VIII 
PEPPERS 
291 
REGIONS OF PEPPER CULTIVATION 
India. — The pepper plant being indigenous to the 
Malabar coast, was first cultivated and exported thence, 
and that in very early times. From this region it 
gradually spread over other parts of Asia, but at what 
dates is not clear. From the earliest recorded times 
till the fifteenth century at least, the greater part of the 
spice in the markets of the world was derived from the 
west coast of India. The whole of this region, from Cape 
Comorin to Kanara, was the pepper-country for many 
centuries, producing not only the greatest amount, but 
also the spice of the highest reputation. Nearly all the 
pepper was shipped at Madras, being conveyed there by 
the coasting trade from the various centres of cultivation. 
The development of the industry in Sumatra, the 
Straits Settlements, and Cambodia, however, broke 
through the monopoly of the trade possessed by India, 
and the exports diminished materially. In 1829, 
Milburn reports (quoted in the Dictionary of Economic 
Products of India) that while the produce of Sumatra 
was estimated at 168,000 piculs, that of the islands 
south of Sumatra 12,000 piculs, of the Malay Peninsula 
28,000, the Gulf of Siam 60,000 piculs, and Borneo 
20,000 piculs, that of India was only 30,000 piculs ; 
and in 1872, out of 27,576,710 lbs. imported into 
England, 25,000,000 lbs. came from the Straits Settle- 
ments, and only 256,000 lbs. from India; and in 1889, 
the total imports into England from the whole of the 
British East Indies being 28,555,304 lbs., 28,041,096 lbs. 
came from the Straits Settlements. The Indian trade, 
however, increased largely in recent years, as the follow- 
ing tables show, taken in quinquennial periods : — 
1875-1876 to 1879-1880 . . . 5,420,963 lbs. 
1880-1881 to 1884-1885 . . . 5,061,098 „ 
1885-1886 to 1889-1890 . . . 7,652,334 „ 
A considerable quantity of pepper was imported 
into India from the Straits Settlements, Java, etc., in 
