364f COMMERCIAL DESCRIPTION OF picul, but the pepper of Palembang was in itself not of superior quality, and required garbling, so that we may state it at about four dollars the picul. Small quantities of pepper were to be had still low- er, and the same author mentions, thai he purchas- ed some at Jehor even as low as 2 Spanish dollars and 6.5 cents. Beeckman, in lyi^-j laid in a cargo at Banjarmassin at the rate of 4 Spanish dollars and 50 cents, but thinks it ought to have been got much cheaper. After this time, the rigid mono- poly of our own East India Company being fully established, as well as that of the Dutch, and the free European traders who had resorted to the Ar- chipelago being excluded, the quantity of pepper grown was diminished, and the price rose from its natural rate to 12 to 14, and even 16 Spanish dollars per picul. From the year 1785 to 1791 inclusive, a period of peace, the average price of pepper in Holland was above 15d. per pound, and in England, from Is. to Is. 8d. Since the establishment of some degree of free trade, the culture of pepper in the Indian islands has revived, — the cultivator obtaining an equitable price for it, and the merchant purchasing it at a fair one. In England, the price has, in consequence of this favourable turn in the trade, fallen below what it was ever known before, and at least to 100 per cent, lower than the last monopoly price, to one- 10
