Nov.  r,  1895.]  THE  TROPICAL  AGRICULTURIST. 
35S 
We  had  not  realized  before  that 
su^ar  to  India : here  are  tlie 
though 
1893.94. 
Rx, 
335,141 
443,161 
443,386 
572,006 
424.666 
RF.VIEW  OF  THE  TRADE  OF  INDIA. 
WHAT  1.9  .SAID  OF  TEA,  COFFEE,  &C. 
We  have  received  from  tlie  Oovernment  of 
India  a copy  of  tlie  Review  of  the  Trade  of 
India  in  1894-i)5  referring  to  I,  Foreign  fea-borne 
Trade;  If,  Trans- Frontier  Trade;  III,  Coasting 
Trade  ; By  •).  E.  O’Conor,  C.I.E.,  Director- 
General  of  Statistics  to  tlie  Government  of  India. 
It  is,  as  usual,  an  able  and  full  Rej>ojt  cover- 
ing 72  pages. 
Ceylon  supplied 
(pi'ures : — 
° 1890-91  1891-92  1892-93  1893.94  1894-95 
cwt.  cwt.  cwt.  cwt.  cwt. 
Ceylon  1,935  1,082  4,921  17,161  7,393 
Of  practical  value  is  the  part  devoted  to 
of  tea,  which  shows  that  if  we  cultivated  proper 
rel.ations  and  equal  tariffs  with  Bomhay  we  ought 
to  supply  from  Ceylon  nearly  6^  million  lb.  of 
tea  now  got  from  China,  Straits  and  Java.  Ihls 
tea  is  ohiefly  for  the  Persian  market,  but  passes 
through  Bombay  ;—  ui  u 1 1 
Tea.— This  trade  maintains  a high  level, 
the  imports  last  year  were  smaller  than  |in 
The  imports  are;— 
lb, 
1890- 91  4,770,008 
1891- 93  6,353,017 
1892- 93  6,022,883 
1893- 94  7,687,757 
1894- 95  6,326,122  , 
The  sources  of  supply  are  China,  Ceylon,  the  Straits 
and  Java,  from  which  countries  the  imports  in  the  last 
five  years  have  been 
Ceylon 
167,177 
849,737 
633,596 
980, .507 
901,971 
The  Ceylon  tea  is  consumed  in  India,  but  the 
greatest  part  of  the  other  imported  tea  is  re-exported, 
going  chiefly  to  the  Persian  market  by  sea,  and  to  the 
Afghanistan  market  by  land.  u 1 
^6xt  C01116S  ft  notftbl©  mention  of  Colombo  mftcle 
in  reference  to  the  re-export  trade  from  India  :— 
With  Ceylon  tho  trade  is  relatively  small,  not  half 
what  it  is  with  the  Straits,  thoueh  being  so  much 
closer  it  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  trade  would 
be  larger.  The  explanation  is  that  Colombo  is  so 
happily  situated  geographically  that  it  is  admirably 
adapted  to  be  an  entrepot  for  the  supply  of  Southern 
India  and  other  neighbouring  regions,  and  that  there 
is  no  necessity  for  that  port  to  receive  supplies  of 
European  goods  except  direct  from  Europm 
Then  we  quote  what  is  said  about  cojfee  : 
The  run  of  high  prices  has  continued  now  for  three 
consecutive  years.  The  world  is  so  Wgely  dependent 
on  Brazil  for  its  supply  now,  that  Ceylon  has  given 
UD  coffee,  and  the  conditions  in  that  country  are  so 
uLertain.  that  speculative  influences  have  been  in 
successful  operation  for  a considerable  time  past  The 
ran£?e  of  prices  has  not,  however,  been  eneciual 
in  fncreasiiik  the  supply  from  India  materially  for 
coffee-planting  has  been  beset  with  difficulty  and  dis- 
appointment Ld  the  area  under  the  plant  continues  to 
be  very  restricted.  In  Travancore,  following  the  ex- 
amnle  of  Cevlon,  coffee  has  been  largely  abandoned 
h^^Lour  of  tea,  and  in  British  India,  according  to 
i I p agricultural  returns,  the  area  has  substantially 
d^iminished  during  the  last  four  or  five  years. 
Next  we  have  a long  paragraph  on  tea'.— 
■ 7'g„  _The  exports  of  the  last  ten  years  are  given 
below ; — ,, 
lb. 
(ooo's  omitted.) 
1885- 86  ...  68,784 
1886- 87  ...  78,703 
1887- 88  ...  87,514 
1888- 89  ...  97,011  ... 
1889- 90  103,760  ... 
1890- 91 
1891- 92 
1892- 93 
1893- 94 
1894- 95 
China 
lb.  3,940,584 
„ 4,680,232 
„ 4,795,473 
„ 6,016,244 
„ 4,630,327 
Straits 
543,847 
589,953 
464,518 
360,770 
413,417 
Java 
97,640 
216,261 
107,100 
308,333 
362,366 
Rx. 
4,306,133 
4,727,992 
5,174,440 
5,267,315 
6,277,650 
1890-91 
107,015 
1891-92 
120,149 
, , 
1892-93 
114  722 
1893-94 
126,3.32 
1894-95 
129,099 
lb, 
{ooo's  omitted.)  R*- 
6,219,233 
5,968,129 
6,292,348 
6, .585,835 
7,55.5,745 
111  1894-95  the  quantity  exported  greatly  increased 
and  the  prices  obtained  were  higher  even  than  in 
1892-93,  which  was  an  unusually  good  year.  The 
prophecies  of  the  planters  that  the  closure  of  the 
mints  would  be  the  signal  for  the  ruin  of  their  busi. 
ness  have  happily  not  been  fulfilled,  nor  are  they 
likely  to  be  fulfilled.  The  Average  Prices  realised 
at  the  auction  sales  in  Calcutta  during  the  last  six 
years  were  as  follow,  in  annas  and  pie  per  pound 
1889-90.  --  - 
Orange (and  broken 
1890,91.  1891-92. 
orange)  pekoe 
Broken  pekoe 
Pekoe 
Pekoe  fannings 
Pekoe  souchong 
Broken  ditto 
Other  low  class 
Or,  (and  bro. 
orange)  pekoe 
Broken  pekoe 
Pekoe 
Pek  fans. 
Pek  sou, 
Broken  ditto 
Other  low  class 
11-8 
9-9 
7-5 
.5.7 
5.7 
5.0 
4-8 
1892-93. 
11-  2| 
8-lOi 
7-  2 
5- 10 
6.  8J 
6- 
6.  9 
1893.94. 
13. 
11. 
8* 
6- 
6 
0 5.7ths 
3 l-3rd 
9 
7 l-5ths 
5i 
a 
9 
6-106.7ths 
Oi 
n 
24-5th3 
2§ 
3.  7l.5tha 
5-  4 4-6ths 
4-11  5-6tha 
4.  5J 
11. 1 
8-7i 
7-Oi 
5-3J 
5- 3J 
4- 9S 
4.2^ 
1894-95. 
14-0  2-5ths 
11.8 
9.4  4.5tha 
7-3  6-7th3 
7.25-7tha 
6- 81-5th8 
5- 6 
The  Exports  are. 
in  pounds 
(ooo’s  omitted) : — 
1889-90. 
1890.9R 
1891-92. 
United  Kingdon  .. 
98,731 
100,209 
111,169 
Australia 
3,419 
5,119 
5,204 
Persia 
1,118 
1,221 
2,789 
Turkey  in  Asia 
63 
89 
340 
United  States 
103 
79 
83 
Canada 
85 
61 
102 
1892-93. 
1893-94. 
1894-95. 
United  Kingdom  . 
108,513 
116,007 
118.417 
Australia 
. 3,908 
6,240 
4,872 
Persia 
. 1,407 
2,497 
3,173 
Turkey  in  Asia 
. 115 
456 
l,39fl 
United  States 
50 
116 
228 
Canada 
39 
113 
317 
The  United  Kingdon  continues  to  be  the  gieat 
market  for  Indian  tea,  as  much  as  92  per  cent  of  the 
exports  of  the  year  having  been  shipped  thither.  Of 
the  small  quantity  not  shipped  to  the  United  Kingdom, 
Australia  takes  a considerable  but  unfortunately  not 
an  increasing  share ; Indian  tea  seems  to  make  no 
headway  in  the  Coloniefs  in  competition  with  China 
and  Ceylon  tea.  Persia  during  the  last  four  years 
has  been  taking  larger  quantities.  As  regards  the 
trade  with  Persia  Her  Majesty’s  Consul  at  Bushire 
writes  in  his  report  for  1894;  “There  has  been  a 
strong  demand  throughout  the  year  for  Indian  and 
Batavian  teas,  which  seem  to  be  steadily  supplanting 
the  China  t^as  in  favour  with  the  Persian  consumer. 
Heavy  consignments,  chiefly  from  India,  were  received 
by  native  merchants  who  found  no  diflSculty  in  dis- 
posing of  them  at  a good  profit.  It  was,  however,  at 
the  port  of  Bandar-Abbas  that  this  trade  received  its 
most  vigorous  impulse,  the  import  being  more  than 
double  that  of  the  previous  year.”  Some  of  the  tea 
at  any  rate  imported  into  Bandar- Abbas  was  destined 
for  consumption  in  Russian  Asiatic  territory,  and  it 
seems  probable  that  the  effect  of  recent  fiscal  arrange- 
ments of  the  Russians  will  divert  the  transit  trade 
to  Batoum  and  the  trans-Caspian  railway.  A new 
feature  in  the  trade  of  the  year  is  the  largely  in- 
creased export  to  Asiatic  Turkey,  and  it  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  exports  to  this  country  may  become 
larger.  Exports  to  the  United  States  and  Canada 
have  also  developed  very  greatly,  though  the  aggre- 
gate  is  still  relatively  trifling. 
Calcutta  is  now,  and  always  will  be,  the  great  centre 
whence  Indian  tea  is  exported ; but,  in  consequence 
of  the  increasing  demand  from  Persia  and  Asiatic 
Turkey,  the  exports  from  Bombay  and  Karachi  are 
increasing. 
