m 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST, 
[Dec. 1, 1898. 
THE INDIAN TEA INDUSTRY: 
STARTLING NEWS. 
Dear SiR; — Depression in the Tea inilustry in 
Assam, according to a conimunicatioii to tlieCal- 
cabta Enfflishman from a Cacliar planter, is attri- 
butable to tiie following caus^es :— Overproduction 
by widespread extension and the openiuj; out of 
large tea tracts ; hif^h exchange ; unseasonable 
weather and late monsoons; shot t seasons result- 
ing therefrom ; drought and injury to plants from 
various causes, inferior rjuality and small out- 
tarns of tea ; impossibility of reduction of working 
expenses and cost of manufacture. 
There is one strong point made out by the 
writer and that is the reduction of the Calcutta 
Agents' charges. If, as he states, two annas per 
lb. of tea are run up by the charges of these 
magnates, there is certainly room to reduce them 
by 25 per cent. Two annas equal 12 cents, so 
that 9 cents per lb., would leave a fortune to 
our Colombo Agents, whose charges hardly reach 
three cents per lb. even if they sell in the coun- 
try and are Agents and Secretaries for a Company. 
The startling announcement is made that 200 
filanters are likely to be in Calcutta, looking out 
or employment at the end of the year. Perhaps 
that is an Indian edition of the yarn that was 
started by your evening contemporary. 
China, this writer thinks, will eventually be 
the place for the surplusage of planters in India, 
.when once the valley of the Yantsekiang is 
available. If so, the unfortunate unemployed 
planter of the present will have sometinie to wait. 
—Yours truly, PLANTER. 
CURRENCY AND PLANTERS. 
Claverton Manor, Bath, Oct. 14, 1898. 
Sir, — As the Indian Currency Committee is 
now understood to be considering the question 
of a Gold Currency for India, I send you a 
memorial I addressed in May last to the Colo- 
nial Office and the reply thereto. 
You will see that my proposals are veiy 
similar to those of Mr. H, D. MacLeod, ex- 
cepting that, where he advocates the minting 
of sovereigns and half-sovereigns at Calcutta. I 
propose the minting there of one 12/6 Gold 
Coin, which — taking exchange at 1/3— would re- 
present RlO and so lit in with the existing 
Indian and Ceylon note issues. The sovereign 
would necessitate an entirely new Note issue 
and is in itself a coin of too high value for 
the currency requirements of a native population. 
On the other hand a 12/6 Indian coin might 
at hopie largely supersede the half-sovereign, 
wliich is said to be very uneconomical as not 
wearing well.— Yours truly, 
E. HARCOURT SKRINE. 
Downing Street, 13th May, 1898. 
Sir, — I am directed by Mr. Secretary Cham- 
berlain to acknowledge the receipt of your letter 
of the 9th instant, respecting the question of 
the Indian Currency, and to inform you that 
a copy of that letter will be communicated to 
the Indian Currency Comtnittee.— I am, sir, 
your obedient servant, C. P. LUCAS. 
E. Hakcourt Skrine, Esq. 
New University Club, St. James Street, 
9tli May, 1898. 
to the Eight Honorable J. Chamberlain, M.P. 
Sir, — As an owner of tea property in Ceylon I 
have the honor to o2er some remarks on the sub- 
ject of the currency which has, I understand, been 
dealt with in a memorial tg (he Colonial OMce by the 
Ceylon P anters' ABBOciatiou. That memorial bad noi 
been published wheu I lef I, Ceylon last nionth. and it was 
therefore not m ray pow^r to address any representa- 
tion on It through the official channels, bat, misaiQch 
as! deJuce some very different concIusioDs from the 
premises upon which the casn for the planter is there 
argued, I ventare to hope that I m A be allowed to 
Bubuiit this letter for your coufideration 
In 80 far as the Piant^rs' Mi-uiorial is descriptive 
of the mischievous rcBulis to the Ceylon Tea Grower 
from the enforced contraction of the currency it 
must command the loyal support of all produMra. 
but. when it goes beyond this, to rocomm>ud aa a 
remedy the re-coinage of silver 'on the basis, as I 
understand, of a somewhat lower Exchange for the 
rupee, I think it is time to bring to light some of 
the fallacies that in my opinion have obscured the 
judgment of the drafters of that memorial 
^J'"^l\!"^^<'}^eaelMK'Aee I mutit refer you to claoaea 
20 and 2G of the memorial. 
The concludingparagiaph of clause 20 says : " The 
rate for Peasant Labour iu the Central, Western «nd 
habaragamuwa Provinces appears to have remained 
fairly constant at about three days' labour for a rupee, 
but that rate had only recently bjen attainnd hi 1870. 
Ihe rate inl8G4 was generally a littl.< lower " 
Clause 26 says :-" With reference to the possible 
re-adjustment of local wages and prices measure i ia 
silver, while we find that there is in Ceylon a slight 
tendency towards increasing w^.ges and a more ge- 
neral tendency towards increasing prices such in- 
crease bears no actual proportion to the progressiva 
decline in the gold price of silver and it can hardly 
be attributed thereto. It is our opinion that the date 
of such a general adjustment of waf es and prices is 
uncertain— that it will probably be remote, and that 
It m.iy be postponed for an indefinite period of time " 
The object of both these clauses is to esUblish the 
contention that India and Ceylon as .Silver-using conn- 
tries are incapable of re-measuring their commodities 
in gold. I admit that there is much apparent justi- 
hcation for this contention, opposed though it be to 
an inevitable natural law, bat the fact that it is bo 
opposed should have led the planting body to leeard 
their inferences with suspicion. 
The Planters' Association accepts the fact that the 
rate for peasant labour has remained constant at 
about three days' labour for a rupee from 1870 to 
18J8 as proof that the decline in the Gold price of Silver 
has not resulted lu a proportionate rise of wages It 
IS the purpose of this letter to shew that while the 
labour wage has, it is true, remained constant at three 
days labour for a rupee, the value of that wage to the 
cooly has been enhanced fully 40 per cent during that 
period-or the equivalent of the fall in Silver— by com- 
pensating advantages. 
To trace these it is necessary to give a brief review 
ot theL/abonr Wage for the past 34 years 
Tlie Memorial admits that ^1) during a period of par 
of Exchange 18b4 to 1870 the Cooly Wage was rising to 
£.orae shght extent. That rise was commensurate with 
a stable trade price for coffee, and may fairly be taken 
to ludicate a normally appreciating Labour Wage 
second period, 1872 to 18S1 was a period of 
great Inflation, coffee prices rising from 65s ner cent 
to 130s. ihis inflation was reflected in Ceylon by 
correspondingly higher cultivation. Labour that had 
in previous years been paid ofif aftercrop, to return 
to distant homes in India, was kept on for manuring 
and other works. Consequently the normal condition 
of a slowly rising wage was arrested, and made np to 
the cooly by this new found employment during the 
slack season. This period of high cultivation, the 
latter years of which balanced the first fall in Silver 
may be said to have ceased in 1881 when leaf disease 
and a collapse lu the price of coffee brought the 
country to the verge of bankruptcy. It wis sno 
ceeded by (.3) a period ot transition from the cul- 
tivation of coffee to that of tea. During- this neriod 
1881 to 1885, the Cooly Wage was, it' is teurSi 
constant at three days' labor for a rupee, bnt 
the coohes were often not paid at all and on 
some estates worked for years on a bare subsistence 
in Rice. On estates worked with reserve capital, « 
