Sandalwood trade

“ Sometimes a bad year will tell so heavily upon the horses as almost to put a stop to the sandalwood trade altogether, and, in letters which we have just received from the colony, we are told that this has been the case during the last few months. What can one of these small settlers do in such a position? He has nothing to sell off his land, as his crops are scarcely enough for his own wants. How is he to pay his rent? How is he to get seed for next year? Only one course is open to him; he must mortgage his team and his carts to the store-keeper who supplies him. ”

“ Here again, it is said that the storekeeper made the bigger profits. The life of the woodcutter had some rugged romance in it.
Toodyay, York, Bunbury, the Murray and Clarence were the busiest places in the timber and sandalwood trade. Some large shipments of hardwoods were sent to the Admiralty in England, to India, and to eastern colonies. In 1855 the largest quantity was exported, viz., 1,538 loads, valued at £12,076. From a few hundred pounds worth in previous years, the export had grown into thousands. ”

“ At the Hawaiian Islands on his route to China his observant eye caught a glimpse of sandalwood; at once he saw a vision of wealth ; and he left three men to col- lect a quantity against his return. In this case it seems plain that Kendrick sowed, but reaped not ; he must how- ever be recognized as the founder of the sandalwood trade. When Ingraham in May 1791 enquired about these men he was told that two of them had tired of the
15 Report of the Provincial Archives Department of British Columbia for 1913, Victoria, 1914, p. ”

“ The Government offered a bonus of £250 for the first five tons of marketable sugar produced in the colony.
With better prices and improved transport more energy was devoted to the sandalwood tracts, especially by the disappointed farmers. The trade now reached its highest point in local history. As usual the value of exports, and number of people engaged in sandalwood cutting, varied with the prices at Singapore and elsewhere. At times piles of the wood lay strewn about the country; at others insufficient could be obtained to meet the demands. An export duty of 5s. ”

“ Its timber is extraordinarily hard and tough and difficult to split. It is of great value as bridge supports, dock gates, stern posts, engine supports, &c., and it is also extensively used in the making of railway wagons and wheelwright's work generally.
Sandalwood, which is more of a bush than a tree, runs small as a rule. It is fairly distributed over the Colony. Formerly there was a greater trade in sandalwood than now; but the overstocked Chinese markets being sold out, the West Australia trade is rapidly reviving. ”

“ In the course of time, however, the character of the commerce and intercourse with the islands changed. For various reasons the fur trade lost much of its value, and the supply of sandalwood began to be exhausted. In this languishing state of trade, an industry, new to the North Pacific, suddenly sprang into importance, but fortunately for the American supremacy in the islands it was one in which they had long held preeminence in other parts of the world. ”

“ The sandal-wood trade is in a flourishing condition, and has brought money into the colony, and enabled many of the poorer classes to obtain a livelihood by cutting that aromatic wood for export. It is, however, doubted by some whether the labour employed in this trade does not withdraw many from more steady and permanently useful labour on their farms and small holdings. ”

“ In 1850 timber valued at £1,048 was exported, in 1851 £268, in 1852 £806, and in 1853 £5,520. The sandalwood toll was reduced in 1849.
Several conditions crept in to explain the lack of interest in export. Taken substantially, the total exports did not increase in equal proportion to the increase in previous years. The chief reasons were a small sandalwood export, and an improved local market for stock and products of the soil. The consuming power was greater, and settlers turned their energies to increasing the breadth of their fields in crop. ”

“ A considerable quantity of sandalwood had likewise been collected, with the intention of loading it into the ship and dispatching her with it to China, there to be converted into money, with which a cargo of tea and another ship were to be purchased and dispatched to find a profitable market, the proceeds of the cargo being expended to provide live stock and such other necessaries as the settlers might require. ”

“ Finally, in the matter of industry your Commissioners propose (not, of course, as a unique industry but as a staple) the packing of sardines. A sound system of fair trade based upon a tariff scientifically adjusted to the conditions of the Island should develop the industry rapidly. Everything lends itself to this: the skilled labour could be imparted from home, the sardines from France, and the tin and oil from Spain. ”

“ Sandusky has a good harbour, which has been greatly improved by the United States government; and its trade in coal, lumber, stone, cement, fish, fruit, ice, wine and beer is extensive; in 1908 the value of its exports, chiefly to Canada, was $580,191 and the value of its imports $57,762. The value of its factory products increased from $2,833,506 in 1900 to $4,878,563 in 1905, or 72.2 %.
English traders were at Sandusky as early as 1749, and by 1763 a fort had been erected ”

“ The year 1847 was in point of value of exports the most successful period which had been experienced in Western Australia. The sandalwood industry, notwithstanding the tolls, expanded phenomenally. In the eastern districts, at Toodyay, Northam, York, and Bunbury, numbers of settlers were devoting themselves almost exclusively to cutting this wood. Bullock carts and waggons carried it to the seaboard, over roads which in some places were almost impassable. The sandalwood export of 1847 was more than thirteen times that of 1846, the amount being £4,440. ”

“ The whole import from Ireland and America, and from the West Indies, is set against us in the ordinary way of striking a balance of imports and exports; whereas the import and export are both our own. This is just as ridiculous, as to put against the general balance of the nation, how much more goods Cheshire receives from London than London from Cheshire. The whole revolves and circulates through this kingdom, and is, so far as regards our profit, in the nature of home trade, as much as if the several countries of America and Ireland were all pieced to Cornwall. ”

“ It was industriously circulated that Lord Stanhope had received overtures at Paris to exchange Gibraltar and Port Mahon for invaluable gold lands in Peru! The South Sea trade was vaunted as a source of boundless wealth in itself. In August the stock had risen from the one hundred and thirty of the last winter to one thousand! Men sold houses and land to become shareholders; merchants of eminence neglected their affairs and crippled their resources to reap imaginary profits. ”

“ Old things did not pass away and all things did not fairly become new until the discovery of gold in California and Australia revolutionized values, created universal national intercourse, and by thus giving a sudden impetus to commerce, made the carrying trade an industry of far greater importance than it had ever been before. ”

“ The chief opening establishments are owned by a London syndicate of jewellers, who employ in their service as many aborigines, coolies, and Japanese as may care to offer themselves. This syndicate is always willing to purchase "on chance" any shipment of shell that may come into port, and have a large fleet of their own luggers constantly on the waters during the season. As might be expected, this organised company is not liked by the independent pearlers, who—rightly or not—imagine that a monopoly of the trade is the real object in view. ”

“ We find them working banking houses on a large scale, and cotton mills, running lines of steamers and shipbuilding yards. They trade considerably with the Far East and Far West, and with every nook in Asia. Even as far as Samarkand, Bokhara, Siberia, Nijni-Novgorod, and St. Petersburg, Parsee traders are to be found, and in Japan, China, the United States, and Canada. With England they carry on a very extensive trade, and through them as intermediaries much of the import trade into India finds its way into neighbouring markets more difficult of access to the direct British exporter. ”

“ The incidental trade with us which has grown out of the treaty is very large, especially in machinery of several kinds, mills, engines, horses, hay, and grain. It has virtually brought the people of the Sandwich Islands under the wing of this Government, and concentrated her foreign trade almost entirely upon this country. The youth of the islands, of both sexes and in large numbers, are sent for educational purposes to our institutions. Forty of such persons were passengers on the "Zealandia" on the outward voyage, going home for a vacation trip. ”

“ The history of Sandwich, as one of the Cinque Ports, presents a striking example of the fluctuation of trade, and the uncertain tenure by which all mercantile property is held, when supported by merely human ingenuity and enterprise. ”

“ On the other hand, Shanghai lying near the mouth of the same great river, imported in 1872, 59,485 peculs of sandal-wood, the estimated value of which was about £100,000. In 1877 the imports of all China were 72,934 peculs.
A considerable trade in sandal-wood is done in Bombay, the quantity imported thither annually being about 650 tons, and the animal export about 400 tons. [2269]
Oil of sandal-wood is largely manufactured on the ghats between Mangalore and Mysore, where fuel for the stills is abundant. ”

“ Not only would we pay for Western production consumed by the South, in foreign goods received in exchange for our own produce, but we should be able to supply a large portion of the Western country with all the goods now obtained by them from abroad, receiving in exchange their products to be distributed in Southern ships throughout the world. The truth is that all our efforts to establish a direct trade with Europe must in a great measure be unavailing unless we can provide a market in the West for the goods we may import. ”

“ All proclaim the benefits of foreign trade, and all legislate directly to get rid of their foreign customers. In what more direct way could France prevent the sale of her wines to Russia, Sweden, and England, than by refusing their coal, iron, woollen manufactures, and other products, for which they have a natural advantage in return?
But the great struggle of all is to become independent; and yet the very word implies the extinction of all foreign commerce. The greatest of all national blessings is assuredly that very dependence we are so eager to avoid. ”

“ It is a proposition so evident that no words need be wasted in its demonstration, that, other things being equal, the cheapest and best ships, most adapted for the purpose, by whomsoever owned, will have preference in the carrying trade over the ocean. You may pile the duty, for instance, on iron, and grant bounties on the production of the American article if you please, to any extent; you may, if you choose, prohibit the importation of ploughs, and then assess farmers ten times the cost of their ploughs for the benefit of the home manufacturer. ”

“ Yet the unexampled profusion of the precious metal must rapidly augment our commerce and supply the means of mercantile enterprise. The capital we have so often coveted is now within our reach. The farmer desired a market; he has it in his neighbourhood, at his very door. The demand for foreign articles will give employment to shipping directly trading from the Australian to the producing market. The increase of commerce will thus lead to its independence. The Australian merchant will acquire the same relation to the general trade of the world as the American possesses. ”

“ In his manufacturing days, his capacious mind embraced large views of finance and trade. In 1835, he published, under the signature of "A Manchester Manufacturer," an able pamphlet on "England, Ireland, and America," and, soon after, another on "Russia," in which he advocated a repeal of the corn laws, free trade, peace, and non-intervention in the politics of other nations; strongly urging that England's true policy was to abolish the agricultural monopoly, open her ports to the world, stick to trade and manufactures, and not meddle with foreign controversies. ”

“ To instance a single case, Jacob Varnum at the time of his appointment to the Sandusky factory was a native of rural New England, who had neither asked for nor desired such an appointment. It is doubtful whether he had ever seen an Indian, and he was certainly entirely without mercantile experience; yet he had for competitors such men as John Kinzie, Thomas Forsyth, and Antoine De Champs, men who had spent practically their whole lives in the Indian trade.
The goods for the government trade must be bought in the United States, and the peltries secured in its conduct must be sold here. ”

“ Factory cotton may be but fourpence a yard; but if they haven't the fourpence to pay for it, it might as well be as dear as diamonds, as far as they are concerned.
The policy of England, from the day that Lord Chatham said "that he would not allow the colonies to make a hob-nail for themselves," has been to convert them into marts for her manufactures—to make them useful and profitable to her, by causing them to consume those things which give her poor employment, her merchants and manufacturers profit, and her commercial navy all the incidental carrying trade. ”