Brown—The lowest quality is termed Muscovado brumo.
| Second | Muscovado redondo. |
| Third | Muscovado maixo. |
In addition to the above, a few boxes of whites are made of a superior quality, and rated as high as quinze, or fifteen. The best sugar in this market is produced in the Reconcave, arising, as has been before observed, from the excellent adaptation of its soil to the culture of the cane. These and others, coming from the interior to the bay, are denominated dentros, and are not generally so white as those termed foras, which come from without the bay, and are produced along the coast. The foras are much softer in grain, but, from their superiority in colour over the dentros, they obtain a preference in some markets; but not for Hamburgh or those places where sugar is used for refining.
An average crop of tobacco may be estimated at six hundred thousand arrobas; but in some years it almost fails, as in 1817, arising from the continued dry weather which burnt up the plants; and for the year ending the 1st of October, 1818, only thirty-two thousand six hundred and eighty-one arrobas, were shipped. One-third, and more frequently one-half, of a tobacco crop is rejected as unfit for shipment to Europe.
Tobacco comes to market from January to March, principally through the medium of the towns of Cachoeira and Santo Amaro, where it is previously made up into rolls. The whole is accumulated in one government warehouse, where it undergoes a very rigid inspection, and is separated into approved and rejected portions; the latter is only shipped to the Portuguese possessions in Africa, and, since the abolition of their slave trade north of the Equator, where it was principally used, the price has fallen greatly, and very little of it is now taken in their outward cargoes to Cabinda, Angola, &c. which consist principally of coarse East India goods, a little rum, trinkets, &c.
The purchasing of tobacco is deemed by the merchants not only the most troublesome, but the most precarious branch of their dealings. Tobacco is usually bought before inspection, so that the merchant has all the trouble of that operation. The whole of the crop coming to market in a short period, and piled together in one warehouse, produces great confusion, rendering it very difficult to get at the lots agreed for; and when found, probably, only a few rolls turn out good, so that other lots are to be purchased, and another search undertaken to find them, attended with the same inconvenience as the first; and, in some instances, an examination of five or six hundred rolls will only afford twenty good ones. This delay is prejudicial to the interest of the merchant, in consequence of tobacco being a perishable article; besides, it is of the highest importance to get the shipments to Europe as early as possible, for not only do the first arrivals sell best, but, in the event of a stagnation occurring, the owner being compelled to retain this article, there is a great chance of its rotting upon his hands.[32] Previous to the shipments to Europe, the tobacco is opened, fresh molasses put to it, and made up into rolls, averaging about fifteen arrobas each. The refuse shipped to Africa is made into rolls of about three arrobas each.
Leaf tobacco is a monopoly of the crown. After inspection, it takes the approved at a price proportionable to that of the roll, and it is shipped for Goa. The refuse remains with the planter, who is allowed to sell it to the merchants, and it is usually shipped to Lisbon.
The average crop of cotton for four years, up to and including 1816, was twenty-four thousand four hundred and forty bags; but the shipments for the year ending on the 1st of October, 1818, amounted to thirty-six thousand one hundred and thirty-nine bags.
The books of the public warehouses in this city are annually closed on the 1st of October, to ascertain the crops of produce; but at this time some of the old crop of cotton is not received, and it continues partially to arrive till the end of the year. In the month of February the new cotton comes to market abundantly, and in the course of the four following months the main part of the crop may be said to have arrived, with the exception above stated. The quality of the cotton varies according to the place in which it is grown; part of that sold in Bahia is produced in the southern part of the province of Pernambuco, and is distinguished, also, by the term of foras, as that of Bahia is by dentros. The former has materially the advantage over the latter in point of staple, being longer and more silky, also stronger; but its value is greatly reduced by the dirty state in which it arrives here, as well as by the frequent tricks of the planters, in putting seeds, and even staves, in the centre of the bags. These abuses have been unattended to, and the cotton inspection of Bahia is almost nominal; this flagrant neglect of the inspectors, so opposite to that of every other kind of produce, is supposed to be connived at by the governor, upon this ground, that, if the inspection was rigid and the planters were compelled to clean their cotton, they would then send it to the Pernambuco market, where it would command a higher price, by ranking as Pernambuco cotton, and thus prejudice the revenue of the town of Bahia.
The dentros, or those cottons grown within the province of Bahia, are a shorter, and not so silky or strong a staple as the foras, and have another material fault in being occasionally mixed with stained cotton, but they are much better cleaned, and in this respect they have of late years improved; whilst the foras have become even worse than they were, so that scarcely any difference exists between them as to price. The latter formerly sold at from two to three hundred reas per arroba higher than the dentros. Exclusive of these two qualities some Minas Novas find their way to Bahia, and if of good quality sell on a par with them. The increase of the cotton crops has been retarded in consequence of some of the planters, a few years ago, turning their attention more to the produce of sugar, from the high prices then obtained for it.