Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/406

 390 COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF the rate of 9/00 Spanish dollars the picul, but before payment is made, another deduction of one-fifth is made, one half of which is for the benefit of the chiefs or r^ajas, and the other for the native elders, who are overseers of the forced culture. The real price, therefore, paid to the grower, is, Spanish dollars 8 per picul, or 3 Id. per pound avoirdupois, instead of Spanish dollars 1 1 iln per picul, or 43d. per pound, which is pretended to be given. When cloves have been sold on the spot, the price usually exacted has been about 64 Spanish dollars the picul, or eight times the price paid to the cultivator ! The average price in Holland, previous to the war of the French Revolution, may be taken at 6s. per pound, or IT^-iio Spanish dol- lars per picul, 2122 per cent, advance on the real cost of the commodity in the place of its growth. When brought direct to England, they have cost, on an average, Ss. 8d. the pound, making lOSiun per picul, an advance on the natural export price of 1258 per cent. ! With respect to the quantity of cloves grown and consumed in different periods of the trade, from the nature of the subject, our information cannot be expected to be any thing more than an approximation. Argensola informs us that iejive Moluccas alone, exclusive of Gilolo, Am- boyna, &c. produced yearly, in the time of the Portuguese and Spanidi supremacy, 4000 bahars,