848 
THE TROf^tm l8€H»t3!Ol.tlJRtSt. 
[May 2, 1892. 
from one's hand. This ball ia the crude rubber of 
commeroe. If the coagulating has been carefully done 
it is ' fine ' rubber ; if carelessly done, and the ball on 
being cut open at the exporting warehouse shoivs 
signs of poorly-coagulated milk or slight mixtuieg of 
foreign subst»noes, such us mandioca meal,it is classi- 
fied as ' middling fine ' (entrefina). There is also a 
coarser grade still, called ^•namby, the native Indian 
word for ' shells.' This grade is composed of the 
sorapil and bits that have dried without coagulation 
proper, especially the linings that form in the little 
earthenware cups and in the calabashes and buckets 
used in handling the milk, as aleo the drippings that 
run down the trees from acoideutsl wounds. These are 
all rolled up together in a mass and would bjing as 
good a price as the middling fine, were it not for the 
leaves and other rubbish that manage ' innocently ' to 
stow themselves away ia the lump. 
"In future issues'we hope to be able to find room for fur- 
ther-notice of these reports, giving statistics of amount 
produced, value, etc." — American Grocer, Feb. 24th. 
■ 
ZANZIBAK AND THE CLOVE TRADE. 
At the time of the publication of the last annual 
statement of the trade of the United Kingdom with 
foreign countries we pointed out that in no direction 
had our foreign trade grown more largely during the 
last five years than with the contries of which Zanzi- 
bar is the chief business centre. Our imports from 
those parts were worth 129,222Z. in 1886, in 1890 
they had grown to 722,893?., while the exports, in 
the same period, advanced from 254,421?. to 521,190?. 
Since the publication of those figures a new British 
political officer, Mr. Portal, his been sent to Zanzi- 
bar and has assumed practically the government of 
that island. The city has been declared a free port, 
and sundry other reforms have been initiated which 
will no doubt contribute largely to its commercial 
importance. Mr. Portal has iust sent home his firet 
report on the commerce of our new dependency, in 
which he expresses himsslt full of hope for the future. 
A big cloud, however, obscures the commercial sky 
of Zanzibar at this moment — viz., the overproduction 
of cloves, its staple article of trade. Since the clove- 
tree was first introduced in the islands, about sixty 
years ago, it has been an enormous source of wealth 
to the Arab landowners and to the Sultan. There have 
been periodical depressions in the price before, but 
nntil about three years ago 6i. to 7d. per lb. 
was considered a very low quotation, and once, after a 
hurricane which destroyed the greater part of the 
plantations, the value of cloves rose to Is. 7d. per lb. 
in the London market. Lately, however, the clove 
crops have become larger and larger, and they are now 
almost every season greatly in excess of the world's 
estimated annual consumption, which is about 80,000 
bales of 140 lb. each. As a result the price (3|d. per 
lb.) has fallen to within measurable distance of the 
lowest point it has ever touched — viz., 2|d. per lb., 
in 1869— when, however, there was no export doty, or 
at any rate a much smaller one than at present. 
The London warehouses are burdened, at this mo- 
ment, with a stock of not less than 34,000 bales of the 
epice, and the quantities warehoused in America and 
on the Continent are also known to be exceedingly 
heavy. The cause of the present depreciation of cloves 
lies exclusively in the short-sighted policy of the Arab 
plantation-owners in the islands of Pemba and Zanzi- 
bar, who have neglected the culture of all other pro- 
-diiots which they might have reared with profit upon 
their fertile soil, and turned every avnilablo acre of 
land into a clove-plantition, without the least thouf?ht 
of the inevitable effect of their action. The people 
and the ruler of Znnzibar have for years been pr«,ot!- 
cally dependent upon the returns of the clove-crop for 
their sustenance, and the problems that confront Mr. 
Portal, in consequence of the breakdown of the one 
remunerative industry of the island, may, in proportion, 
become as diflioult a solution as the situation created 
by an Itdian famine or a failure of the Nile flood in 
Kgypt. Telegraphic information received this week 
states that the Arab landowuorH have presentud peti- 
♦lODB to Mr. Fortal declaring that they are ruined by 
the low price of cloves and the scarcity of labour, and 
asking for a reduction of the clove tax. There is no 
doubt that, sooner or later, these demands, so far as 
the reduction of the export duty is concfrned, will 
have to be granted The puzzle will be where to find 
a source of revenue which will recoup tbe Sultan, to 
whom Mr. Portal stands in the relation of a kind of 
maUre de palais, for the loss of the mainspring of his 
income. Cloves are the cork by which the Court of 
Zanzibar IS kept tfloat. "A few years ago," says Mr. 
Ports,l, "the prioo of cloves us'^d to range from'S7 
to $10 per frasila (35 lb.), and the export duty 
taken on them by the Sultan was 30 per cer.t 
ad vol. The price docs not now exceed $2J to S2f 
per frasila, ba\A the export duty has been reduced 
to 25 per cent." Tbe 25 per-reot. duty, the growers 
probably think would give tbem a fair margin 
of profit ; but there ia no doubt that if it were 
abolished tomorrow, itisnottbe Zanzibar Arabs, but 
the European spice-deak rs an-i oil-distillers, who would 
profit, for quotations ht»r<r would certainly answer with 
a corresponding fall. The scarcity of labour of wL'ch the 
Arabs complain is probably traceable to the abolition of 
slavery by th<^ late Sultan. It must be rampmbered that 
at the time of the bu' ding ofthp clove-treri there isa 
sudden demand for la': ou- upon the plantat'ona, for if 
the buds are not prompt'v picked they burst int 1 fl .iwer 
and become valueles'!. Mr. Porta- is so well aware of 
the critical condition to which the country has been 
brought by the over-production of cloves, that lie ia 
already looking out f r other economic articles to be 
brought into cultivation when the Arab's day sha'l 
be done (a contingency which the consul foresees 
St an early date), and the land have passed into 
tbe hands of Indians aod Europeans. From manioc 
(tapioca), sago, coconuts, pineapples, and aloes Mr. 
Portal expects something. The plants alr-ady grows 
wild inprofusiou, and with a little care and intelli- 
gence might become profitable — the aloes and pineapples 
specially on account of the valuable fibre they vield- 
Vanilla, he thinks, might also become a profitable 
culture. The French missionaries in Bagamoyo, ou the 
German coast opposite, already grow it, and assert that 
it pays them well. Chillies grow plentifully all over the 
eastern and southern paris 0! the island. Next to 
cloves and eoprah they are the most important 
Zanzibar product, During the period from the begin- 
ning of tbis year until October 13th, 112,179 rupees' 
worth of them were shipped — half going to London, 
tbe remainder going to New York and Marseilles. 
Until the English stepped in to set the Sultan's totter- 
ing house in order, no official statistics or accounts of any 
value were kept in the island. No records were made 
of shipping ; the lighthouses around the coast were left 
crumbling to pieces, and the only object to which the 
Government appeared to apply it°elf with sympathetic 
ardour was the collection of taxes. Mr. Portal has 
but one term to express tbe cause of all the wretched- 
ness in Zanzibar — " Arab domination " — now, fortu- 
nately, in process of abolition. — Chemist and 
Bruffgist, March 19. 
© 
TEA AND COFFEE. 
Now that there is so much talk about tea and the 
good and evil effects resultant on its use and abuse, 
perhaps a few words of reminder concerning Professor 
Sir William Roberts' researches on food accessories 
would not be out of place. They were noticed in 
the Nineteenth Centiiry by Dr. Burney Teo, February, 
1886, and as far as I can remember, have been 
practically uncontradicted, in the Reviews at least, 
by anyone entitled to a hearing on such matters. 
Sir W. Roberts had already presented to the world 
a mass of most valuable information derived from 
his careful researches on the " digestive ferments" 
in his lectures delivered before the Royal College 
of Physicians in 1880. His later researches on 
"food accessories and their influence on digestion" 
are equally important, and more easily grasped by 
the lay mind. The results are, in some respects, as 
Dr. Yeo remarks, so novel and unexpected, and they 
contradict so many apparently unfounded assump- 
tioasj.that they cannot betoosoonor too widely kaown. 
