Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/392

 37© COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF European market, and until supply and demand be equalized, it will be impossible to ascertain it. Any quantity of coffee might be had in Java in 1812, at 2 Spanish dollars a picul. It rose in 1814, and the following years, to 10, to 15, to^O, to 30, and in the keenness of competition, once reached 37 dollars. If pepper, which so exactly resembles it in the labour necessary to produce it, can be imported into Java, and sold there for 9 dollars j coffee, the produce of the country, not chargeable with freight, ought not, even in the pre- sent circumstances of the trade, to exceed eight. In a free and fair state of trade and production, coffee, like pepper, will be grown at 4 Spanish dollars, and 6 Spanish dollars per picul may be considered a fair exportation price, which should cover the risk of the merchant in making advances to the native cultivator, pay him inci- dental charges, and afford him a good profit. Ex- ported at 9 Spanish dollars the picul, coffee, paying freight at the rate of L.8 per ton, and allowhig 50 per cent, for profit, insurance, and incidental charges, might be sold in Europe at about 55s. per cwt., which is nearly the present price of pepper. The cost of growing West India coffee has been estimated by Edwards at 57fs. per cwt., or ISimj Spanish dollars per picul, 285^ per cent, higher than the actual cost of growing Java coffee.