BLACK PEPPER EXPORTED FROM SINGAPORE.
| Piculs. | Value in rupees. | ||
| 1841 | Total Exports | 66,810 | |
| " | Growth of Singapore | 21,231 | 47,674 |
| 1842 | Exports | 74,228 | |
| " | Growth of Singapore | 32,277 | 72,473 |
| 1843 | Exports | 57,883 | |
| " | Growth of Singapore | 35,585 | 79,900 |
| 1844 | Exports | 67,148 | |
| " | Growth of Singapore | 42,995 | 386,152 |
| 1845 | Exports | 65,892 | |
| " | Growth of Singapore | 39,019 | 350,443 |
| 1846 | Exports | 56,709 | |
| " | Growth of Singapore | 35,712 | —— |
| 1847 | Exports | 60,994 | |
| " | Growth of Singapore | 36,565 | 328,397 |
Pliny, the naturalist, states that the price of pepper in the market of Rome in his time was, in English money, 9s. 4d. a pound, and thus we have the price of pepper at least 1,774 years ago. The pepper alluded to must have been the produce of Malabar, the nearest part of India to Europe that produced the article, and its prime cost could not have exceeded the present one, or about 2d. a pound. It would most probably have come to Europe by crossing the Indian and Arabian ocean, with the easterly monsoon, sailing up the Red Sea, crossing the desert, dropping down the Nile, and making its way along the Mediterranean by two-thirds of its whole length. This voyage, which in our times can be performed in a month, most probably then took eighteen. Transit and customs duties must have been paid over and over again, and there must have been plenty of extortion. All this will explain how pepper could not be sold in the Roman market under fifty-six times its prime cost. Immediately previous to the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, we find that the price of pepper in the markets of Europe had fallen to 6s a pound, or 3s. 4d. less than in the time of Pliny. What probably contributed to this fall, was the superior skill in navigation of the now converted Arabs, and the extension of their commerce to the islands of the Eastern Archipelago, which abounded in pepper. After the great discovery of Vasco de Gama, the price of pepper fell to about 1s. 3d. a pound, a fall of 8s. 1d. from that of the time of Pliny, and of 4s. 9d. from that of the Mahommedan Arabs, Turks, and Venetians.
In 1826, 14,000,000 lbs. of pepper were imported into the United Kingdom, of which about 5,500,000 were re-exported. In 1841, 15,000,000 lbs. were imported, of which 6,500,000 were re-shipped to other countries.
The home consumption, it will be seen, now averages about 3,250,000 lbs.:—
| Imports lbs. | Home consumption lbs. | |
| 1845 | 9,852,984 | 3,209,718 |
| 1846 | 5,906,586 | 3,299,955 |
| 1847 | 4,669,930 | 2,966,022 |
| 1848 | 8,125,545 | 3,185,337 |
| 1849 | 4,796,042 | 3,257,911 |
| 1850 | 8,028,319 | 3,170,883 |
| 1851 | 3,996,496 | 3,303,403 |
| 1852 | 6,641,699 | 3,524,501 |
The following return shows the number of bags of pepper imported into the United Kingdom, with the quantity retained for home consumption:—
| Imports. | Retained for home consumption. | |||
| Black. bags | White. bags | Black. bags | White. bags | |
| 1843 | 37,840 | 3,861 | 21,163 | 2,257 |
| 1844 | 60,705 | 2,123 | 23,525 | 2,122 |
| 1845 | 80,600 | 3,208 | 30,294 | 2,861 |
| 1847 | 37,194 | 1,236 | 28,768 | 2,654 |
| 1848 | 65,518 | 3,042 | 31,665 | 3,950 |
| 1849 | 43,651 | 2,616 | 32,246 | 3,859 |
CHILLIES AND CAYENNE PEPPER.