They are principally in demand for the Australian colonies, where Taal is generally preferred to Cebu (or Zebu), from its possessing more saccharine matter than the latter. Taal is generally so moist that it always loses considerably in weight, sometimes to the extent of about 10 per cent., and even more;—it is a strong sweet sugar. Cebu seldom loses so much as Taal, generally not more than 3 per cent. on a voyage of about two months’ duration.
All sugar is sold to the export merchants by the pecul of 140 lbs. English, and it is either paid for at the time of its delivery, or if a contract is made for a large quantity with a clayer, or other dealer, it is often necessary to advance a portion of the price to enable him to execute the order, and the merchants often do this long before a pecul of sugar is received from him, or any security given in return. This system prevails not only in sugar, but in all other articles of the agricultural produce of the islands, in the sale of which no credit is given to the purchaser.
Sugar pays an export duty of 3 per cent. It should never be weighed except upon a hot dry day, as if there is the least moisture in the air it absorbs it, and adds considerably to its weight.
In connection with sugar, it may be stated, that some very good rum is made at Manilla, although very little is exported. It is a monopoly of the Government, who farm it out to one of the sugar clayers at Manilla. Molasses are never shipped, but are used in Manilla for mixing with the water given to the horses to drink, most of them refusing to taste it unless so sweetened.
Hemp is produced from the bark of a species of the plantain-tree, forests of which are found growing wild in some provinces of the Philippines. The operation of making it is simple enough, the most important of the process apparently being the separation of the fibres from each other by an iron instrument, resembling a comb for the hair. After drying in the sun, and undergoing several other processes, with the minutiæ of which I am unacquainted, it is made up into bales, weighing 280 lbs. each, and in that state is shipped for Manilla, where, after being picked more or less white, which is dependent entirely upon the purposes it is intended to serve, and the markets it has to be sent to, it is again pressed into bales of the same weight as before, although of much less bulk, and is exported, the greater quantity of it going to the United States of America, as the export tables will show.
The best hemp is of a long and fine white fibre, very well dried, and of a silky gloss. The dark coloured is not so well liked, and if too bad for exportation, is generally made up into ropes for the colonial shipping, or sent down to Singapore for transhipment to Calcutta, where it is employed for the same purpose.
The best hemp comes from Sorsogon and Leyte, and some of the Cebu is also very good. Albay, Camarines, Samar, Bisayas, and some other districts, are those from which it principally comes.
The freight on hemp shipped by American vessels to the United States, is reckoned at the rate of 40 cubic feet, or four bales of 10 feet each, to the ton; but when shipped to Great Britain, the freight is generally calculated at the ton of 20 cwt., or 2,240 lbs. avoirdupois.
Annexed is a table of calculations of what it will cost if put on board a ship in Manilla Bay, including all charges, and 5 per cent. paid to an agent there for purchasing it, &c.