in Rice.

TRADE.

countries beyond its frontier, the greater portion (about 95 per cent.) coming six years, India has obtained a net import of 33,87,833 maunds from TRANSFRONTIER TRAFFIC.-From the following table, which analyses the returns of the land transfrontier trade, it will be seen that, for the past Transfrontier

from Nepál.

498 Traffic.

Analysis of the Transfrontier Trade in Rice for the past six years, the returns of Upper Burma being taken
separately for the first three years, since that province was, from 1887-88, no longer treated as Transfrontier
and does not, therefore, appear in the returns from which the table is compiled for the years 1887 to 1890.

ORYZA sativa.

TRADE. Foreign.

499

Indian Trade

FOREIGN. It has been admitted in the provincial notes that an error is occasioned through treating rice and paddy conjointly. That error is, however, of no more serious consequence in the returns that have already been dealt with than it will be seen in those of the foreign trade. While, therefore, to keep up the comparison with the provincial notes, the two have been combined (in the tables of this chapter), they have been shown separately as well.

The following table may be given of the total and of the average exports and imports of rice and paddy by sea to and from foreign countries for the past six years. The period of six years has been chosen so as to show an equal number of years before and after the date of the trade with Upper Burma being no longer treated as Transfrontier.

If now we add the average net import by land and deduct the average net export by sea, the balance from the estimated production of 26 million tons, or 728 million maunds, would have approximately been the amount of rice consumed by the people of India during 1888-89, since the reserve stock would probably be a constant or slightly increasing quantity. The averages in preference to the actual external traffic have been taken, since (as already explained) the commercial year of rice transactions does not correspond with the financial, under which all Government statistics are compiled. The rice thus consumed in India, expressed to the population (253,890,000) would be about o'3 of a seer or, say, ths of a b per head daily. This is, however, very probably in excess of the actual consumption, since a considerable quantity of the grain is used up in feeding cattle and horses, and a still larger quantity lost through unavoidable wastage or through the perishable nature of the grain. A similar reduction of daily consumption would also have to be made for the increase of population. An average per head of population for all India is, moreover, a misleading figure, since there are large tracts where rice might almost be said to be unknown even as an agricultural crop or, at all events, tracts where the people certainly never eat any rice. On the other hand, even in rice-eating provinces diet is always largely supplemented by other articles of food, the proportion increasing with poverty and luxury, for the poor have to eke out existence with cheaper materials, and the rich, and especially the rich non-Hindu populations, consume a consider

able amount of more expensive and even animal ingredients of diet. The Famine Commissioners, while dealing with a smaller area and less population than the foregoing chapters have aimed at embracing, stated that, for the population of 166 millions, the outturn of food-grains might be put at 51 million tons, and the actual requirements of the people at 47 million tons, thus leaving an available surplus of 5 million tons for export. In the table given above it will be found the average net export of rice by sea to foreign countries for the past six years has been 25,976,906 cwt. or 1,298,845 tons, and the corresponding figures for wheat may be here shown, viz., 17,333,500 cwt., 866,675 tons. But an important consideration must be here alluded to: Burma is the chief country concerned in India's export trade in rice. Out of a total cultivated area of 5,673,542 acres, it has been shown that 4,067,606 were under rice. That area has been estimated to have produced 8,51,03,130 maunds or, say, 3,039,397 tons of rice. Taking the average net export of rice from Burma for the past nine years (in preference to any one of the recently disturbed annual records of transactions), Burma would appear to have exported 3,95,10,308 maunds, or a little over than 46 per cent. of its total production. Burma, therefore, expressly cultivates rice as an article of trade, and it is accordingly slightly misleading to deduct the exports from India (proper) and Burma from an estimate of the production in these two countries conjointly. A relatively far larger amount of rice remains with the people of India (proper) than has been shown. In fact Burma might practically be viewed as taking even a larger share in the foreign trade than the published figures manifest, for by coastwise it, to some extent, restores to the provinces of India the amounts they give to foreign countries.

The following table is given by Mr. J. E. O'Conor, in his Review of the Trade of India for 1889-90, in order to exhibit the share taken by each province in the foreign exports of rice :

Exports of Rice (husked) in cwt. (ooo's omitted).

TRADE.

Available
Surplus.

500

Commenting on the above table Mr. J. E. O'Conor remarks :-" A glance at the quantities exported in the last ten years shows that this trade does not make much progress. It is in fact, as has often been remarked before, no longer practically an Indian monopoly but, rather, is subject to a very keen competition."

"From Siam and Cochin-China alone the exports of rice are not much less than half those of all India. Then there is the rice from Japan and Italy, and we must also reckon with the competition of other grains which compete with Indian rice for distillation."

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sativa.

TRADE.

Exports of Indian

"The countries to which Indian rice was exported last year are these

Commercial
Forms, &c.
SOI

Australia.

"Thus we have 52 per cent. for Europe and 32 per cent. for Asia, leaving about 15 per cent. for the coolies of Mauritius and Réunion, the West Indies and South America, and for Australia. The European demand was slightly smaller last year than in either of the two preceding years when it was equal to 55 and 53 per cent. of the whole respectively. It is possible that the present year may again show a slightly smaller relative demand for Europe in consequence of the Italian Government having raised the duty on rough (cargo) rice closer to the level of the duty on cleaned rice, and thus interfered with an active re-export trade carried on by Italian millers with great profit from State bounties.

"It is practically almost impossible to ascertain the ultimate destination of a great part of our rice in Europe. It will be observed that, of the total quantity assigned to Europe in the foregoing table, say, 14 million cwt., nearly 8 million cwt., are placed against Egypt and Malta. In the first of these cases the rice is shipped to Port Said for orders to be received there by the portmaster as to port of destination; in the second case, the rice is stored for reshipment to other Mediterranean ports. The system obscures the effects which changes of fiscal legislation in Italy, Turkey and Austria, the States lying between Turkey and Russia, or in other countries, may have upon the direction and extent of our rice trade with Europe." THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH RICE IS EXPORTED. Commercial Forms, Prices, &c.

The purposes for which rice is exported are generally stated to be three-fold, for food, for starch, and for distillation. The relative a mounts

used for each of these purposes is, however, a subject regarding which
the greatest possible diversity of opinion prevails. The following pas-
sages from Mr. O'Conor's Trade Reviews exhibit some of the chief
opinions that have been advanced :-" Of the Burma rice, the greater part
is used for distillation or for conversion into starch. It is a thick, coarse
grain, which, when boiled, is repulsive in appearance to those who are not
accustomed to it, nor is its flavour equal to that of Bengal rice of the
better qualities. Table' rice, as it is called, exported from Bengal, is
the kind of Indian rice which is chiefly used for food in Europe. We
have no accurate knowledge of the ultimate destination of a large part
of the rice shipped from India and Burma, nominally to the United King-
dom. From Burma especially it is the practice for ships loaded with
rice to clear for channel ports, such as Falmouth, for orders, on receiving
which they proceed to their destination, which, as often as not, is some
port in the northern seas of Europe, this rice being very extensively em-
ployed in distillation in Holland and Germany. Much of the rice which
is recorded as carried hence to Egypt (i.e., Port Said), Malta, Italy, and
Gibraltar, similarly goes thither only for orders as to its ultimate destina-
tion of which we remain ignorant. However, we know that the bulk of
the rice sent to Europe is consumed in England, Germany, Holland, and
Belgium, and France. A good deal of that which is imported into Eng-
land is re-exported. Thus, in 1876, the imports of rice into England were
about 6 million cwt., and the exports thence were about 3 million, about
half of which was sent to the Continent (Russia, Austria, Germany,
France, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Turkey), little less than a third of the
whole exports to Spanish West Indies, and smaller quantities to the
United States and elsewhere." "The consumption of Europe is prac.
tically met by Indian rice, supplemented by the rice of Northern Italy
(Piedmont and Lombardy), Spain, and Egypt, and to a smaller degree
by the rice of Siam and Cochin-China, Japan and Java. Very little rice
is received in Europe from the United States, and this country cannot be
regarded as competing with India. Carolina rice is very much supe-
rior to any other quality of rice known in commerce, and it fetches more
than double the price of the best Bengal rice, but its fineness and high
price operate against its consumption except in the preparation of confec-
tionery and puddings and such like luxuries; hence the consumption is
limited." 66
Broadly stated, the chief use of half of our exports of rice
is for conversion into liquor in Europe, of which some comes back to India
for consumption as cheap gin and brandy. Some portion is made into
starch, of which a good deal comes back to India as size in cotton goods,
and some is eaten by Europeans. Of the remainder of our exports, the
greater part is eaten by Asiatics in the immediate vicinity of India or in
colonial possessions in Africa and America" (An. Rev. of Trade, 1878-79,
p. 24).

Messrs. Fraser & Co., in their Annual Report for 1882, allude to the trade in rice for distillation as follows:-"There was yet an outlet, one last resource, to which the eyes of all instinctively turned, and in which centred the most ambitious hopes of speculators, and this was the sudden great demand for distillation. It was even predicted that something like 100,000 tons would be absorbed by this imagined illimitable source of consumption. Yet how soon were these expectations to be dispelled. It was not until the middle of July when the use of rice for purposes of distillation in large quantities first engaged universal attention. The high and increasing price of maize prevented this cereal from being employed to any great extent with advantage, and distillers, anxious to find some suitable grain to take the place of this, their favourite article,

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sativa.

TRADE: Purposes

for which Rice is Exported.

Burma Rice used for

Distillation or

Starch. 502 Bengal Rice

used for Food.

503