| piculs. | |
| 1830 | 6,061 |
| 1835 | 11,868 |
| 1839 | 11,044 |
| 1841 | 13,477 |
| lbs. | |
| 1843 | 3,737,732 |
| 1848 | 461,680 |
| 1851 | 95,037 |
| 1852 | 135,690 |
The number of pepper vines in the district of Bencoolen, in the close of last year, 1852, was as follows:—1,571,894 young vines; 2,437,052 bearing ditto; total, 4,008,946.
Up to the end of September there had been delivered to the Government 1,145 piculs white pepper, and 1,128 piculs black pepper, while of the harvest of 1852 there were still probably to be received 330 piculs white, and 4,967 piculs black pepper.
The south, the west, and the north coasts of the great island of Borneo produce a large quantity of pepper; as early as 1721 it was a staple commodity of this island. Banjarmassin is the most productive place on the south coast, and the State of Borneo Proper on the north coast. The best pepper certainly does not grow in the richest soils, for the peppers of Java and Palembang are the worst of the Archipelago, and that of Pinang and the west coast of Sumatra are 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 Pinang is more in esteem than that of any other portion of the Archipelago. From the ports and districts of Siam 3,500 to 4,000 tons are exported annually.
The duty at present levied on pepper in England is 6d. per lb., while the wholesale price for that of Pinang, Malabar, and Sumatra is about 4d. per lb. White pepper ranges from 9d. to 1s. 6d. per lb. The prime cost in Singapore is not more than 1½d. per lb.
About 70,000 or 80,000 piculs of pepper are annually exported from Singapore, of which between 30,000 and 40,000 piculs have, until within the last two years, gone on to Great Britain. More than one-half of the pepper exported from Singapore is grown in the island by Chinese settlers.
The low selling price of the article in the English market, the high duty levied upon it, and the large freight paid for its carriage to Great Britain, now leave so small a price to the cultivator in Singapore, that the cultivation ceases to be remunerative, and is carried on at a loss; and has consequently within the last year or two begun to decrease rapidly, involving the Chinese growers, who are generally of the poorest class, and without capital, in great distress. A reduction in the duty on pepper has always been followed by a very large increase in the consumption of the article, as will appear from the following table, showing the importation and consumption in Great Britain during some of the first and last years of the different rates of duty:—
| Quantity | Duty | Singapore price | ||||||
| Year | consumed | s. | d. | s. | d. | s. | d. | |
| 1811 | 1,457,383 | 1 | 10½ | 0 | 7½ | to | 0 | 7¾ |
| 1814 | 941,569 | 1 | 10½ | 0 | 11 | " | 1 | 1 |
| 1820 | 1,404,021 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 6½ | " | 0 | 6¾ |
| 1824 | 1,447,030 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 4¾ | " | 0 | 5½ |
| 1826 | 2,529,027 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | " | 0 | 4½ |
| 1836 | 2,749,491 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | " | 0 | 0 |
| 1837 | 2,625,075 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | " | 0 | 0 |
| 1845 | 3,210,415 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2¼ | " | 0 | 4¾ |
In a memorial from the mercantile community of Singapore, sent home in 1848, it is asserted that a reduction in the duty of pepper being always attended by a large increase in the consumption, would not lead to any serious loss in the revenue, while it would confer a great boon on the poorer classes, to whom it has now become a necessary article of life. The reduction would also be of great advantage to British manufacturers, as well as to our Indian possessions, by giving rise to an increased demand or British goods and productions, and of the highest benefit to the agricultural settlers in the island of Singapore, by enabling them to procure for their labor an honest means of livelihood.
The pepper vines, which are allowed to climb poles or small trees, are tolerably productive at Singapore; and pepper planting is esteemed by the Chinese to be a profitable speculation, particularly if they are enabled to evade the payment of quit-rent. An acre of pepper vines will yield 1,161 lbs. of clean pepper. In Sumatra a full grown plant has been known to produce seven pounds; in Pinang the yield is much more. The average produce of one thousand vines is said, however, to be only about 450 lbs.