Tue Report of the Committee of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce for 1887 and the discussion which took place at the annual meeting contain matters of interest to merchants in China. The money markets, and therefore the business of the East being to a considerable extent affected by the export trade of India, we turn first to what is said about it by the Chamber. The out-tum of the wheat crop in the year was, the report says, meet disappointing with a decrease in the acreage of only 557,258 acres the estimated yield showed a deficiency of 1,348,729 tons as com-with the previous season. The lo! ey was almost entirely owing to the unfavourable result in the Punjaub, where the adverse weather at the close of the season made the crop only from 6 to 8 annas of a full average, which, rendered into English, means a deficiency of from about 38 to 50 per cent. The Report goes on to say From the fact that the districts from which Bombay draws the bulk of its sup-lows yield, the exports from the port dur-plies gave on the average a comparatively ing the first six months of the year only showed a slight diminution from the corresponding six months of the previous year, 30th Tone being the respective figures from Ist January to
1887... +,64,77,220 ewts.
Daring the lit six months, however, from Ist July to 3ist December, the falling off was most marked, the totals for that period being—1887... 4. "4.27,71,344 owts.
As compared with Calcutta and Karachee, Bombay has every reason to congratulate herself. this season ite nearcelyeso cheerful us could The reports regarding the growing cro be wished. The estimate of the Agricultural Department puts the area under wheat: in the Punjaub at 6,588,500 acres or 6 cent. below the previous year, in the North-West Provinces and Oudh at 4,962,000 acres, about the same as last year, whi in the Provinces it is generally believed that a slightly larger area has been sown. For a time the condition in the Punjaub and the North-West was adversely affected by the absence of the cold weather rai but a partial fall has since greatly tapered the appearance of the plants, trade at the annual crusting, the Chair:
Speaking of the prospects of the what man sntitipaed a large business between March and June, before the European and American crops of 1888 are ripe and harvested and can be sent to market, Visible supplies, he said, in Europe and America are running down, and prices had recovered 15 per cent, The cotton crop of 1886-87 was 11.58 per cent. in excess of that of the previous season, but the current season is, the Chamber says, unfortunately likely to show a falling off, there being heavy deficiencies in the crops in Bengal and other districts; and the short arrivals at Bombay, up to last dates, bear out this, The Chairman believes, with other members of the Chamber, that the trade in Indian Yarns with China would have increased if exchange had remained at its old range 1/11, and upwards per rupee. There can be no doubt that it would, as the rates of exchange between China and India have not declined with the rates for sterling. They do not go so high now a days as they sometimes went formerly, they have been steadier than they used to be; that is all the advantage which they have been to the Indian trade in cottons. It is having the cotton at hand and therefore saving some charges on it, cheap labour an comparative proximity to China which has given prosperity to that trade, and Lancashire people have somewhat helped it by their indifference to the real wants of the Chinese. But notwithstanding the prosperity of the Bombay cotton spinners and all we have heard of the extension of the mill industry, it is pointed out in the Report that out of the thirteen new joint stock companies registered in 1887—against. thirty in 1886—ouly four new mills appear on the list.. One cause of the deficit in the Indian Exchequer which required the recent increase of the salt duties, was the falling off in the railway receipts. his appears to have been caused, at all events to a large extent, by the fall in the price of wheat in Europe when the American "rities" collapsed last year. After that, Russian wheat was hurried to England, and depressed prices an average harvest was advised from America, and the home price of wheat fell to a very low point. "The consequences were, first that Indian wheat was not wanted in August to December, and second—the Central Province surplus having been exhausted—there was little left on this side of India that could be tempted to market at the low prices offered from Europe." Linseed also was a short crop last season, Mr. Westland, when introducing a bill into the Viceroy's Council for the in-per crease of some taxes and duties cor+ roborated the remarks made in the Bombay Chamber, on the falling off in the receipts from railways, aud calculated the loss to the revenue under this head at Rs. 400,000 which is neither here nor there. he framer of the last budget seems to have taken a too sanguine view of the progressive revenue to be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.