Account of the Pepper, Turmeric, Cardamom, and Areca of Malabar.
You who live amid the bustle of trade, and daily load your magazines with costly wares collected from all quarters of the world, will doubtless be interested in reading about the commerce of Malabar, and the commodities it affords, which it shall be the purpose of this letter to describe.
Pepper, the cheapest but by no means the least useful of spices, is the chief production of Malabar, and is collected in such abundance and good quality, that this country may justly be styled the Mother of Pepper.* It grows well in the lowlands, but with far more luxuriance in the elevated tracts and along the hills and mountains. It is not planted in open fields, but in the close neighbourhood of trees, around which the branches climb, as the plant requires support. The leaves are large, and the pepper-corns spring from them, clustering in rows close to the stems. Their colour is green. These plants, which climb to a great height, last generally for eighteen or twenty years, when other grafts or shoots are substituted for them. When the pepper is dried, it acquires a black colour, occasioned doubtless by its natural heat ; as is the case with cloves, which when first plucked are white, but when they have been laid out to dry, black spots appear and spread by degrees, till the whole clove assumes a dark hue. The unripe pepper-corns which get sometimes mixed with the ripe ones, dry away into powder, or shrivel up, owing to the heat of the latter. For this reason the East India Company never take new pepper by weight, but let it lie bye for some months in warehouses till the unripe corns have had time to decay; and the bad are then winnowed from the good in the presence of the merchants.
Many persons erroneously suppose that the white and black pepper are different plants. This is not the case. I have been told here that there are two methods of manufacturing the former from the latter; either by corroding the upper coating of the corn with lime, or by laying it aside for ten or twelve years, when the outer coat will dry off, and the pepper-corn appear white.
The pepper of Malabar is that most prized: yet it is not equally good in all parts of the country. The pepper produced in South Malabar and Quilon is smaller than that of the North. No difference however is discernible in the fruit when exported, as it is all mixed together. It is the principal article of trade of the East India Company in Malabar; it is calculated that they purchase on the average 2,000,000 lbs. annually, collecting it in the factories of Cochin, and Chetwa in the North, and of Porcad, Kully-Quilon, Quilon and Pesa in the South. The sovereigns of these places, and those likewise of Tekkenkoor and Berkenkoor, who send their pepper to Porcad, have made an agreement with the East India Company not to supply this article to any other nation. We cannot help saying that such a stipulation is hard both upon the subjects and the settlers ; for it gives the East India Company the monopoly of Malabar products, and the settlers have no choice of a market, but must perforce sell to the Company when they might obtain a much higher price from other countries. It is true they often find means of exporting their pepper by stealth ; but as there are officers posted all round the sea coast, these smuggled goods are often seized and confiscated to the Company. The native princes sometimes participate in these smuggling transactions, though they never dare to confess it, being bound by contract to assist the Company. And indeed in their contracts with that body, they have looked well after their own interests ; for they have secured the privilege of exporting on their own account 100 or more kandies, which they sell to the merchants at a good price. The contracts are renewed every year, when the East India Company send two members from the council to make an agreement about the price with the merchants, in the presence of the Rajahs of Porcād, Kully-Quilon, and Quilon. When the price is settled, presents are offered to those princes. In Cochin and Chetwa, however, this does not take place, the price in those countries being always fixed. The pepper costs generally 11½ or 12 ducats per kandy of 500 lbs : but this sum does not all go to the merchants, as they are obliged to pay a duty of half a ducat in some places, and more in the south, to the Rajah of the country.
The East India Company have never succeeded in persuading the rajahs of Travancore and Colastri, and still less the Zamorin, to enter into a similar compact, because they are aware that it must be prejudicial to their interests. For being free to sell their pepper to any one, they have the advantage of being able to demand a much higher price for it ; and they also prevent its being properly sifted and cleansed, so that it is very inferior in quality. This pepper is chiefly bought by the English, and sent not only to Europe, but through private traders to Persia, Surat, Mocha, Coromandel, and Bengal, thereby causing detriment to the Company’s traffic in those parts.
The French are engaged in this trade at Calicut, and the Danes at Eddawa, a place near Quilon : but having little money and less credit, it is but little they can accomplish. The new merchants of Ostend also are beginning to take part in it ; but as they pay too high a price for their pepper (as well as for their linen goods), it is probable they make but little profit by it. The Zamorin has granted to the four chief princes of Malabar the exclusive right of exporting this article.
The second plant that flourishes here and is exported to Europe, is the turmeric, called by the natives Burri-Burri, or native saffron. This root is found in South Malabar, but too poor for exportation by the Company: they purchase the better sort, which grows in the north, in the territories of the Zamorin and Colastri. The turmeric plant closely resembles ginger, both in its root and leaf, and is planted every year. When ripe, the root is cut up, steeped in water, and then spread on mats or cloths to dry in the sun. It is used in Europe, as a dye, and in India in the preparation of a dish they call curry, which has a yellow colour. Its price is 10 ducats per kandy, and the East India Company collect at Calicut and Cannanore generally 200 kandies in a season.
The third production of Malabar which is exported to Europe is the cardamom; I am not aware that the true cardamom grows in any other part of the world.* Two different species of this plant are found here: one in Cochin or South Malabar, and the other, generally known by the name of Cannanore cardamom, in the kingdom of Colastri. The first is the poorest of the two, and is not exported by the East India Company, but by the inhabitants, the English and others, who send it to Surat, Persia, Mocha, Coromandel, and Bengal, where the mussulmans use it in their food, and particularly in a dish of rice called brinsje. This cardamon fetches, on the average, two or three shillings per lb. The Cannanore species is rounder in shape, and more pleasant to the taste. Its price rises annually, as it is much in request with the English, and at present amounts to 100 ducats per kandy. The Company’s demand is fluctuating, but the average quantity sold amounts to 20,000 or 30,000 lbs.
The cardamom grows on long stalks which spring out of the earth, the pods hanging on them in long bunches, rather far apart. When the weather is dry, the cardamom is white; but if rain falls while it is ripening, the bark or rind becomes brown; it then easily bursts and the little kernels fall out and are picked up by the natives and sold, though at a much lower price, generally for a shilling and a half per lb. When the cardamom is gathered, the stalks are burnt in the field, the ashes being serviceable for manure. This cardamom is not sown, but the land produces it spontaneously, the roots spreading along and under the soil, like those of the reed. When the cultivators wish to make the roots sprout up, they take heavy rollers with which they press them into the soil. They generally suffer the ground to lie fallow for a year, and in the second year roll and manure it to make it produce fruit. I have enquired of the natives whether the seeds might not be sown, and new cardamom fields be made in this way; but they replied in the negative, saying that the seeds would indeed germinate, but the stem would not grow bigger and thicker than a needle, and would wither away of itself. From this it appears that this plant is indigenous to certain districts, and cannot be grown in any other. Supposing indeed the case were otherwise, it may be that the natives would not allow it: for it yields them much more profit than pepper does, especially at Cannanore.
In conclusion, I will mention the areca, the trade in which is carried on throughout nearly the whole of the East Indies.* You know of course enough of the appearance of this tree from books of travels, to be aware that its fruit springs out of its side, after having been for some time enclosed within a sort of rind, when the tree appears to be distended; till the fruit, having become hardy enough to brave the open air, bursts from its covering. You are also aware that throughout the East Indies this fruit is chewed, together with a leaf called Betel (a plant which grows like the pepper tree, and has similar leaves), a little lime being also mixed with it. It cleanses the mouth by its acridity, and makes the saliva blood-red; but when it is much indulged in, it corrodes the enamel of the teeth, so that they become black, with those who chew it in great quantities. The Areca serves the hindoos for dyeing, for which purpose quantities of it are dried and exported to Coromandel and Surat. The East India Company have made great efforts to appropriate to themselves the areca trade on this coast, but have not succeeded. But they have monopolized the trade in Ceylon, in spite of the dissatisfaction of the king of Kandy: and, I am told, gain 100,000 rix dollars yearly by it. In this country the natives traffic with it, and its price varies, the Kandy being worth sometimes 3 1/2, sometimes 4 rix dollars. There are also different sorts of areca, the common sort, the scented sort, the white, and the red, among which consumers may purchase according to their taste.
May Heaven prosper commerce, the sinews of our State.
FOOTNOTES
outer skin, the ripe berries being macerated in water for the purpose. In this latter state they are smaller, of a greyish white colour, and have a less aromatic or pungent taste. The pepper vine is very common in the hilly districts of Travancore, especially in Cottayam, Meenachel, and Chenganacherry districts, where, at an average calculation, about 5,000 candies are produced annually.
Long pepper (Chavica Roxburghii) is another cultivated species. It is readily propagated by cuttings. The stems are annual, and the roots live for several years, and when cultivated, usually yield three or four crops, after which they seem to become exhausted, and require to be renewed by fresh planting. The berries of this species of pepper are lodged in a pulpy matter like those of P. nigrum. They are first green, becoming red when ripe. Being hotter when unripe, they are then gathered and dried in the sun, when they change to a dark grey colour. The spikes are imported entire. The taste of the berries is pungent though rather faint. For further information on the vegetable products of Malabar, see Drury’s useful Plants of India.
drying the seeds, as rain causes the seed vessels to split and otherwise injures them, and if kept too long in the sun their flavour becomes deteriorated. In Travancore they are chiefly procured from the high lands overlooking the Dindigul, Madura, and Tinnevelly districts. In these mountains the cultivators make separate gardens for them as they thrive better, if a little care and attention be bestowed upon them. Cardamoms are a monopoly in the Travancore State, and cultivators come chiefly from the British provinces, obtaining about 200 or 210 Rupees for every kandy delivered over to the Government. The average number of kandies for the years 1845-54 was about 300 kandies. H. D.