" Growth of Singapore 42,995 386,152
1845 Exports 65,892
" Growth of Singapore 39,019 350,443
1846 Exports 56,709
" Growth of Singapore 35,712 -----
1847 Exports 60,994
" Growth of Singapore 36,565 328,397

Pliny, the naturalist, states that the price of pepper in the market
of Rome in his time was, in English money, 9s. 4d. a pound, and thus
we have the price of pepper at least 1,774 years ago. The pepper
alluded to must have been the produce of Malabar, the nearest part of
India to Europe that produced the article, and its prime cost could
not have exceeded the present one, or about 2d. a pound. It would most
probably have come to Europe by crossing the Indian and Arabian ocean,
with the easterly monsoon, sailing up the Red Sea, crossing the
desert, dropping down the Nile, and making its way along the
Mediterranean by two-thirds of its whole length. This voyage, which in
our times can be performed in a month, most probably then took
eighteen. Transit and customs duties must have been paid over and over
again, and there must have been plenty of extortion. All this will
explain how pepper could not be sold in the Roman market under
fifty-six times its prime cost. Immediately previous to the discovery
of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, we find that the price
of pepper in the markets of Europe had fallen to 6s a pound, or 3s.
4d. less than in the time of Pliny. What probably contributed to this
fall, was the superior skill in navigation of the now converted Arabs,
and the extension of their commerce to the islands of the Eastern
Archipelago, which abounded in pepper. After the great discovery of
Vasco de Gama, the price of pepper fell to about 1s. 3d. a pound, a
fall of 8s. 1d. from that of the time of Pliny, and of 4s. 9d. from
that of the Mahommedan Arabs, Turks, and Venetians.

In 1826, 14,000,000 lbs. of pepper were imported into the United
Kingdom, of which about 5,500,000 were re-exported. In 1841,
15,000,000 lbs. were imported, of which 6,500,000 were re-shipped to
other countries.

The home consumption, it will be seen, now averages about 3,250,000
lbs.:--

Imports Home consumption
lbs. lbs.
1845 9,852,984 3,209,718
1846 5,906,586 3,299,955
1847 4,669,930 2,966,022
184