GIO 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March 1. 1899. 
years; at exchange of eight pence per milreis this 
was equal to three shillings and eight pence per 
lb. On hi3 tea — which would be all absorbed by 
local consumption — there would be no duty, and 
this would pa.y even with the extra cost of produc- 
tion, better than Tea in Ceylon and India, v/hich 
sold for nine pence to 10 pence. But I said, " com- 
petition in growint;, and filling up the local market 
would bring down tlie price." 
" Putiue conapetilion I ' he cared nothing for thai, 
he would be the first in the field, and would make a 
large pot of money before others had time to develop 
Tea plantations. 
This gentleman, Col. Joao Antonio Alvea de Brito, 
is. a member of the Union Parliament at present 
Bitting in Rio de Janeiro, but he has been absent 
on leave for over a month. His properties are 
on very higli land on the borders between the 
State of 'Kio and Minas. The district is not 
subject to dry spells, but receives regular 
rains, and as far aa climate goes is very suitable 
for tea planting. His coCfeo plantations bear 
well and he ia well supplied with Colonist labour. 
To make up for the smdl profit which coffee haa 
given for the last two or three years, he is utilizing the 
TIMBER FnOM HIS VlliO N FORESTS. 
He has erected by the side of the railway near his pro 
perties a large tiiiiber-pi eparing and wood-working es- 
tablishinent, fitted with the finest modern machinery for 
wood working. He sends timber by rail to Rio in all 
forms from the rough log of fine cibinet wood to be 
manipulated in Rio, to doors and vvindov^s ready made, 
cart-wheels, carts and even railway waggons. He haa 
just completed a lot of the latter for the Central 
Goveinment Railway. The ironwork for buggies and 
waggon flames, as well as for Westing-house brakes 
come ftom England and the United States. Coal 
waggoii'J, good covered waggons, and cattle trucks can 
be supplied at a cheaper rate by him than those ordered 
from Europe or the United States, and of course the 
timber is far superior. My friend is a good example of 
what an English education and a London office-train- 
ing can bring to the assistance of an intelligent mind, 
and an energetic character. When I last wrote to you 
THE PBICE OF COFFEE 
was so low it could scarcely pay for production, and in 
places where pack-mule or buUock oart transport made 
it costly to take to the nearest railway station, it has 
been produced at a loss — even now although the crop 
at present being shippea is expected to be much less 
than the former one, the price has not risen. It 
has not been much above Bets. per lb. 
for No. 7 — Ihe middling Brazilian Type -in New 
York. It was believed that the crop for 1898-99 
would be a short one, and that the seasons were 
unfavourable, but somehow the buyers in consuming 
countries seemed to wait for a lessening of the 
number of bugs being received by rail in Santos, and 
Bio de Janeiro. With the exception of the two 
months July and August, between the old and the 
new season's shipments, there has been little diminu- 
tion, aud both ports continue to receive equal to last 
year's quantities, and stock in Rio and Santos as 
well as in consuming countries are large. 
There is a great uncertainty as to the quantity ex- 
pected for season 1898-99, but some authorities which 
can be relied on put Santos at 6,500,000 sacks of 
132 lb. each, Rio 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 sacks ; but such 
conflicting reports have been received as to the 
ravages of dry weather from July to November 
in the distiicts which have Rio for a shipping 
port, one cannot form a safe calculation, aud to make 
it too high is to bring a liornet's nest about one's 
ears, foi; planters believe that low prices continue be- 
cause of exaggerated estimates made beforehand, and 
the newspapers are open to attack any poor un- 
fortunate who ventures on this precarious ground. 
As is usual in all coffee-prodacing countries, a long 
spell of dry weather immediately before blossoming 
time, brings out a copious flower after the first 
rains ; the same has occurred here during the flower- 
ing time— latter end of September, October and begin« 
uiua of November,— but since then there haa been 
rain almost every day; nice retreshiug evening and 
night showers say I, bat a lA of newspaper reports 
say embryo fruit ia rotting and fttlling ofif in miiny 
places. 
EXCHANGE. 
The low rate of exchange all during last year, cer- 
tainly favoured the coffee planner, for altho'jgb the 
price was low in consumiug countriefs, it represented 
gold, and owing to the low rate of exchange, the 
amount in currency came to a respectable sum. 
Colonist labour was fairly plentiful at not mocb above 
the former rates. Therefore llie cost of production 
was not much above what it used lo be when ex- 
change was high. During the latter end i f lMa7, ex- 
change ranged f rom 7d to 7Jd per milreu— thirty-three 
to thirty-four milreis to a pjund sterling. In the 
first five mouths of this year it fell from 7d to &|d 
per milreis raising the pound sterling from thirtv- 
four to forty-two-and-a-half inilreiB— the par value of 
the milreis is twenty-seven pencj — or eight mil eight 
hundred and eighty eight reis to a pound sterling. 
This state of m.itters if favouring the coffe e planters, 
was the opposite of cheering to commercial people : 
to the poor people in the towns— for whom nearly u\l 
the necessaries of life had to be imported, aud 
therefore had to be paid for in gold— it meant semj- 
starvation, and to the Government with its gradually 
diminishing revenue— owing to jirutective, one may 
say prohiliitire, duties on all importB— who had to meet 
annual payments in Europe of over three million 
pounds sterling: this low exchange waa indeed a bliu 
look out. 
In July of this year, 
A FINANCIAL AUBANGEMKNT 
was made in Loudon, aud after that exchange rose in ft 
short time to 8|d ; although it has not remained at 
that figure, it has nut fallen much below it, and it 
is expected — if the Government is able to fulfil its 
part of the contract which if public men are in 
earnest it can have no difficulty in doing — the value 
of the milreis will rise to eighteen pence in three years. 
I need not inflict on you and your readers the 
dry details of this arrangement or " accordo," as it 
is called here, bat in a few words it is this: 
let. A loan of ten million pounds at five per cent. 
2nd. The amortization of the external debt is 
suspended for thirteen years. 
3rd. A yearly sum of three million pounds is to 
be taken out of this loan for three years. This sum 
is to go towards the payment of interest on the 
external debt, and guaranteed interest on railways, 
as well as salari e and expenses of representatives 
of Brazil in Europe and other payments, sTich as 
railway materials, &c. 
4ih. The Government is not relieved from the 
payment of these sums, but only relieved from re- 
mitting to London. The equivalent of these amouuta 
have to be paid in paper money calculated at eighteen 
pence per milreis, into one or more of the foreign or 
national banks (nearly all of tliem get a part of it) 
as a deposit, and from time to time the paper money 
forming this deposit has to be destroyed. 
Two results are expected from this •' accordo " : — 
first, the Government not requiring to enter the 
market for remittances to Europe, exchange is sure 
to rise. Second, a large amount of paper taken out 
of circulation will increase the value of what is left. 
This arrangement has been subject to a great deal 
of criticism both in Europe and in Brazil : in the 
former it is regarded favourably, but some of the 
opposers of the Government in Brazil look on it as 
humiliating owing to their having to give the receipts 
of the Rio de Janeiro Custom house as a guarantee. 
The Congress— whose sittings are about to close— have 
given the Government their full support, aud have 
reduced the expenditure in the various departments 
much below what the official estimates asked for. 
A NEW PHESIDENT 
entered on his duties on the 15th November, 
and has by the constitution to remain for 
four years. Before entering on his new duties ho 
paid a visit to Europe, being there during Jane, July 
