848 
THE TRDPICHL MIRtCm.TUR1ST. 
[May 2, 1892. 
from one’s hand* This ball is the crade rubber of 
commeroe* If the ooagulatiuK has been carefully done 
it is 'fine* rubber ; if carelessly done, and the ball on 
being out open at the exporting warehouse shows 
signs of pooriycoagulated milk or slight mixtures of 
foreign Bubstancef, snoh as mandior.a meal,it is classi* 
fied as ‘ middling fine ’ {mtreiina). There is also a 
coarser grade still, called sernantdiy, the native Indian 
word for * shells.’ This grade is composed of the 
scraps and bits that have dried withont ooagnlation 
proper, especially the linings that form in the little 
earthenware caps and in the calabashes and backets 
used in handling the milk, as aUo the drippings that 
run down the trees from accidental wounds. These aro 
all rolled up together in a mass and would bring as 
good a price as the middling fine, were it not for the 
leaves and other rubbish that manage * innocantly ' to 
stow tbemsolvoi away in the lump. 
*Tn future issues we hope to be able to find room for far- 
ther notice of these reports, giving statistics of amoanfi 
produced, valuo, etc .” — American GVoc^r, Feb. 24th. 
■» 
ZANZIBAR AND THE CLOVE TRADE. 
At the time of the publication of the last annual 
statement of the trade of the United Kingdom with 
foreign countries we pointed out that in no direction 
had our foreign trade grown more largely during the 
last five years than with the oontries of which Zanzi- 
bar 18 the chief business centre. Our imports from 
those parts were worth 129,222/. in 1886, in 1890 
they had grown to 722,898/., while the exports, in 
the same period, advanced from 254,421/. to 521,100/. 
Since the publication of those figures a new British 
olitical officer, Mr. Furtal, has beau sent to Zanzi* 
ar and has assumed practically the government of 
that island. The city has been doolared a free port, 
and sundry other reforms have been initiated which 
will no doubt contribute largely to its commercial 
importance. Mr. Portal has iust sent home bis first 
report on the commerce of our new dependency, in 
which be expresses bimseU full of hope for the future. 
A big cloud, however, obscures the oommerotal sky 
of Zanzibar at this moment — viz., the overproduction 
of cloves, ita staple article of trade. Since the clove* 
tree was first introduci'd in the islands, about sixty 
years ago, it hua been an enormous source of wealtli 
to the Arab landowners and to the Sultan* There liavo 
been periodical depressions in the price before, but 
until about three years ago dj. to 7d. per lb> 
was considered a very low' quotation, and once, after a 
hurricane which destroyed the greater part of the 
plantations, the value of cloves rose to Is. 7d. per lb. 
in the London market. Lately, however, the clove 
crops have become larger and larger, and they are new 
almost every season greatly in excess of the world's 
estimated anoual oousumptioD, which is about 80,000 
bales of 140 lb. each. As a result the price (3^rl. per 
lb.) has fallen to within measurable distance of the 
lowest point it has ever touolied^viz., 2^^d. per lb,, 
in 1869 -^wheo, however, there was no export dety, or 
at any rate a much smaller one than at present. 
The London warehouses are hardened, at this mo* 
ment, with a stock of not less than 3-1,000 bales of the 
spice, and the quantities warehoused in America and 
on the Continent are also known to be czcondiugly 
heavy. The cause of the present depreciation of olrves 
lies exclusively in the abort-sighted policy of the Arab 
plantation-owners in the islands of Pemba and Zanzi- 
bar, who have neglected the culture of all other pro* 
dtiots which they might have reared with profit upon 
their fertile soil, aad turned ev<;ry available acre of 
land into a ciove-piantstion, without the least thought 
of the inevitable effect of their action. The people 
and the ruler of Zanzibar have for years been practi- 
cally dependent upon the returns of the clove-crop for 
their sustenance, and the problems that confront Mr. 
Portal, in consequence of the breakdown of the one 
remunerative industry of the islaud, may, in proportion, 
become as difiioult a solution as the situation created 
by an Indian famine or a failure of the Nile flood in 
^^Rypt* Telegfaphio information received this week 
states that the Arab landowners have presented peti* 
tioaa to Me, Portal deolariug that they are ruined by 
the low price of cloves and the scarcity of labour, and 
asking for a reduction of the dove tax. There is no 
doubt that, sooner or later, these demands, so far as 
tho reduction of the export duty is conc'^raed, will 
have to be granted The puzzlo will be where to find 
a source of revenue which will recoup the Sultait, to 
whom Mr. Portal stands in the relation of a kind of 
vinitre (le palai$t for the loss of the mainspring of his 
income. Cloves are the cork by which th Conrf of 
Zanzibaris kept afloat. "A few yesrs age,” says Mr. 
Portal, tho pric** of dovos used to range from S7 
to §10 per frasila (35 lb.), and the export duty 
taken on them by the Sultan was 30 per cet t 
ad val. The price doc s not now exceed §2i to §21 
per frasila, and tho export duty has been reduced 
to 25 per cent.” The 25 per-oent, duty, tho growers 
probably think would give them a fair margin 
of profit ; bat there is no doubt that if it were 
abolished tomorrow, it is not the Zanzibar Arabs, but 
tho European spioe-deah ra and od-distillers, who would 
profit, for quotations hnn* would certainly answer with 
a corresponding fall. The scarcity of labour of which the 
Arabs complain is probably traceable to the abolition of 
slavery by tho late Sultan. It must be remembered that 
a* the time of tho bu ding of the clove-tree there is a 
sudden demand for labour upon the plantations, for if 
the buds are not promptly picked they burst into flower 
and he'*oinc valueloss. Mr. Portal is so well aware of 
tho critical condition to which the country has been 
brought by the over-production of cloves, that he is 
already looking out f r other economic articles to be 
brought into cultivation when the Aiab’s day shall 
be done (a contingency which tho consul foresees 
at an early date), and the land have passed into 
the hands of Indians and Enropeans. From manioc 
(tapioca), sago, coconuts, pineapples, and aloes Mr. 
Porlal expects something. The plants ftlr‘ad> grows 
wild inprofiision, and with a little enre aud intelli- 
gonce might become profitable— the aloes and pioeapples 
specially on account of the valuable fibre they vicld- 
Vanilla, he thinks, might also become a profitable 
cultnre. The French missionaries in Bagnmoyo, on the 
German coast opposite, already grow it, and assert that 
it pays them well. Cbillies grow plentifully all over the 
eastern and southern par's ol the island. Next to 
cloves and coprah they are the most important 
Zanzibar product. During tho period from the begin- 
ning of thia year until October 18fch, 113,179 rupees' 
worth of them were shipped — half going to London, 
the remainder going to New York and Marroilles. 
Until the English stepped in to Metthe Sultan's totter* 
ing house in order, no official atatiatics oracoounts of any 
value wore kept in tho island. No records were made 
of shipping; the lighthouses around the coast were left 
crumbling to pieces, aud the ouly object to which the 
Government appeared to apply it«elf with Hymp&ihetic 
ardour was the colloction of taxes. Mr I?ortal has 
but one term to express tbo cause of all the wretebed- 
nesH in Zanzibar — Arab domination ’’—now, fortu- 
nately, in process of abolition .— and 
Druggist^ March 19. 
TEA AND COFFEE. 
Now that there is so much talk about tea and the 
good and evil effocts resultant on its use aud abuse, 
perliaps a few words of reminder concerning Professor 
Sir Williaui Roberts' researches on food accessories 
would not be out of place. They were noticed in 
the Ntnetecnfh Vtnturg by Dr. Burney Yeo, February, 
1886, and as far as 1 can remember, have been 
practically uncontradicted, in the Reviews at least, 
ny anyone entitled to a hearing on such matters. 
Hir W. Roberts had already presented to the world 
a mass of most valuable information derived from 
his careful researches on the “ digestive ferments" 
in his lectures delivered before the Ro'al College 
of Physicians in 1880. His later researches t>n 
“ food accessories and their influonco on dige^ition’ 
are cijually important, aud more easily grasped by 
the lay mind. Tho rosults are, in souio respects, as 
Dr. leo remarks, so novel and unexpected, and they 
contradict so many apparently unmundod assuiup- 
tioua^that they cannot pu too aoonor too widely known, 
