View PDF version of this page

One year with another the island produces 25,000 okes of silk. By an old custom the price for the year was fixed at Famagusta at the fair of St Barnabas. The fair continues, but little business is done in silk, and the price follows the crop and the demand. Silk is brought and delivered as it comes from the villages, but is cleaned before it is sent to Europe. The loss is generally from 12 to 15 p.c, which is borne by the European houses on whose account it is purchased. The refuse remains with the agent, who passes it to his principal's credit at a piastre the оке, and gives him an exact account of the loss of weight in cleaning. A bale usually contains 100 okes of clean silk : the tariff charges are 8| piastres the bale. Constantinople and Aleppo send commissions to Cyprus for silk to be sold in Europe. Some too is shipped for Cairo, via Damiata : what is not taken up by the Egyptian factories is sent on from Alexandria to Leghorn, Marseille and Venice. The refuse is generally sent to Cairo, but a small quantity also to Europe. The tariff charges are 2\ piastres the bale of about 60 okes. Cypriots begin to shear their sheep on March 20, and the wool is exposed for sale in April. Five hundred bales make an average yield, the bale weighing one can tar of 100 rotoli. The rotolo should be 6f lbs., but in the case of wool it is hardly 6 lbs. the greasy matter being rapidly absorbed by the sun and air. The white wool is more in request than the dark or black, which is distributed through the bales. Wool is sent to France, but most of it to Leghorn. The tariff charges are 3^ piastres the bale. Shippers have to be careful that the wool has not been exposed to rain or damp. Stowed in a wet state it is very liable to heat, take fire, and destroy the vessel. Another very important item in the commerce of the island is the wine called Commanderia. The fruit is gathered in August and September ; the grape is red, and the vines small and low. The wine when first made has a rich colour, rather 114 On the Commerce of the [CH.

View PDF version of this page