piculs.  |              lbs.
1830         6,061  |  1843     3,737,732
1835        11,868  |  1848       461,680
1839        11,044  |  1851        95,037
1841        13,477  |  1852       135,690

The number of pepper vines in the district of Bencoolen, in the close of last year, 1852, was as follows:—­1,571,894 young vines; 2,437,052 bearing ditto; total, 4,008,946.

Up to the end of September there had been delivered to the Government 1,145 piculs white pepper, and 1,128 piculs black pepper, while of the harvest of 1852 there were still probably to be received 330 piculs white, and 4,967 piculs black pepper.

The south, the west, and the north coasts of the great island of Borneo produce a large quantity of pepper; as early as 1721 it was a staple commodity of this island.  Banjarmassin is the most productive place on the south coast, and the State of Borneo Proper on the north coast.  The best pepper certainly does not grow in the richest soils, for the peppers of Java and Palembang are the worst of the Archipelago, and that of Pinang and the west coast of Sumatra are the best.  Care in culture and curing improves the quality, as with other articles, and for this reason chiefly it is that the pepper of Pinang is more in esteem than that of any other portion of the Archipelago.  From the ports and districts of Siam 3,500 to 4,000 tons are exported annually.

The duty at present levied on pepper in England is 6d. per lb., while the wholesale price for that of Pinang, Malabar, and Sumatra is about 4d. per lb.  White pepper ranges from 9d. to 1s. 6d. per lb.  The prime cost in Singapore is not more than 11/2d. per lb.

About 70,000 or 80,000 piculs of pepper are annually exported from Singapore, of which between 30,000 and 40,000 piculs have, until within the last two years, gone on to Great Britain.  More than one-half of the pepper exported from Singapore is grown in the island by Chinese settlers.

The low selling price of the article in the English market, the high duty levied upon it, and the large freight paid for its carriage to Great Britain, now leave so small a price to the cultivator in Singapore, that the cultivation ceases to be remunerative, and is carried on at a loss; and has consequently within the last year or two begun to decrease rapidly, involving the Chinese growers, who are generally of the poorest class, and without capital, in great distress.  A reduction in the duty on pepper has always been followed by a very large increase in the consumption of the article, as will appear from the following table, showing the importation and consumption in Great Britain during some of the first and last years of the different rates of duty:—­