296 
SPICES 
CHAP. 
sorted into three compartments by a winnowing machine ; 
the heaviest is used for white pepper, the next heaviest 
is made into black pepper, and the third, after the best 
fruits are picked out, goes as refuse pepper. Two-thirds 
of the crop form white pepper, and the remaining third 
black. The white pepper goes to London, and the black 
to China. The freight from Chantabun to Bangkok is 
13s. 9d. per ton, and there is an inland duty of £1 : 7 : 6.^ 
Sumatra . — Pepper was cultivated in Sumatra in very 
early days, as early as 1509, chiefly by the Achinese, 
who are still among the best cultivators. Marco Polo 
does not mention it as being cultivated in Sumatra, and 
it was perhaps introduced later. It is recorded by 
Linschoten in 1598, as being a product of Sumatra. In 
1783 Marsden writes that of the commercial articles of 
produce pepper is the most important and abundant. 
The trade in this spice was then the object of the East 
India Company’s trade with Sumatra, and the only 
product that they kept exclusively in their hands, their 
servants and the merchants under their protection being 
free to deal in any other commodity but this. Many of 
the local chiefs had invited the English to form settle- 
ments in their respective districts, and factories were 
established, and a permanency and regularity given to 
the trade, previously very uncertain, while it depended 
on the success of occasional voyages to the coast. 
Failure of adequate quantities for cargoes, and the 
caprices and cheating of the rajas, made the trade very 
uncertain. The Company’s agents, however, residing on 
the spot could inspect the plantation, secure the 
collection of the produce, and estimate the tonnage 
required. Contracts were made with the chiefs, who 
were obliged to compel their dependents to cultivate 
pepper, and to secure for the Company the exclusive 
right of purchase, in return for which they enjoyed 
English protection, and received an allowance on the 
produce. The price paid by the Company was 10 
dollars (15s.) per bahar (5 cwt.). It was later raised to 
1 Foreign Office Consular Report, 1893, Kew Bulletin^ 22, 1893. 
