Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/379

 ARTICLES OF EXPORTATION. 363 rope to 8s. a-pound, or 100 per cent, more than the Portuguese price, and 128y per cent, above the ancient prices. If they purchased at the prices which the Portuguese did, or at an average of ^imj Spanish dollars per picul, they must have sold at the enormous rate of 3895 per cent, advance. Tliis unfair monopoly price accounts at once for the enormous profits, which, in spite of their ig- norance, their wars, and their losses, they divided in the early period of their trade. The competition of the French, Dutch, and Eng- lish, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, necessarily raised the price of pepper in India. Com- modore Beaulieu tells us, that, in 16^0, he purchas- ed his pepper, including duties, at 8 Spanish dollars, and 89 cents, on the west coast of Sumatra. When no European competition existed, the price, the same voyager informs us, was, at Pulo Langkawi, 4* Spanish dollars and 27 cents the picul. Notwith- standing the higherprice paid at this period for pep- per, the wholesome effects of competition reduced it in England, according to Munn, from the Portu- guese price of 4s. to Is. 8d. per pound. Shortly after this, pepper again fell in India to its na- tural price, the growth appearing to have increased, and to have been commensurate with the de- mand. In the beginning of the eighteenth century. Captain Hamilton states, that the price he paid for pepper at Palembang was three Spanish dollars the