February i, 1892.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
559 
aume iiiQueutial noble, and tbrougbout Siam, and in 
Bangkok tspc-iiaUj, there exiata u a} stem, reicmbling 
that of feudal vaa.saliige, by which each person, ac- 
cording lo birth, poaitiou, or descent, forma one of a 
claaa owing dependence to a particular master or 
over-lord, under whose protection he ia, and to whom 
he devotee his service. Moat minute registers are kept 
of all such persona. Under curtain oircumstancea the 
charauter of a guild is nearly approached when certain 
tradoB and baudicrafta remain hereditary in a parti- 
cular class or department, such as, for ins'ance, in 
that of clerks and painters, potters, lacquerers, gold- 
smiths, inorustators, boatmakers, engravers, ietrellera. 
Suoh persona receive salaries ranging from 6 ticals 
(12.«,) to 120 ticals (12f.), including food, according to 
rank or individual ability. 
When not serving their over-lord they oan employ 
substitutes on payment to the latter of a sum of M 
per diem. This system of vassalsge, now so thoroughly 
eugriuued in the national life, has mauy drawbaoks, 
hut it would be diffioalt to say if its abolition would be 
productive of much goodi or stimulate the Siamese 
artisan to the development of local industries. His 
Wants ate small, a wage of 10 ticals (1/ ) a month 
being ample to provide him with food, dress, and 
lodging ; and if be be a man of means and ambitious 
hi following the oustom, which is now being more and 
uote adopted, of wearing European articlei of dress, if 
he can purchase bis requirements at Bangkok and 
other important towns on the main river routes. 
Every year Siam is becoming more dependent on the 
manufactures of Europe and China, and there is a fear 
•hat the few existing local industries will soon be 
estiugaifbod by foreign competition . — Slraita Jndepen- 
PATBNT TEA CHESTS. 
The following paragraph has reached us from 
Messrs. Andrew Poison & Oo., of Glasgow : — 
We hear from time to lime of loi cheats being inven- 
ted to snpersede the old wooden ones ; and we have just 
seen one which promises to do away with tea lead, 
nails, hoopirons, &o. 
The patentees think the oost will be only a little 
more than the oost of wooden chests. Apart from 
being able to dispense with the use of lead, nails, 
hoopirons ito. a large saving will bo effected in the 
factory. One cooly will bo able to pack, (screw up 
and make all ready for shipment) a large nnmbor of 
chests in a day. We cannot say anything more in 
the meantime us the patentees hope to have tho cheat 
in the market with full particulars shortly. A gentle 
man with large experience saw the chest today and 
.if It is sure to bo a success. Granted 
In i t chest is a sucoers, the only question ia 
that of cost I freight to Oolombo can, wo hove no doubt, 
he arranged with shipping companies. Perhaps in, 
this way ; .Wo will take ont 10,000 empty chests if 
you guarantee to send 10,000 full ones back by our 
ships, wme ns the railway oorrics sbooks, &c. free, 
^onoossioos as groat as this are done daily by shipping 
oompaniea.” ^ ^ 
THE REGULATION OF SUPPLIES. 
To the Editor of tiie Home and Colonial Mail, 
.J-ih, — In your last issue you publish a very se 
•iblo letter on “ The Regulation of Supplies ” of t^ 
Porlior .,®°t'’espondent siguing himself " Vis Uni 
jn however, that when ho writes “ Uemerab 
munths ego that t! 
an crop was short and the price rising, wo 
tpund Ceylon to make all the tea thi 
object being, of course, to hasten tl 
In„? in®'"®?* Indian ” — he is doing cither more 
of Ceylon ^'^**'°* foresight of tho toa plante 
It was well recognised in Ceylon that tho gre 
increase in the shipments of tea in the first half 
'f due to the unusual continuance 
wet forcing weather, wUeb, while largely incieatii 
f crops, added also greatly to the difficulty of proper 
I preparation of the leaf, and so caused much cf Iho 
tea sbippel to be of inferior quality. 
It is po.ssiblo, alfo, that Ceylon planters bad been 
to some extent predisposed to heavy plucking by 
the state of the London markets during 1890, wheii 
the ranges of prices for tea», whether of high or 
lew quality, was comparatively small. 
Till 1 saw tho letter above referred to, 1 never 
beard it even suggested that Oeylun men had been 
moved in this matter by a wish to combine for the 
purpoto of damaging 1 ndian tea in the market. 
On the contrary, the priuaiple that has hitherto 
guided them in at.y combined action has must surely 
been that “ Vis Units Furtior” still bolds good as the 
rule of the two great tea prodiiciug interests of the 
Empire. — I am. Sir, yours, &o., Wm. Msbtin Leake, 
Secretary Ceylon Association in Loudon, 
4, Hinoing Lane, Dee. 14. 
CEYLON TEA. 
(From tho Qroeer.) 
In our last issue was published the usual monthly 
statement of the movements of tea at the Fort of 
London, which shows the same marvellous expan- 
sion in the supply of and demand for Ceylon tea 
that has ebaraoterised the trade in this article 
from its very oommenoement, about ten years ago. 
Oaring the first eleven months of the present year 
the landings, in round nnmbers, have been neatly 
55. 000. 000 lb., against about 87,120,000 lb. in 1830, and 
28,4-14,000 lb. in 1889. The deliveries in tho same 
period, it ia nu extraordinary faol to ohsorve, have kept 
pace fairly well with this rapid iuoteaae in tho imparls, 
and have amounted to 49,203,000 lb., in oomparisou 
with 84,880,600 lb. last year, and 28.277,000 lb. In 
1889 ; and the business still goes on expanding as 
fast as the orops grow larger every season. Another 
remarkable ciroumstanoe, is, that while the receipts 
of Ooylon tea here have been augmented by dote upon 
18.000. 000 lb., those of Indian have not been rendered 
heavier by more than 8,693,200 lb., or barely half 
so nmoh, and instead of a very substantial gain of 
14,323,000 lb. io the oleurances, as shown by the Ceylon 
desoriptiou of tea, Indian sorts actually exhibit a defi- 
ciency of 1,979,500 !b. for the past eleven mouths. To 
satisfy these increasing requirements of Ceylon tea, it is 
reoBOnabla to iufer that there must be a constantly ad- 
vancing rate of production, and it is thoroforo highly 
satisfactory to note that the entire crop, os ganged by 
the ostiniatod shipmouts to the United Kingdom for 
1891, will in the aggregate roach 64,0OU,(Xiu lb., or 
20.000. 000 lb. more than in the previous season. 
Having thus spoken of the quantity, we will now 
proceed to offer a few remarks on the quantity of 
Ceylon tea imported into this country j and first, it 
must be understood that, without creating tho luast 
prejudice against either the growers or distributors, 
oxoeptionally largo crops of any kind of produce- 
tea or anything else — aro not always identified with 
superiority of condition or out-turn. Consequently it 
is no libel ou tho general character of tho article to 
say that among the importations of Ceylon toa this 
year have boon numerous samples of aompletembbish, 
which would not have been tolofatod or received by 
tho trade as toa in tho smallest sense if they hod boon 
offered as invoices or breaks of Indian or China, and 
it ia tho magical name of Ceylon alone that has enabled 
iiuportors to dispose of tno said toa when other — 
and, in tho opinion of some persona, more excel- 
lent — kinds have been long on tho market seeking 
buyers in vain. Without at all diminishing tho popu- 
larity of Ceylon ten, wo may further state that, 
eo common baa been a deal of the supplies put forward 
of late that pekoes have been selling down to 6d per ib. 
and under, pekoe souchongs as low as 5d broken pekoo 
at 7d and oven less, and orange pekoo at only 7d 
besides broken sorts at tho severely reduced figure of 
4d pur lb. At such obeap and popular prices surely 
there is a most powerful stimulus to an unstinted con- 
sumption, and a ready means for securing profitable 
returns on the capital iuvested by the wbolcealo dealers 
aod others. 
