United States or Cook Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The quantity of mother-of-pearl-shell, communibus annis, sold there is two thousand piculs, at six dollars a picul. The fishery is partly carried on by the Malays, and partly by the Chinese; the large pearls they endeavor to conceal as much as possible, from a law that all pearls above a certain size of right belong to the sultan.
The first quality commands a high price in Canton, being worth ninety dollars a picul; the second quality, seventy-five dollars; the third, fifty dollars; the fourth, thirty dollars; the fifth, twenty dollars; the sixth, twelve dollars; the seventh, eight dollars; and the eighth, four dollars; small cargoes, however, will often bring more in Manilla, Singapore, and Batavia."
The whole of Samar annually yields from two hundred to three hundred piculs, whose value ranges between twenty-five and fifty dollars per picul, while in Manila the price is generally five to ten dollars higher; but it fluctuates very much, as the same product is brought from many other localities and at very irregular intervals of time.
"rice sold at a thousand cash per picul; a horse cost a hundred ounces of silver." * The passages quoted are taken from Dr. Giles's work on Chinese Literature. Under the Empress Liu Chi and her successors these conditions were bettered; until, when a half cycle had run its course, and Han Wuti had been some twenty years on the throne, prosperity came to a culmination.
The rate gradually rose and stood between four and five dollars and, during the civil war, reached the enormous sum of nine dollars per picul the export of Russian hemp preventing, however, a further rise.
This, however, is no reproach to the coffee, as every one acquainted with an Englishman's appreciation of coffee will allow. In 1868, coffee in Manila itself cost an average of $16 per picul. In Java, the authorities pay the natives, who are compelled to cultivate it, about $3.66 per picul.
Curry and rice had been suggested as the staple diet for the river journey; and we ordered, with no thought to the contrary, a picul of best rice, various brands of curries, which were raked from behind the shelves of a dingy little store in a back street, and presented to us at alarming prices enough to last a regiment of soldiers for pretty well the number of days we two were to travel; and, for luxuries, we laid in a few tinned meats.
"God bless the man, you no savee! I wantchee good chow. Why in the name of goodness can't you give us something decent! What on earth did you come for?" "Alas!" he shouted, for we were at a rapid, "my savee makee good chow. No have got nothing!" "No have got nothing! No have got nothing!" Mysterious words, what could they mean? Where, then, was our picul of rice, and our curry, and our sugar?
The business in Iloilo therefore shows an increase of $1.75 per picul. Some of them were working with steam machinery and vacuum pans. The general rate of pay is from $2.05 to $3.00 per month. On some plantations the principle of acsa, i.e. part share, is in operation.
The exportation has much increased within the last few years, in consequence of the demand for it in the United States; and the whole crop is now monopolized by the two American houses of Sturges & Co., and T. N. Peale & Co., of Manila, who buy all of good quality that comes to market. This is divided between the two houses, and the price they pay is from four to five dollars the picul.
Word Of The Day