igo 
THE TROPfCAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[September i, 1891. 
djes or the most potent of druge, it requires nO 
propbetioal powers to anticipate the early period 
when opium also, wbiob has deoroased very con- 
siderably in quantity and value, will take rank 
below tea. That is, if over-produetion and the now 
formidable oompetilion of Ceylon do not impede the 
advance of tea production in oontinental India. The 
large flgnre for grain and pulse, is, Mr. O’Couor ex- 
plains, due to an exoeptionally large export of rice 
from Lower Burma, in consequeece of the failure of 
the rice crop in Japan. Burmah was drawn upon 
not only to supply places where Japan rice bad 
previously gone, but to meet the wants of Japan 
itself. The results are the figure of nearly 20 
millions of Itx. pounds as the value of food grains 
exported, and Bx'JOO.OOO oolleoted as duty on 
rice, that grain, from the necossitioa of the 
revenue, being the only article amongst ex- 
ports which is taxed. The statesmen and flnan. 
oiers of India feel the anomaly of this additional 
tax on an article of food which has already paid 
land tax, and thoy would gladly abolish it, if they 
could safely do so. But the Government must 
be carried on and the Pax Britannica preserved. 
All the imports liable to duty in a tariff as free 
trade as that of Britain gave a sum oonaiderably 
below the export duty on rice, the total levied 
on liquors, salt, opinm, petroleum, and arms and 
ammunition being only 11x774,000, — the aggregate 
customs duties being thus Bxl, 074,000. Petro- 
leum was subjected to daty on the same principles 
as those applied to rice ; the necessities of Govern- 
ment and the ease with which appreciable revenue 
could be levied on an artiole of exceptional 
magnitude, which it was fsU could fairly bear 
the burden. Tba consumption of this mineral 
oil in India is enormous, and the tins in which 
it is imported are in use by the people for the 
most varied purposes, from Capo Comorin to the 
border of Afghanistan. Mr. O'Couor slates; — 
Mineral oil baa iDcreaaed, and the vigocr of Uussian 
competition in this article with the IJuitcd Stations 
is indicated by ibo Isct that, though impartalicDa 
from Kussia onmmcDcod only three or mur yoats 
ago, last year 3d per cent of the total imports were 
from that oouulry. It is perhaps not rash to anti, 
oipate that before loog this proportion will bo doubled. 
The oil is good, aud as freights from the Black Sea 
arc lower than freights from the United States, it 
c.ti I'O sold more cheaply than American oil, and 
oliespuves is what the native wants. 
And if Bussia is ousting an American product 
in the commerce of India, Germany is to a 
more serious extent superseding France. The 
combined elfeots of the bounties on beet root 
sugar and the extension of German steam 
navigation to India are, that in ths one article of 
sugar, the imports into India bad risen from a 
value of Ex560.000 average in the period 1874-76 
to 1879 90> >°ore than an equivalent quantify being 
exported, to 11x1,840,000 in 1886 87 to 1890 91, in 
which latter period the export was only Rl, 068, 000. 
India, therefore, the original homo, probably, of 
the sugarcane, and in which it ought specially 
to flourish, has her markets overwhelmed with 
refined beet sugar from Germany, the result of 
sugar bounties and steam subsidies ; while 
the illegitimate attempts of the United States 
authorities artificially to raise the value of silver, 
have seriously and in many oases disatrously 
disturbed the money markets and oommeroe of 
the world. The Indian Government has benefited 
largely by the higher exchange, the increased 
value of the rupee, aud especially the extensive 
investments in rupee paper. But individuals have 
been injured and speculation, both in silver and 
in gold has been wild and in many oases ruinous. 
Bat we must devote more detailed attention on 
a future occasion to Mr. O'Gonor’s able review 
of the almost anarchical position of exchange and 
the value of the precious metals, with the effoota 
on oommeroe and industry, during 18y0. 
The notice of Indian tea exports is as follows : 
The export of tea has ooutiuued on an increasing 
scale over 107 milliou pounds having been exported; 
but the iuoreaaa (about 3 per cent) baa not been so 
great as in firmer years, and it would seem that the 
active compotiou of 0< jlon — now that China has been 
bea'en in the race — is buginuiug to tell. The United 
Kingdom imported in 18U0 about 101 ii million pounds 
from fiidia, while the imports of China tea had 
fallen to less than 7-1 million pounds. But from Ceylon, 
on tho other baud, ihore were imported about 424 
million pounds, a remarkably largo quantity consider- 
ing the recent oommeneement of tea cultivation in 
that island. Ceylon his oertiinly great advantages 
10 its greater nearmss to Euglaud and to Australia 
than Calcutta and tho oousequent smaller freight 
that has to bo paid, iu the c ose proximity of the 
Ua gai'dous to tho port of shipment, in the abniidaut 
and cheap labour supplied to it from the adjacent 
ports of Southern India, in aliuiatic oonditious, and 
in tho excellent quality of molt of tho ton pro- 
duce. The planters of the island have also been able 
to profit by all the experience gained in India and 
to avoid the mistakes that were made hero in the 
earlier days of the euterpriee. It may be well for 
tea planters in India to recognise distinctly that 
the pushing competition of Ceylon must inevitably 
bring about i i tho near future a permanent fall in 
price unless wa oau largely widen our markets, the 
two largest markets iu America and Australia being 
still practically held against us by Japan and China. 
What Mr. O'Conor says of the American 
market (including only the United States under 
this term, for the oaas of Canada is more hope- 
ful) is quite true; but tho review of the Austra- 
tralian tea market whieh wo give elsewhere shows 
how rapidly ludian and Ceylon are gaining on 
China. Nearly 6,000,000 lb. of Indian tea and 
about half that quantity of the Ceylon product 
had been imported into Australia in the season, 
and those teas were fast advanoiog in favour,— 
A change this since 1880-81, when the ropre- 
sentatives of India and Ceylon at the Melbourne 
Exhibition were subjected to virulent abuse for 
daring to speak or write in favour of products 
which threatened to disturb existing and very 
profitable monopolies in tbo import and sale of 
China, largely of the “ post and rail ’’ quality 
whioh was thought good enough for the bush." 
— 
REVIEW OF THE AUSTRALASIAN TEA 
SEASON 1890-1. 
(From the Melbourne Argu$, J\x\y 24th.) 
In followmg our usual custom of reviewing the tea 
season of the past 12 month!, we find that important 
ohauges have taken plaoa-ohaugea that affect the 
varioua porta of abipmcnt, the locM mode of distribu- 
tion, auii the financial results. 
TT a .1 • u 1- tba. 
Under this heading „„ poochow sending to 
Australia and Now Ataland ouly 16^ milliou pounds, 
against 21 and 24 miUicns during tbo two preceding 
8h»cgt,jj sending almoat uotbieg ; 
aud Hung Kong and Canton rather an increasing 
quantity— principally shown in a mnoh heavier weight 
pt Oantpn kooboj for blenders and a diminution of 
low-grwlo l&ytihan ouogoua. With the Hbipmenta 
from Foochow there has beeUf hesidoa a marked 
reduction iu the quauiity aont forward, a far greater 
^aiige lu the relative proportiona of the usual grades, 
llie stronger demand from Loudon diverted all tho 
oleaDy sweet) comon congous, leaving our requiroments 
for "price” Joaf to be badly filled with low, coarse 
