Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/375

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 359 of Borneo proper on the north coast. The best pep- per certainly does not grow in the richest soils, for the pepper of Java and Palembang are the worst of the Archipelago, and that of Penang and the west coast of Sumatra the best. Care in culture and curing improves the quality, as with other articles, and for this reason chiefly it is that the pepper of Penang is more in esteem than that of any other portion of the Archipelago.) The consumption of pepper is not confined to any one country in particular ; the whole world is the market for it, with the singular exception of the countries in which it grows, for as with the clove and nutmeg, the Indian islanders hardly ever use pepper for culinary purposes, and the consumption for occasional purposes is extremely trifling. The natural price of pepper in the Indian islands, or the cost of the labour of growing it, cannot, I think, be fairly estimated at above four Spanish dollars per picul, or li^d. per pound. To the ex- porter the price has of late years been pretty stea- dily about nine Spanish dollars, when purchasing it in large quantities at the emporia and from the European residents. This difference of price covers the freight, the detention, the risk of imposition, and other accidents which would result from deal- ing, in the small way, directly with the native trader. More capital and more competition, with tranquil-