 
signs that it would be willing to make some 
concessions to encourage measures for the improve- 
ment of the tea produced, At Wenchow a machine- 
roller had been experimentally used, and the effect 
had been to inove " beyond doubt that tlie most 
ordinary China tea is capable of astonishing im- 
provements if treated by modern methods. Wen- 
chow tea made by the old native process is of 
the most inferior description, but by being care- 
fully made and machine rolled, a very fair drink- 
able tea resulted." The displacement of China 
tea iu the pist, as tlu ciicvUar uudtjr discuinoq 
