410 THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [December i, 1891. 
■ THE LOCAL MANUFACTUKE OF 
QUININE. 
Some iuterest has been arouseJ amongst Indian 
planters by the annouuccmeut that growers of 
cinchona iu Java intend to eetablish a quinine 
factory, and to make quinine oa the spot, 
instead of exporting their bark to Europe. To Ih e 
planter the advantages of such a procedure would be 
very great. The objection to it would come from those 
having vested interests in the prescot course of busi- 
ness ; at any rate, muoh support could not be looked 
for from this quarter. Large Companies or private 
firms with their head quarters in London would pro- 
bably not be very enthusiastic about the scheme. But 
it is well worth the individual planter's while to look 
into the mutter for him?elf. A few figurei will prove 
this. Suppose a planter to have had 12,000 Ih. of 
Succirubra at the end of last 3 ear, which he could sell 
in the London market at 2d per lb , or for £100. As 
the Loudon bujec takes the cost of extracting tie 
quinine into consideration, the local factory could 
afford to pay the ssme price. The cost of harvesting 
and transport to the port of shipment is at>oiit Jd ; 
so the planter would have had the equivalent of £75 
clear if ho had sold his bark in India. But what he 
really got was muoh less. The first deductioa was for 
baling and shipping at 1145 per ton ; this amounted to 
K225 (say £16). The cojt o£ freight to London, iu- 
surance, dock dnes, rent for wjrehousinj, analysis, 
brokerage and commission usually comes to 20 per cent 
on the sale value of the contigument. Sometimes it 
is rather more. But putting it at £0 per cent, the 
account stands thus : — 
Value of bark ... £100 
Less cost of harvesting ... £25 0-0 
"Coast charges," (Baling etc. )16-0-0 
London charges (20 per cent) 20-0-0 
Total deductions £61-0-0 
In addition to this the planter had to wait for his 
muaey for about four or five mouths. These figures 
speak for themselves. Th3 charge for baling and ship- 
ping ia to be reduofcd this season to about E34 per 
ton, but there ia no tigu of similar movement among 
the London brokers. Shipping Lark to London at 
present prices, if there is a chancj of getting the 
quiciue extracted in this country, s:eaj8 almost as 
great an extravagance as it would be to ship the 
quartz from the Mysore mines instead of crushiog it 
on the spot.— i!f. Mail, Oct. 26th. 
[Our readers oan compare this statemsnt with the 
adverse opinion regarding local manufacture formed 
by Mr. John Ferguson after visiting the Waldhol 
quinine works. — Ed. T, A.] 
A CORNER IN COFFEE. 
We have frequently remarked that the coHeo b^jan is 
often regarded as little belter than a gambling counter, 
and that the manipulations of clever commercial gentle- 
men have a greater influence on the velues of coffee 
than the reported estimate of a Brazilian crop of ten 
million bags. We need not apologiso for quoting in full 
this article which appeared in a reci;nt issue of the 
Financial Xew^ :— " Not only the Mincing-lane market 
but the coffee markets of Havre, Hamburg, and Antwerp 
have bitoiy been disturbed by a cliqua who tried their 
very bobt ti corner coffee. The ringie-J.der in this 
combination was the German partner of a New York 
coJfoe house, which ot lato years has taken a front runk 
in the American coffee trade, but which, also, haa acquired 
; au' unenviable uotor'e y for being connected with 
< coruertug operations. Thus in June, 1888, this house 
ill conjunction with another firm in the same city, so 
manipulalcl the Now York market that they forced the 
price of cofleo for delivery in June that year up from 
12-80 cents per lb. to 2050 cents por lb. in ouo 
day. Tliis ng led to a change in the management 
ol the oxchaiigo, from which the corncrers were 
excluded, and later on new rules were adopted which 
made it muoh more difficult fcr any single firm 
or combination t) manipulate the coffee market 
in New York. So little did these new rules pJeaso 
the firm iu question that in Au£;ust, 1890 they 
issued a circular, in which they ostentatiously 
intimated that they had concluded to withdraw from 
the commission option business in coffee on and after 
December 31st, 1890. They did not, however, explicitly 
state that they intended to discontinue option business 
on their own account on the New York Exchange ; 
bnt this may, perhaps, be inferred from another 
paragraph iu the same circular, where they state that : 
" AVe shall continue our regular activity in the im- 
portation of coffee, and wu also expect to deal more or 
lefs, on such coffeo exchanges where wo think buyers 
and sellers will be tre ated on a parity, and where we 
can secure a contract, that will represent a merchant- 
able average grade of coffeo, suoh as is required for 
consumptioa here or ia Europe." During some con- 
siderable time past the Gocmau partner ot this firm 
has been stajiug for long intervals in Europe, and 
there is no douLit that his influence has been felt in 
all tho ]>.iropean term m&tkets chiefly, however, in 
(hofe of Havre and Hamburg. In July last this smart 
operator conceived the brilliant idea of cornering 
coffee in Europe in face of the largest coffee crop 
ever marketed in Brazil, A more madcap scheme, a 
mora unbusine.=8-like proceeding, could hardly be 
imagined. Warnings of the utter rottenness of such 
an op'^ration were not wanting; but they were com- 
pletely disregarded by this gambler, intoxicated with 
patt success. He wrs determined to corner " Septem- 
ber," an 1, . -if ter September, he would corner October, 
and after October, he would put up the price of the 
December option. After that let the deluge come ■, he 
would take good care to be on the hiil-top then. In 
order to play this little game out it was necessary to 
have confederatea. In Antwerp, as in Hamburg, he 
found them ready to hand; but London had also to be 
drawn into the whirlpool. Hence a visit to London 
was decided on, and so timed as to enable him to 
meet his co-opsrator in the New York corner of Jane, 
1888. These two worthies fat iu conclave in Mincing 
laue in July last, and concocted the Echeme which, 
by-and-by, was to be carried out by the conspirators 
in each port. Unfortunately, two firms in London 
were induced to join this miserable combination. Thus 
the ball was set rolling. The September option in 
Havre was day by day pushed up ; other markets 
followed suit, as the clique continued to buy and drive 
prices better, no matter whether reoipts in Braz 1 came 
large or small— in fact, the larger the receipts the 
more they were prepared to pay for options. The 
rig was palpable, and had a certain amount of success 
because of the disinclination of merchants to sell 
" September " owing to the small stocks in Europe 
and the genera'ly strong statistical position at that 
time of the article. Then the October position was 
taken iu hand, and prices of this delivery were also 
advanced by leapa and boumis, until at last merchants 
felt that the cliqno had overstepped the mark, and 
offered freely coftee lor sbipmont from Brazil at lower 
and lower prices, until the rig utterly collap-^ed and 
left the clique with a large stock of highpriced coffee. 
The whole affair has been a complete fissco, and 
it baa involved the clique in tremendous losses. 
One of the young London firms who joined it 
has been in dire distress, while the other firm, who 
worked the oracle for the clique in Mincing-lane, has 
lost heavily in money and still more heavily iu popu- 
larity and reputation. An old and most respectable 
firm in Antwerp has weathered the storm only with 
great sacrifioes, but comes out with an impaired name. 
From first to last it was a disgraceful business, reflect- 
ing the utmost discredit upon everyone engaged in it. 
In less than six weeks coffee has declined from 15s to 
20s per cwt. in the term market here, and .here is 
every probubility that the downward movement will 
make further progress, since confidence has been com- 
pletely shaken by the operations of the riggers." 
Wo are glad to find our London contemporary speaking 
60 strongly on the subject. Disgraceful ia the only 
